כִּנֶּרֶת | |
_von_Westen.jpg) Tel Kinrot (the mound behind the field) from northwest | |
  Kinneret, Chinnereth Shown within Israel | |
| Alternative name | Archaeological site: Tel Kinrot (Modern Hebrew), Tell el-'Oreimeh (Arabic) |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°51′38″N35°30′26″E / 32.86056°N 35.50722°E /32.86056; 35.50722 |
| Type | Settlement |
Kinneret (Hebrew:כִּנֶּרֶת,romanized: Kīnnereṯ) is the name of an importantBronze andIron Age city of theancient Levant situated on the northwestern shore of theSea of Galilee. It was first mentioned in the 14th century BCTale of Aqhat ofUgarit, and in also mentioned in theHebrew Bible and theNew Testament.
Older Bible translations spell the name alternativelyKinnereth orChinnereth, and sometimes in the plural asChinneroth.[1][2] In time, the Hebrew name becameGennesaret andGinosar (גִּנֵּיסַר). The remains of Kinneret have been excavated at a site calledTell el-'Oreimeh (Tell el-‘Orēme) inLevantine Arabic andTel Kinrot inModern Hebrew.
One theory is that Kinneret is derived fromkinnor, an ancient Israelite musical instrument, on account of the shape of the lake resembling that of the instrument.[3]
According to theJerusalem Talmud,Megillah 1:1, the name Kinneret is derived from the name of thekinnar trees which grow in its vicinity, explained by lexicographerMarcus Jastrow to mean the Christsthorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi),[4] and byMoses Margolies to mean cane reeds.[5]
Adrian Room sees the origin of 'Ginosar' in a combination of Hebrew words,ge ('valley') and eithernetser ('branch') ornatsor ('to guard', 'to watch').[6]
The late-19th-centuryEaston's Bible Dictionary offers a very different etymology, by stating that the initial Hebrew name 'Kinneret', in the plural 'Kinnerot', wasHellenized to Gennesaret, with Ginosar an alternative transformation.[7]
Due to its prominence, the city gave its name to the lake (the "Sea of Galilee") for long periods of history, as the Sea of Kinneret, Kinnerot, Gennesaret, or Ginosar.[7]
As other places around the lake rose to prominence, such asTiberias andQasr al-Minya, the name of the lake also changed to Lake Tiberias[8] or Lake Minya ("Bahr el-Minya" inArabic).[9]
The name has also been used for the "Plain of Gennesaret", which stretches south of the ancient city. The plain's modern names are Plain of Ginosar in Hebrew and el-Ghuweir in Arabic.
The IsraeliKibbutz Ginosar derives its name from the ancient town, though it is not located on its precise site. The settlements ofMoshavat Kinneret andKvutzat Kinneret are even further south, on the southwestern shore of the lake.
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| knnꜣrtw[10][11] inhieroglyphs | ||||||
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| Era:New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC) | ||||||
Kinneret is mentioned asKennartou (knnꜣrtw) in the 15th-century BCEAnnals of Thutmose III atTemple of Karnak.[10]
According to Sugimoto (2015), the Iron Age IB (tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC) cities in the northeastern region of the Sea of Galilee, including Tel Kinrot, likely reflect the activities of the Kingdom ofGeshur, mentioned in the Bible. Also, the later Iron Age IIA–B cities here are linked with the southern expansion of theAram-Damascus kingdom.[12]
Kinneret was a town allotted to thetribe of Naphtali (Joshua 19:35). The name appears in the singular form as "Kinneret" (Numbers 34:11,Deuteronomy 3:17) or in the plural as "Kinneroth" (Joshua 11:2, 12:3).
Flavius Josephus, as well as theBabylonian Talmud mention the lake by the name "Sea of Ginosar" after the small fertile plain of Ginosar that lies at the foot of Tell el-'Oreimeh, ancient Kinneret. Josephus refers to the area as having very rich soil.[13]
In theNew Testament, the name appears changed to Gennesaret (inMatthew 14:34,Mark 6:53 andLuke 5:1; the latter refers to "the Lake of Gennesaret").[14] InMatthew andMark, this city or area is a place whereJesus visited and performed healings.[15] InLuke, he taught the crowds there and appointed his first fourdisciples.
TheDouay-Rheims Bible uses the form "Genesar" in its translation of Matthew 14:34:
The site of the fortifiedBronze andIron Age city of Kinneret is identified with the mound known in Arabic as Tell el-'Oreimeh and inmodern Hebrew as Tel Kinrot, halfway betweenCapernaum andMagdala.[17][18] Situated on an important trade route, its elevated position meant that it also overlooked and guarded the Plain of Ginosar from its northern end.
The site has theICS Coordinates: 200805-1252830;[19][20][21] ca. 32.87000 N, 35.539312 E.[21]
Thetell was first explored by Paul Karge in 1911, with a main focus on prehistoric remains. Robert Köppel was the first to excavate (1932 and 1939), but only few results were published.[22]
The premises of the future Mekorot pumping station and a number of spots at the foot of the hill were surveyed in the 1950s by Israeli archaeologists Gershon Edelstein and Bezalel Rabbani (published by Fritz, 1978). In the 1980s, Shan M. M. Winn of the University of Southern Mississippi and Jak Yakar of the University of Tel Aviv cut a small and deep trench near the shore, where they discovered the expected evidence of Early Bronze Age occupation (Winn & Yakar, 1984). Volkmar Fritz of the University of Mainz/Giessen, Germany, then directed the first systematic and continuous excavations: 1982-1985 at the peak ("acropolis"), and in 1995-1999 and 2001 on the lower part of the southeastern slope of the tell (Fritz & Münger, 2002).[22]
In 2002, the Kinneret Regional Project (KRP) took over, continuing the work initiated by Volkmar Fritz on Tel Kinrot, as well as in the wider region around the site (Pakkala, Münger & Zangenberg, 2004). The KRP is jointly run by the Universities of Berne (Switzerland), Helsinki (Finland), Mainz (Germany) and Leiden (Netherlands), and is directed by Stefan Münger, Juha Pakkala and Jürgen Zangenberg.[22] Since 2008 excavations on Tel Kinrot have been "temporarily halted", the KRP team dealing with analysis and publication while continuing the exploration of Horvat Kur and its surroundings.[23]
