 | It has been suggested thatMeron, Israel bemerged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since August 2025. |
Meiron ميرون Mirun, Meron, Meroon, Marun, Meirun, Mairun | |
|---|---|
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Meiron (click the buttons) | |
  Meiron Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:32°58′56″N35°26′17″E / 32.98222°N 35.43806°E /32.98222; 35.43806 | |
| Palestine grid | 191/265 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Safad |
| Date of depopulation | May 10–12, 1948[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 14,114dunams (14.114 km2; 5.449 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 290 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Influence of nearby town's fall |
| Current Localities | Meron[2] |
Meiron (Arabic:ميرون,romanized: Mayrūn;Hebrew:מירון הקדומה,romanized: Merón haKdumá) was aPalestinian village, located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) west ofSafad. Associated with the ancientCanaanite city ofMerom, excavations at the site have found extensive remains from theHellenistic andEarly Roman periods. The remains include a 3rd-centurysynagogue, attesting to Meiron's prominence as a local religious centre.[3]
From the 13th century CE onward, Meiron was a popular site for Jewishpilgrims.[3][4] DuringOttoman rule inPalestine, the population fluctuated considerably, with at least two-thirds of the population beingArab Muslims although landownership was split almost evenly between Arabs and Jews. The village wasdepopulated in two phases during the1948 Arab–Israeli war. In 1949, demobilized soldiers founded themoshav ofMeron in the region.
Archaeological excavation on Mount Meron started in the 1920s. Substantial remains from the Roman period were found but only meager findings from earlier times.[5] The theory that Ein Meron spring at the foot of the mountain could be the "waters of Merom" ofJoshua 11:5 andJoshua 11:7 was thus hard to support.[5] In the 1950s, Israeli archaeologistYohanan Aharoni rejected the notion of a pre-Roman settlement at Meron.[5] In the decade up to 2005 however, new findings seemed to indicate that the site atop Mount Meron was inhabited continuously from the Chalcolithic until after theRoman period. This reinvigorated the debate over the identification of Merom and its "waters".[5] American archaeologistsEric M. andCarol L. Meyers excavated ancient Meiron in 1971–72, 1974–75, and 1977.[6]
The ancient site of Meron stood on a high hill on the eastern side ofMount Meron, above (north of) Nahal Meron ('Meron Stream') and the Meron spring, its remains being found at the summit of the hill and on its slopes.[7]
Flint findings indicate human activity at the site during theMiddle Paleolithic period, but as of 2019 archaeologists consider that settlement started there during theChalcolithic and it became continuous from that period and up until the present day.[7]
A Jewish settlement from part of the Roman and Byzantine periods, orMishnaic (c. 10-220 CE) andTalmudic periods (3rd to 6th centuries) in Jewish terms, was excavated in the 1970s.[7]
During the Late Ottoman period,Oliphant (1887) described a mixed Jewish and Muslim settlement,[7] and in the British Mandate it was an Arab village (Khalidi 1992).[7]
During a 2017 excavation above Nahal Meron on the southern slope of the hill of ancient Meron, surface finds offlint implements anddebitage hardened the conclusion of earlier work that human activity took place at the Meron site very early on, namely in theMiddle Palaeolithic, and again in either the Chalcolithic period or the Bronze Age.[7] Previous archaeological work had established that settlement at the site of ancient Meron had begun during the Chalcolithic period and had been continuous since.[7]
At three small digs executed by Yossi Stepansky of theIsrael Antiquities Authority (IAA) in the early 2000s near the cave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and at the Bar YochaiYeshiva in Meiron, Chalcolithic pottery and fragments of cultic objects made of basalt came to light.[5]
The association of Meiron with the ancient Canaanite city ofMerom orMaroma has long had its supporters, though the prolonged absence of hard archaeological evidence meant that other sites a little further north, thus today located insouthern Lebanon, such asMarun ar-Ras or Jebel Marun, have also been considered.[8][9]Merom is mentioned in 2nd millennium BCEEgyptian sources, and inTiglath-pileser III's accounts of his expedition to theGalilee in 733-732 BCE (where it is transcribed asMarum).[8][9] Writing several decades after Aharoni, IsraeliarchaeologistAvraham Negev nevertheless identified Meiron with Bronze and Iron Age Merom, mentioned in theBook of Joshua in the syntagm "water of Merom" and in extra-biblical sources asmrm.[10]
In the same 2000 dig near the cave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai mentioned above, Stepansky also excavatedsherds and cultic basalt fragments from the Early Bronze Age I.[5]
At an area north of the center of the long-known Roman-period Meron, a 2004 dig cleared three Bronze Age layers.[5] A round installation and pottery were dated to theMiddle Bronze IIA, underneath it was an Intermediate Bronze Age layer containing a floor and import pottery from Syria, followed by an even earlier Intermediate Bronze Age layer with pottery sherds andflint implements.[5]
At the digs on the grounds of the yeshiva, Stepansky discovered pottery from the Iron Age, the Persian and the Hellenistic periods.[5]
Excavations at Meiron foundartifacts dating to theHellenistic period at the foundation of the site.[11] The economic and cultural affinities of the inhabitants of the Meiron area at this time were directed toward the north, toTyre and southernSyria in general.[11]Josephus fortified a town ofMero orMeroth ahead of theFirst Jewish-Roman War; some however identify that Meroth with a site located further north, possibly today'sMarun ar-Ras,[12] while others prefer the archaeologically more convincingMarus.
A. Negev identifies the site with Bronze and Iron Age Merom, writing that it was known by theSecond Temple period as Meron, with Josephus calling it Meroth.[10] It is mentioned in theTalmud as being a village in which sheep were reared, that was also renowned for itsolive oil.[13][12] The Reverend R. Rappaport ventured thatmerino, the celebratedwool, may have its etymological roots in the name for the village.[13]
A tower which still stands at a height of 18 feet (5.5 m) was constructed in Meiron in the 2nd century CE.[12] In the last decade of the 3rd century CE, asynagogue was erected in the village. Known as the Meiron synagogue, it survived an earthquake in 306 CE, though excavations at the site indicate that it was severely damaged or destroyed by another earthquake in 409 CE.[14][15] "One of the largest Palestinian synagogues in thebasilica style," it is the earliest example of the so-called 'Galilean' synagogue, and consists of a large room with eight columns on each side leading to the facade and a three-doored entrance framed by a columnedportico.[14][16] Artifacts uncovered during digs at the site include a coin of EmperorProbus (276-282 CE) and African ceramics dating to the latter half of the 3rd century, indicating that the city was commercially prosperous at the time.[14] Coins found in Meiron are mostly from Tyre, though a large number are also fromHippos, which lay on the other side ofLake Tiberias.[16]Peregrine Horden andNicholas Purcell write that Meiron was a prominent local religious centre in the period of late Antiquity.[3]
Some time in the 4th century CE, Meiron was abandoned for reasons as yet unknown.[17]
Denys Pringle describes Meiron as a "[f]ormer Jewish village," with a synagogue and tombs dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries, noting the site was later reoccupied between 750 and 1399.[18]
In the 12th century,Benjamin de Tudela, aNavarrese rabbi, visited Meiron and described a cave of tombs located there believed to hold the remains ofHillel,Shammai, and "twenty of their disciples and other Rabbis."[19] On his visit to Meiron in 1210,Samuel ben Samson, aFrench rabbi, located the tombs ofSimeon bar Yochai and his sonEleazar b. Simeon there.[19] A contemporary of thesecond Jewish revolt against Rome (132-135 CE), bar Yochai is venerated byMoroccan Jews, whose veneration of saints is thought to be an adaptation of local Muslim customs.[20] From the 13th century onward, Meiron became the most frequented site of pilgrimage for Jews in Palestine.[3]
In the early 14th century,Arab geographeral-Dimashqi mentioned Meiron as falling under the administration of Safad. He reported that it was located near a "well-known cave" where Jews and possibly non-Jewish locals travelled to celebrate a festival, which involved witnessing the sudden and miraculous rise of water from basins andsarcophagi in the cave.[21]
Palestine was incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517, and in 1555 the villagers paid a tax on silk spinning.[22] By the 1596tax register, Meiron was located in thenahiya ("subdistrict") ofJira, part ofSanjak Safad. It was registered as a large village, with 115 households and 15 bachelors, an estimated 715 persons, allMuslims. The village paid taxes on goats, beehives, and a press that processed either grapes or olives; a total of 13,810akçe.[23][24][25] In 1609, Rabbi Shlumil of Safad wrote that there were many synagogues in ruins and empty of people.[26]
Turkish travellerEvliya Çelebi, who visited about 1648, told that as the Jewish festival approached, thousands of people, "mostlyDruzes, Timānis,Yezīdies and Mervāvis", gathered inside a cave at Meiron. Then on the day of the festival, large rock basins that were usually dry miraculously filled with water. The water was thought to be a single tear of Yaqub (Jacob) and had marvelous healing properties. As "Meiron water", it was exported to many countries.[27]
A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 byPierre Jacotin showed the place, named as "Merou".[28]
Meiron suffered relatively minor damage in theGalilee earthquake of 1837. It was reported that during the earthquake the walls of the tombs of Rabbi Eleazer and Rabbi She-Maun were dislodged, but did not collapse.[29]
A number of European travellers came to Meiron over the course of the 19th century and their observations from the time are documented in travel journals.Ulrich Seetzen, who visited in 1806–1807, wrote: "Near Meirun there were many olive trees and some vineyards. This small village lies on a rocky mountain in an unfruitful region and is inhabited only by seven Muslim and two Druze families."[30]
Edward Robinson, who visited Meiron during his travels in Palestine and Syria in the mid-19th century, describes it as "a very old looking village situated on a ledge of bristling rocks near the foot of the mountain. The ascent is by a very steep and ancient road [...] It is small, and inhabited only byMuhammedans."[19] The tombs of Simeon bar Yochai, his son R. Eleazar, and those of Hillel and Shammai are located by Robinson as lying within a khan-like courtyard underneath low-domed structures that were usually kept closed with the keys held in Safad. Robinson indicates that this place was the focal point of Jewish pilgrimage activities by his time; the synagogue is described as being in ruins.[19]
Laurence Oliphant also visited Meiron sometime in the latter half of the 19th century. His guide there was aSephardic rabbi who owned the land that made up the Jewish quarter of the village. Oliphant writes that the rabbi had brought 6 Jewish families fromMorocco to till the land, and that they and another 12 Muslim families made up the whole of the village's population at the time.[31]Karl Baedeker described it as a small village that appeared quite old with aMuslim population.[24] In 1881 thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Meiron as a small village of 50 people, all Muslims, who cultivated olives.[32]
A population list from about 1887 showedMeiron to have about 175 inhabitants, all Muslim.[33]
Towards the end ofWorld War I, the ruins of the Meiron synagogue were acquired by the "Fund for the Redemption of Historical Sites" (Qeren le-Geulat Meqomot Histori'im), a Jewish society headed byDavid Yellin.[34]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities,Mairun had a population of 154; all Muslims.[35] By1931, Meiron consisted of an Arab and Jewish quarter, with the former being the larger one and the latter being built around the tomb of Simeon bar Yochai. That year, there were 158 Arabs and 31 Jews in Meiron; a total of 189 people, in 47 houses.[36][37]
In the1945 statistics, conducted toward the end of theBritish Mandate in Palestine, depicted an entirely Muslim population of 290 people.[38][39] Meiron had a boy's elementary school. Agriculture and livestock was the dominant economic sectors of the village, with grain being the primary crop, followed by fruits. Around 200 dunams of land were planted with olive trees, and there were two presses in the village used to process olives.[24][39][40][41]
Meiron's villagers were driven out in two waves: one shortly after the capture ofSafad byHaganah on 10–11 May 1948, and the other at the end of October 1948, after Meiron itself was occupied.[24] According to Nafez Nazzal, three Israeli planes bombed Meiron, together with the villages ofTarshiha,Safsaf andJish duringOperation Hiram on October 28, and many villagers were killed.[42] One Israeli account states that there were 80 dead left after the defenders had withdrawn.[43]
Ancient Meiron was excavated in the 1970s by the American couple, Eric M. and Carol L. Meyers.[6]
Jewish pilgrimages to Meron continue to be held annually onLag BaOmer, which falls betweenPassover andShavuot, at which time hundreds of thousands of Jews gather at the tomb ofShimon bar Yochai to partake in days of festivities, that include the lighting of bonfires at night.[20]
It seems that Meron was first regarded as sacred at a time when traditions associated it with the grave ofJoshua Bin Nun.[7]
What is sure is that Galilean Jewish tradition sees Meron as the burial place of major Jewish sages of theTanna'im andAmora'im generations, primarilyHillel the Elder,Yohanan ha-Sandlar andRabbi Shim'on bar Yochai.[7] Their alleged sacred powers made Meron into a central pilgrimage site for religious Jews who are still visiting the tombs of thetzadikim.[7] For the last thousand years, starting in the Middle Ages, Jewish pilgrims have written about their experiences regarding Meron.[7]
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