Editing Adullam

{{Short description|Archaeological site in Israel}}
{{Infobox ancient site
|name           = Adullam
|native_name    = Khirbat esh-Sheikh Madkur / ʿAīd el Mâ
|alternate_name = 'Eîd el Mieh (Kh. 'Id el-Minya)
|image          = File:Hill of Adullam, Covered in Pines.jpg
|alt            =
|caption        = Pine-covered hill of Adullam, seen from northwest
|map_type       = Israel
|relief         = 1
|map_alt        =
|map_size       = 150
|location       = Israel
|region         = [[Shfela]]
|coordinates    = {{coord|31|39|0|N|35|0|9|E|type:city_region:PS|display=inline,title}}
|grid_position  = 150/118 [[Palestine grid|PAL]]
|built          = [[Canaan]]ite period and successive periods
|abandoned      = unknown
|epochs         = [[Chalcolithic]], [[Bronze Age|Early and Late Bronze]], [[Iron Age]] periods to the Ottoman period
|cultures       = Canaanite, Jewish, Greco-Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, Ottoman
|excavations    = 2015
|archaeologists = Surveyed by Y. Dagan, B. Zissu, I. Radashkovsky and E. Liraz
|condition      = Ruin
|ownership      = [[Jewish National Fund]]
|public_access  = yes
|website        =
|notes          =
}}
[[File:Stone water trough at the Adullam ruin.jpg|thumb|right|''Khirbet 'Eîd el Mieh'', stone water trough (at the lower site)]]
'''Adullam''' ({{langx|he|עֲדֻלָּם|ʿəḏullām}}, {{langx|grc-x-koine|Οδολλάμ}}) is an ancient ruin once numbered among the thirty-six cities of [[Canaan]] whose kings "Joshua and the children of Israel smote" <small>(Joshua 12:7–24)</small>.<ref>{{Harvnb|Clermont-Ganneau|1875|p=170}}</ref> After that, it fell as an inheritance to the [[tribe of Judah]] and was included in the northern division of the [[Shephelah]] "lowland" cities of the land of Judah <small>(Joshua 15:35)</small>.<ref name="AmitDavid" />

The connection between Judah and Adullam and its surroundings was actually already established in the patriarchal period, when [[Judah (son of Jacob)|Judah]] "went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah" <small>(Genesis 38:1)</small>.<ref name="AmitDavid" /> At the beginning of the royal period, in the days of [[King Saul]], the area was close to the land of the [[Philistines]], and thus [[David]], fleeing from Saul, sought refuge in the cave of Adullam and made it a place of reconnoitering and organization, both, for him and his men <small>(1 Samuel 22:1–2)</small>.<ref name="AmitDavid" /><ref name="Clermont-Ganneau1875">{{Harvnb|Clermont-Ganneau|1875|p=171}}</ref> Here, too, the episode took place when three of David's heroes brought him water from the well of Bethlehem and he did not dare to drink it, but "poured it out unto the Lord" <small>(2 Samuel 23:13–17)</small>.<ref name="EncyclopaediaJudaica" /> It is also learnt from the battle of [[David and Goliath]], which took place in the [[Valley of Elah]] directly adjoining the north-side of the ruin, as well as from the raid of the Philistines into [[Keilah]] to the immediate south of Adullam, that Adullam was a frontier city during that period.<ref name="AmitDavid" />

The current site was formerly known by the [[Arabic]] appellation Khurbet esh-Sheikh Madhkur, 9&nbsp;mi. (15&nbsp;km.) northeast of [[Bayt Jibrin]],<ref name="EncyclopaediaJudaica" /> and was built upon a hilltop overlooking the Elah valley, straddling the [[Green Line (Israel)|Green Line]] between Israel and the [[West Bank]], and with its suburban ruin, {{langx|apc|عيد الميا|ʿeyd el-Miye}}, lying directly below it.<ref>Survey of Israel, Map 15-11 "Zurif", 1962.[:File:15-11-Zurif-1962.jpg]</ref> By the late 19th century, the settlement, which had been a town, was in ruins.<ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|Kitchener|1883|p=[https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp03conduoft/page/311/mode/1up 311]}}; On Palestine Exploration Fund Map: Hebron (Sheet XXI), the ruin of ''Khurbet 'Aid el Ma'' {{sic}} appears directly to the north of ''Khurbet esh-Sheikh Madhkur'', in the valley below. The ancient ruin is distinguished by its many razed structures lying in a field the size of a football field, interspersed with terebinths, directly alongside a small paved road that runs parallel to the main [[Roglit]] – [[Aderet, Israel|Aderet]] road: see ''Survey of Western Palestine'', 1878 Map, Map 21: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8383 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.21.jpg Wikimedia commons], as surveyed and drawn under the direction of Lieut. C.R. Conder and H.H. Kitchener, May 1878. [[Victor Guérin|Victor Guerin]] believed that there was once an Upper Adullam and a Lower Adullam.</ref> The hilltop ruin is named after Madkour, one of the sons of the [[Sultan]] Beder, for whom is built a [[Maqam (shrine)|shrine (''wely'')]] and formerly called by its inhabitants ''Wely Madkour''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|Kitchener|1883|pp=[https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp03conduoft/page/362/mode/2up 361–367]}}.</ref> The hilltop is mostly flat, with [[cistern]]s carved into the rock. The remains of stone structures which once stood there can still be seen. Sedimentary layers of ruins from the old Canaanite and [[Israelites|Israelite]] eras, mostly [[potsherds]], are noticeable everywhere, although olive groves now grow atop of this hill, enclosed within stonewall enclosures. The villages of [[Aderet, Israel|Aderet]], [[Aviezer]] and [[Khirbet al-Deir]] are located nearby. The ruin lies about {{convert|3|km|abbr=on}} south of [[moshav]] [[Neve Michael]].

==Main archaeological sites; identification==
Kh. esh-Sheikh Madkur ([[Palestine grid]]: 1503/1175) sits at an elevation of {{convert|434|m|ft|}} above sea-level and is thought by modern [[Historical geography|historical geographers]] to be the "upper Adullam", based on its proximity to Kh. 'Id el-Minya. The name of this latter site is believed by historical geographers to be a corruption of the word "Adullam."<ref name= Aharoni1979>{{Harvnb|Aharoni|1979|p=429}}</ref> The identification of the upper site with the biblical Adullam is still inconclusive, as archaeological evidence attesting to its Old Canaanite name has yet to be found. In the late 19th century, the hilltop ruin and its adjacent ruins were explored by French explorer, [[Victor Guérin]], who wrote:

<blockquote>[Upon leaving the hilltop ruin, ''Khirbet el-Sheikh Madkour''], at 11:20 [AM], we descend to the east in the valley. At 11:25 [AM], I examine other ruins, called ''Khirbet A'id el-Miah''. Sixty toppled houses in the ''wadi'' formed a village that still existed in the Muslim period, as [proven by] the remains of a [[mosque]] there observed. In antiquity, the ruins that cover the plateau of the hill of ''Sheikh Madkour'' and which extend in the valley were probably one and the same city, divided into two parts, the upper part and the lower part.<ref>{{Harvnb|Guérin|1869|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr06gugoog#page/n351/mode/1up 338]–339]}}</ref></blockquote>

While Guérin does not specifically say that the site in question was the ancient Adullam, he holds that {{lang|ar|Kh. esh-Sheikh Madkour}} and {{lang|ar|Kh. 'Id el Minya}} are to be recognised as the same city; the upper and the lower. The site is maintained by the [[Jewish National Fund]] in Israel, and archaeological surveys and partial excavations have been conducted. The site features ancient [[caverns]], cisterns carved into the rock, and a Muslim [[Maqam (shrine)|shrine]] known as {{lang|ar|Wely Sheikh Madkour}}.

{{lang|ar|Kh. 'Id el Minya}}, also known as {{lang|ar|'Eid al-Miah}} (Palestine grid: 1504/1181), is the site recognised as Adullam proper,<ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|1879|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/tentworkinpalest02conduoft#page/156/mode/2up 156–158]}}, citing M. [[Clermont-Ganneau]].</ref> being now a [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]] at the southern end of {{lang|ar|Wadi es-Sûr}}, an extension of the [[Elah valley]]. The site was first recognised as the biblical Adullam by French archaeologist [[Clermont-Ganneau]] in 1871, based on its location, a close approximation of the name and the ceramic finds it yielded.<ref>{{Harvnb|Clermont-Ganneau|1875|p=168}}</ref><ref name= IAA2017>{{Harvnb|Radashkovsky|Liraz|2017|p=1}}</ref> The ruin sits at an elevation of {{convert|351|m|ft|}} above sea-level. The ruin is overgrown with vegetation and trees on the northern flanks of the mountain whereon lies {{lang|ar|Kh. esh-Sheikh Madkour}}. Razed stone structures, a stone water trough, and the shaft of a stone [[column]] can still be seen there. [[Palestine Exploration Fund]] surveyor, [[Claude Reignier Conder|C.R. Conder]], mentions having seen in {{lang|ar|ʻAid el-Miyeh}} an ancient well having stone water-troughs round it.<ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|Kitchener|1882|p=[https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft/page/440/mode/1up 441]}}</ref>

Earlier attempts at identification have led some to call other cave systems by the name of "Cave of Adullam." Early drawings depicting the so-called "[[Adullam cave]]" have tentatively been identified with the cavern of ''Umm el-Tuweimin'', and the cave at ''Khureitun'' (named after [[Chariton the Confessor|Chariton the Ascetic]]),<ref>''[[Palestine Exploration Fund]] Quarterly Statement'' of 1875, pp. 173–174.</ref> although modern day archaeologists and historical geographers have rejected these early hypotheses as being the Cave of Adullam,<ref>C.R. Conder, ''[[Palestine Exploration Fund]] Quarterly Statement'' of 1875, p. 145.</ref> and have accepted that {{lang|ar|ʻAid el-Miyeh}} is the Adullam of old.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tsafrir|Di Segni|Green|1994|p=197}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Abel|1933|p=239}}</ref><ref name= AmitDavid/><ref>{{Harvnb|Avi-Yonah|1976|p=111}}</ref>

It has been pointed out that {{lang|ar|Kh. esh-Sheikh Madkour}}, if indeed it is the biblical Adullam, lies only {{convert|7|km}} southwest of [[Khirbet et-Tibbaneh|Timnah]], a site mentioned in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]], ch. 38, as being visited by Judah when he went up from Adullam to shear his sheep.<ref>{{Harvnb|Emerton|1975|pp=343–344}}</ref>

==History==
===Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Hebrew Bible===
[[File:Millstone in Adullam.jpg|thumb|Millstone in an oil press cave]]
The "Adullam" mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible]] is thought to be identical with ''Tell Sheikh Madkhur''.<ref name="Aharoni1979"/><ref name="Shaw1993">{{Harvnb|Shaw|1993|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3VZ5JDCedtoC&pg=PA45 45]}}</ref><ref name="AmitDavid">{{Harvnb|Amit|n.d.|pp=332–333}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|1879|p=[https://archive.org/details/tentworkinpalest02conduoft/page/156/mode/2up?view=theater 156]}}, who wrote: "The term ''Shephelah'' is used in the [[Talmud]] to mean the low hills of soft limestone, which, as already explained, form a distinct district between the plain and the watershed mountains. The name ''Sifla'', or ''Shephelah'', still exists in four or five places within the region round Beit Jibrîn, and we can therefore have no doubt as to the position of that district, in which Adullam is to be sought. [[Clermont-Ganneau|M. Clermont Ganneau]] was the fortunate explorer who first recovered the name, and I was delighted to find that Corporal Brophy had also collected it from half a dozen different people, without knowing that there was any special importance attaching to it. The title being thus recovered, without any leading question having been asked, I set out to examine the site, the position of which agrees almost exactly with the distance given by [[Jerome]], between [[Bayt Jibrin|Eleutheropolis]] and Adullam—ten Roman miles."</ref> The so-called "Biblical period", for time reference-sake, has been referred to by historians and archaeologists as the [[Late Bronze Age]] and the [[Iron Age]], meaning, the Late Canaanite and Israelite periods, respectively.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=1}}</ref> [[Anson Rainey|A.F. Rainey]] recognized Adullam (''Kh. esh-Sheikh Madhkûr'') as a Late Bronze Age site.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=3}}</ref>

By the [[Iron Age]],<ref>{{Harvnb|DiVietro|2022|p=133 (note 49)}}</ref> Adullam is referred to in the [[Hebrew Bible]] as being one of the royal cities of the Canaanites,<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|12:15|HE}}</ref> and is listed along with the cities [[Tel Yarmuth|Jarmuth]] and [[Socho]] as occupying a place in the region geographically known as the ''Shefelah'',<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|15:33-35|HE}}</ref> or what is a place of transition between the mountainous region and the coastal plains.

It was here that Judah, the son of [[Jacob]] (Israel), came when he left his father and brothers in [[Migdal Eder (biblical location)|Migdal Eder]]. Judah befriended a certain Hirah, an Adullamite.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|38:1|HE}}</ref> In Adullam, Judah met his first wife (unnamed in the [[Book of Genesis]]), the daughter of [[Shuah]].

During the period of the [[Book of Joshua#Narrative|Israelite conquest]] of the land of Canaan, Adullam was one of many city-states with independent and sovereign kings.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ben-Yosef|n.d.|p=31}}</ref> According to the same biblical source, the king of Adullam was slain by [[Joshua]] and the [[Israelites]] during their conquest of the land.<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|12:7-15|HE}}</ref> The immediate lands were, by what was thought to be a "divine act" of casting lots, given as a tribal inheritance to the progeny of Judah.<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|14:1-2|HE}}; {{bibleverse|Joshua|15:1-35|HE}}</ref>

More than 400 years later, the scene of David's victory over [[Goliath]] in the [[Elah valley]] was within a short distance from Adullam, at that time a frontier village.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|17:2|HE}}</ref> Although David was elevated and allowed to sit in King Saul's presence, he soon fell into disrepute with the king and was forced to flee. 
[[File:Adullam,_the_hilltop_ruin.jpg|thumb|right|Ruin of Adullam. ''Wely Madkour'']]
David sought refuge in Adullam after being expelled from the city of [[Gath (city)|Gath]] by King [[Achish]]. The [[1 Samuel|Book of Samuel]] refers to the Cave of Adullam where he found protection while living as a refugee from King Saul. Certain caves, [[grotto]]s and [[sepulchres]] are still to be seen on the hilltop, as well as on its northern and eastern slopes. It was there that "every one that was in distress gathered together, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented."<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|22:2|HE}}</ref> There, David thirsted for the well-waters of his native Beth-lehem, then occupied by a Philistine garrison. A party of David's mighty-men of valor went and fetched him water from that place, but, when they returned, David refused to drink it.<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Samuel|23:13-17|HE}}</ref>

In the 10th-century BCE, Adullam was thought to have strategic importance, prompting King David's grandson, [[Rehoboam]] (c. 931–913 BCE), to fortify the town, among others, against [[Ancient Egypt]].<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref name="Clermont-Ganneau1875"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Beyer|1931|pp=115, 129–134}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|11:7|HE}}</ref> According to Israeli historian [[:he:נדב נאמן|N.]]{{nbsp}}[[:he:נדב נאמן|Naʾaman]], this was not a fortress in the real sense, but only a town inhabited by a civilian population, although it functioned as an administrative military center in which a garrison was stationed and food and armor stored.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naʾaman|1986|p=6}}</ref>

===Assyrian and Chaldean conquests===
In the late 8th-century BCE, the [[Book of Micah]] recalled the cities of the lowlands of Judah during a time of [[Assyria]]n encroachment in the country:<ref>{{Harvnb|Laato|1995|pp=213–215, esp. p. 214 (note 19)}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|pp=15–16}}</ref> "I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of [[Maresha]]h, him that shall possess thee; he shall come even unto Adullam, O glory of Israel."<ref>{{bibleverse||Micah|1:15|HE}}, following the interpretation of the verse by [[Rashi]].</ref>

[[Sennacherib]], during his [[Sennacherib#War in the Levant|third military campaign]], despoiled many of the cities belonging to Judah.<ref>{{cite book|last=Luckenbill |first=D.D. |author-link=Daniel David Luckenbill |editor=James Henry Breasted |title=The Annals of Sennacherib|volume=2 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |date=1924|pages=32–33|oclc=610530695|url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/oip-2-annals-sennacherib |quote=As for Hezekiah, the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small cities in their neighborhood, which were without number...I besieged and took. Two-hundred thousand, and one-hundred and fifty people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep, without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. Himself, like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city... The cities of his, which I had despoiled, I cut off from his land and to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, [and to] Padi, king of Ekron, [and to] Silli-bel, king of Gaza, I gave. And (thus) I diminished his land.}}</ref> The Assyrian period was followed by the rise of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], a time marked by general unrest and the eventual [[Babylonian captivity|deportation of the inhabitants of Judah]] by the Neo-Babylonian army in the sixth century BCE.<ref>{{Harvnb|Faust|2012|pp=140–143}}</ref> Adullam, as with other towns of the region, would not have gone unaffected.

===Persian period===
The only record of Adullam for this time-period (c. 539–331 BCE) is taken from the [[Hebrew Bible|Hebrew canonical books]], specifically the account of [[Nehemiah]] who returned with the Jewish exiles from the [[Babylonian captivity]], during the reign of [[Artaxerxes I]].<ref name="Clermont-Ganneau1875"/> According to [[Ezra]], the acclaimed author of the book,<ref>Among the 24 books of the Hebrew canon, the [[Book of Ezra]] and the [[Book of Nehemiah]] are numbered as one book, and which, according to [[Babylonian Talmud]] (''[[Baba Bathra]]'' 15a), was compiled by [[Ezra the Scribe]].</ref> some of these returnees had settled in Adullam.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|11:25-30|HE}}</ref><ref name="EncyclopaediaJudaica"/> According to Nehemiah, the postexilic community that resettled in Adullam traced their lineage to the tribe of Judah.

The political entity that was established in Judea at the time was that of a vassal state, as Judea became a province of the [[Persian Empire]], governed by a [[satrap]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ben-Yosef|n.d.|pp=36–37 (s.v. {{Script/Hebrew|סקירה היסטורית-ישובית}})}}</ref>

===Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods===
Few records abound for the site during the classical period. In 163 BCE, it was in Adullam that [[Judas Maccabaeus]], the principal leader of the [[Maccabean Revolt]] during a time of foreign dominion in the country, retired with his fighting men, after returning from war against the [[Idumaeans]] and the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] general, [[Gorgias (general)|Gorgias]].<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>[[2 Maccabees]] 12:32–38; [[Josephus]] (''[[Antiquities of the Jews|Antiquities]]'' 6.12.3.; 8.10.1.)</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Clermont-Ganneau|1875|pp=171–172}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=18}}</ref><ref name="EncyclopaediaJudaica">{{Harvnb|Encyclopaedia Judaica|1971|p=311 (s.v. Adullam)}}</ref> Adullam stood near the highway which later became the [[Roman road]] in the Valley of Elah, which road led from [[Jerusalem]] to [[Bayt Jibrin|Beit Gubrin]].

As late as the early 4th century CE, Adullam was described by [[Eusebius]] as being "a very large village about ten [Roman] miles east of [[Bayt Jibrin|Eleutheropolis]]."<ref>{{Harvnb|Notley|Safrai|2005|pp=27 (§77), 82 (§414)}}. As for the word "east," this is not to be understood directly east in relation to Beit Gubrin (Eleutheropolis), as proven by other descriptions of biblical place names in Eusebius' writings, but can also mean "northeast", as in this case, or "southeast".</ref>
[[File:Kh. esh Sheikh Madkour (Adullam - Upper site).jpg|thumb|Cave-like structure at the Upper site of Adullam]]

===Ottoman period===
Adullam was an inhabited village in the late 16th century. An Ottoman [[Daftar|tax ledger]] of 1596 lists {{lang|ar|ʻAyn al-Mayyā}} {{sic}} ({{langx|ar|عين الميا}}) in the ''[[nahiya]]'' ''[[Hebron|Ḫalīl]]'' (Hebron subdistrict), and where it is noted that it had thirty-six Muslim heads of households.<ref name="Hütteroth 1977 122">{{Harvnb|Hütteroth|Abdulfattah|1977|p=122}}</ref> The copyist of the same tax ledger had erroneously mistaken the Arabic ''dal'' in the document for a ''nun'', and which name has since been corrected by historical geographers Yoel Elitzur and [[Ehud R. Toledano|Toledano]] to read {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}} ({{langx|ar|عيد الميا}}), based on the entry's number of fiscal unit in the ''daftar'' and its corresponding place on Hütteroth's map.<ref>{{Harvnb|Elitzur|2004|p=137}}; (The number of fiscal unit in the ''daftar'', corresponding to the map, is "P-17").</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Toledano|1984|pp=279–ff.}}</ref> Local inhabitants grew wheat and barley, as well as cultivated olives. Total revenues accruing from the village for that year amounted to 5160 ''[[akçe]]''.<ref name="Hütteroth 1977 122"/>
[[File:Adullam ruin in foreground.jpg|thumb|Biblical ruin of Adullam, the Lower site known as ʻAid al-Mieh (in foreground)]]
According to [[C. R. Conder|Conder]], an ancient road, leading from [[Beth-zur|Beit Sur]] to [[Isdud]] once passed through ''ʿAīd el Mâ'' (Adullam) and was still partially visible.<ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|Kitchener|1883|p=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/318/mode/1up 318]}}</ref>

French [[Oriental studies|orientalist]] and archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, visited the site in 1874 and wrote: "The place is absolutely uninhabited, except during the rainy season, when the herdsmen take shelter there for the night."<ref>{{Harvnb|Clermont-Ganneau|1896|p=[https://archive.org/stream/archaeologicalre02cler#page/458/mode/2up 459]}}</ref>

The Arabs of [[Bayt Nattif]] in the 19th century, when asked about the meaning of the name of the nearby ruin, {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}}, related their own legend about the origin of the name. According to their version, the name {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}} = lit. "Holiday of the Hundred," revolves around an event that occurred there, years ago. According to their story, a large fight broke out on a holiday, in which a hundred people were killed and the settlement destroyed. In memory of the event, the ruins of the settlement were named {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}}, which means "Holiday of the Hundred."<ref name="AmitDavid"/> Scholars explain this as a case of 'popular etymology', where, in Palestinian toponyms, the original denotation of a town's name is often "re-interpreted" by its local population.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zadok|1995–1997|p=98}}</ref>

== Modern period ==
In 1957, the establishment of the ''Adullam region'' ({{langx|he|חבל עדולם}}) began, a settlement area comprising over 100,000 dunams (25,000 acres),<ref>{{Harvnb|Encyclopaedia Judaica|1971|p=311 (s.v. Adullam Region)}}</ref> and bearing the name of the biblical city.<ref>Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p. 71, {{ISBN|965-220-186-3}}</ref> Near the mound, north of it, [[Aderet, Israel|Moshav Aderet]] was established in 1958.

Surveys were conducted on the site in the years 1992 and 1999. As late as 2003, the [[Archaeology of Israel|archaeological]] site of Adullam, both, Upper and Lower, had not been excavated,<ref>{{Harvnb|Chapmann III|Taylor|2003|p=105}}</ref> but by September 2015, an excavation to a depth of 0.2 m in six squares of equal size was conducted in the surface of the Upper ruin, in hopes of determining the extent of the settlement at the site during the various periods from the relative distribution of the pottery.<ref name="IAA2017"/> The gathered pottery sherds found ''in situ'' dated from the [[Early Bronze Age]] to the Ottoman period.<ref>{{Harvnb|Radashkovsky|Liraz|2017|p=2}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
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{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* [[William F. Albright|Albright, W.F.]] (1924). ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', 15. pp.&nbsp;3–ff.
* [[Gustaf Dalman|Dalman, Gustaf]] (1913). ''Palästinajahrbuch'', 9. pp.&nbsp;33–ff. (in German)

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8383  IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.21.jpg Wikimedia commons]
* [https://www.britannica.com/place/Adullam-ancient-city-Israel ʿAdullam ancient city, Israel], [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]

{{Nature reserves of Israel|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Archaeological sites in Israel]]
[[Category:Nature reserves in Israel]]
[[Category:Canaanite cities]]
[[Category:Biblical geography]]
[[Category:Ancient Israel and Judah]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Israel]]
[[Category:Ancient sites in Israel]]
[[Category:Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea]]
[[Category:Mateh Yehuda Regional Council]]
[[Category:Hebrew Bible cities]]
[[Category:Tells (archaeology)]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Judah]]
[[Category:Valley of Elah]]

[[de:Liste geographischer und ethnographischer Bezeichnungen in der Bibel#A]]