EinHaddah

A multi-period archaeological site located on the plateau above Yavne’el, named after its spring (Ein Haddah).


Home > Sites > Yizreel Valley > Tel Ein Haddah

Contents:

Background
Location
History
Identification
Photos
* Spring
* Arab village
* Roman Village
* Iron Age city
* Moat
* Upper City
* Lower City
* Eastern Foothills
* Western Foothills
Videos
* Flight over
* Video Tour
Links
Etymology

Background:

A multi-period archaeological site located on the plateau above Yavnael, 8km east of Mt. Tabor. On the north side are remains of an Arab village of al-Hadatheh, built over ruins of a Roman/Byzantine village. On the south side are remains of an Iron age city, identified as Biblical Enhaddah (Joshua 19: 17): “And the fourth lot came out to Issachar…. And Remeth, and Engannim, and Enhaddah, and Bethpazzez”.

Location:

An aerial map of the site is shown here, with Iron Age Tel Ein Haddah in the center. On its north side are the ruins of the Arabic village – al-Hadatheh. The spring, which gave its name to the site, is located on the north east side.

There are several ways to reach this remote location – dirt roads from Sharona (from the north, easiest route), Sirin (from the east) or Kfar Kisch (from the south).

History:

  • Bronze period (3150-1200BC)

The city, naturally protected by deep valleys on both sides, was a fortified city during the periods of the Late Bronze I (1550-1300 BC) and Late Bronze IIa/b (1300-1200).

It may have been one of the cities conquered by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III (reigned 1479 BC to 1425 BC) who listed “Hadat” as one of the 117 cities conquered during his inquest to the north. On the wall in Karnak are illustrations of Canaanite princes, depicted with hands tied behind their backs, and their city names appear in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The neighboring MB city – Anharath (Tel Rekhesh) – also appears on this royal monument.

Thutmose III smiting his enemies (7th pylon in Karnak). Photo by Markh; public domain.
  • Iron Age 1 (1200-1000 BC)

The city continued to thrive in the Iron Age I (1200-1000BC). Ein Haddah was a Biblical city within the inheritance of the tribe of Issachar (Joshua 19: 17):

“And the fourth lot came out to Issachar…. And Remeth, and Engannim, and Enhaddah, and Bethpazzez”.

  • Iron Age IIa (1000-925 BC)

Judging from its size and its defenses, and the pottery remains, this could have been the capitol city of Issachar during the Iron Age IIa.  It was named after the spring that provided its life in this dry area – Ein (spring) Haddah. The perennial spring, located on the north east side, continues to provide year round water. During the Bronze/Iron age its waters  may have been conveyed closer to the center of the city, thus enabling the city to withstand siege.

A figurative AI illustration of the Iron Age city is shown here, as seen from the north east side. The city was protected by 2 or 3 peripheral city walls, and deep foothills on all side except for the north side. A dry moat cut the elongated ridge on the north side, boosting the defense of the weaker side, creating an upper city in the center. There were 2 more lower levels on the south side, also protected by walls and by the steep foothills. The total area of the built city is about 20 dunams.

Iron Age IIa city illustration – AI generated  Credit: Gemini AI / BibleWalks Collection

  The Ein Haddah spring, 300m to the north and at a current height of 217m, could have reached to the area near the gate, conveyed by an aqueduct along the eastern side of the hill. According to our measurements, the moat is at slightly lower height of the spring. The waters could have filled up a trough and reservoirs near the gate, and also extended to reach the lower southern side and fill reservoirs. Since the moat below the northern wall was lower in height during ancient times, the waters could have filled a section of the moat.

A Biblical map below shows the location of the site , between Mt. Tabor to the west and the Jordan river to the east, overlooking Jabneel. It is marked by a red dot.

According to D. Dorsey (The Roads and Highways of ancient Israel”), the city was located on a major Bronze/Iron age west/east road (“T2”), connecting Via Maris at the foothills of Mt. Tabor to Tell Obeidiya (here: “Beth-Shemesh”) on the west bank of the Jordan river, south of the Sea of Galilee. This was a parallel route along Jabneel and Tabor valleys that were less suitable for winter travel.

Map of the area around the site – from Canaanite/ Israelite to Roman period (based on Bible Mapper 3.0)

Ein Haddah was the largest city during the Iron Age IIa period, covering at least 20 dunams on the lower and upper city, in the area south of the moat. It could have also occupied the area north of the moat, but that requires further surveys to determine this expansion. In contrast, the nearby Biblical city of Tel Rekhesh (Biblical Anaharath), situated in the Tabor valley,  was smaller during this period, as it occupied only the upper city area (total area of 5 dunams).

  • Israelite period (Northern Kingdom) and Shishak’s conquest

In 928 the Kingdom separated to the south (Judah) and the north (Israel), and Ein Haddah became part of the Northern Kingdom.

After Solomon’s death, Egypt’s Shishak invaded Israel in 924 BC  (1 Kings 14: 25: “in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem”). According to 1 Kings 14:25–26, Pharaoh Shishak (usually identified with the Egyptian king Shoshenq I, founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty) invaded Judah during the fifth year of Rehoboam. The biblical account says that he took the treasures of the Temple and the royal palace in Jerusalem. Shoshenq’s campaign is independently documented by an Egyptian victory inscription at Karnak, which lists more than 150 places in the southern Levant.

This conquest may have brought a destruction to the city. Archaeological evidence indicates that some sites, particularly in the Jezreel Valley, experienced destruction during the late tenth century BC. However, the campaign did not necessarily destroy every settlement along its route, and the archaeological evidence varies considerably by region.

The most likely explanation is that Shishak’s campaign was intended to reassert Egyptian influence over the southern Levant after the fragmentation of Solomon’s kingdom, while also securing Egypt’s strategic and economic interests in the region.

  • Israelite period (House of Omri)

   Omri was a general, who was made king (882 BC) over the Northern Kingdom during the mutiny of Zimri (1 kings 16 16):

“And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri hath conspired, and hath also slain the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp.”.

   After regaining the control of his Kingdom, Omri turned to defend his country against their arch-enemy – Aram-Damascus – and the rising empire of Assyria.

   Ahab, his son, fought against Aram-Damascus in 3 battles, but was killed (850) in the 3rd battle. Ahab’s son Yoram continued to confront the Syrians, and was killed in Jezreel (842), thus ending the house of Omri.  (1 kings 22:35): “And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot”.

    The assaults continued from the north: the Assyrians forces – a rising force in the region-  hit the Northern Kingdom in 841, and Aram-Damascus headed by Hazael invaded in 815-810, as per Biblical accounts (2 Kings 8:12, 12:18-19, 13:3+7; Amos 1:3) and (2 Kings 10 32): “In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel;”.

Aram Damascus assault – AI generated  Credit: Gemini AI / BibleWalks Collection

In one of these  intrusions the city of Ein Haddah may have been destroyed, but this must be established from the site’s archaeological evidence.

  • Late Iron Age – Assyrian conquest

The Assyrian empire conquered the North Kingdom of Israel in 732 BC, destroying most of the cities and villages in the land. They exiled some of the population and introduced harsh taxation. (2 Kings 15: 29):

“In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria”.

Following the death of Tiglath-Pileser, the Egyptians encouraged the people in the occupied  territories of the Assyrians to revolt. Hoshea, King of Northern Israel, joined this mutiny, but made a fatal mistake. This time the Assyrians crushed the remaining territories of the Northern Kingdom. The intrusions of Shalmaneser V and Sargon II in 724-712  ended the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 17: 5-6):

“Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes”.

Assyrians attacking – AI generated  Credit: Gemini AI / BibleWalks Collection

The villages in the Galilee and Samaria were  destroyed or abandoned, perhaps including this site. This must also be established from the site’s archaeological evidence.

  • Persian, Hellenistic periods

There was some limited settlement. Ceramic survey dated some of the sherds to these periods.

  • Roman/Byzantine period (to 7th/8th century AD)

A new village at Ein Haddah was built during the Roman/Byzantine period. It occupied the area from the north of the Iron Age moat to the mound west and north of the spring. Installations and quarries were found in the south side of the village. The type of rock at the site is chalk and soft limestone, covered by a layer of dark basalt. This softer subterranean layer allowed ancient inhabitants to hollow out underground storage silos, subterranean installations, and rock-cut cavities beneath the surface footprint of the site. The basalt rocks were used to construct agricultural installations (such as oil press elements, querns, and mortars) as well as the thick defensive fieldstone walls of the Iron Age city.

Hewn stones and columns were found in the  northern part of the site, at the area of the ruins of the Arab village. Mosaic floor stones are scattered on the foothill above the spring.  These imply the presence of a public structure, such as a Roman period synagogue. Note that a number of Jewish villages existed in the nearby area during the Roman/Byzantine period, such as , Sirin and Kfar-Yamma and Tel Rekhesh.

  • Ayyubid/Mameluke periods

The village was repopulated during the Ayyubid period following the defeat of the Crusaders in 1187. It was one of the Al-Hija villages, built with stones collected from the earlier structures. Hussam ad-Din Abu al-Hija was a Kurdish lieutenant that fought in Saladin’s army. After the wars, he retired back to Iraq, but his relatives received lands and established several villages in the Galilee (Hadatha, Kaukab Abu al-Hija, Sirin, Ruweis) and Carmel coast (Ein Hud). On the British mandate map, north east of the spring, is a mark of a shrine (“esh Sh. Abu el Hija”) dedicated to one of the al-Hija family.

  • Ottoman Period

  The village of al-Hadetheh (“The new village”) was listed in the 16th-century Ottoman records. According to the 1596 Ottoman tax register, the village was recorded under the administrative hierarchy of the time: Subdistrict Tiberias, District: Safad. The register listed a Muslim population of 22 households (khāna) and 1 unmarried male, giving an estimated total population of around 120–121 residents, The villagers paid a fixed tax rate (typically 25%) on agricultural commodities including wheat, barley, goats, beehives, and fruit trees, alongside revenue from a press used for processing olives or grapes.

During the Ottoman period the village was populated by immigrants from Algeria. The village was named Hadatha (El Hadetheh), an Arabic name that preserved the name of the ancient city. The village continued until 1948, its ruins are scattered on the north side of the ancient Tel. The ruins cover an area of 450m north-south and 300m west-east.  A vast Muslim cemetery covers the area north and east of the spring.

  • PEF Survey:

Conder and Kitchener surveyed this area during the Survey of Western Palestine (SWP), commissioned by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) in 1873. A section of their map is seen here, with the site marked as “el Hadetheh” at altitude 735 ft. It is linked on its west side to Sarona (modern Sharona) and Madher (modern ruins of a Crusader and Ottoman village), and a descent road leads east to Yemma (modern Yavne’el) and to the Sea of Galilee.

Part of map Sheet 6 of Survey of Western Palestine,

by Conder and Kitchener, 1872-1877.

(Published 1880, reprinted by LifeintheHolyLand.com)

  The PEF report wrote about the spring (Volume 1, p.378):

“Spring on south-east side ; good supply of water, perennial ; a small stream flowing from it in winter and spring”.

They also quoted Geurin who reviewed the state of the village (Volume 1, p, 384):

‘ Some of the houses, which are still inhabited, have been constructed of good cut stones taken from some old buildings and mixed with small materials. On the slopes of the hill are found some ten shafts of columns lying scattered about the ground. They are the remains of a monument totally destroyed.’—Guerin.

  • British mandate

   A map published in the 1940s shows the area around the village “Hadatha”. The spring (‘Ein el Hadatha) is located on its east side. The houses are built to the west of the spring. The Tel to the south of the village is marked as “Et Tell”. The road leading from Sharona is marked by a double dashed line – the same route used today to get to the ruins.

https://palopenmaps.org – Palestine 1940s 1:20,000 map

In 1921, during the British mandate, the inspectors wrote about the village (Link): “Houses are partly built of ancient stones. Cut stones and shafts of columns are scattered over the village. The spring is covered with a vault of well hewn stones. Near it are lying oil presses of basalt”.

The population in 1945 was 520 Arab residents, with a size of 38 dunams . The residential area itself was situated immediately on the northern edge of the ancient archaeological mound (Et-Tell / Tel Ein Haddah), while the vast majority of the village’s total acreage comprised surrounding agricultural fields stretching across the plateau. The farming area around the village included cereal cultivation (8,379 dunams) and irrigated land and orchards (199 dunams).

  • Saarisalo’s survey

The site was surveyed by the Finnish archaeologist Aapeli Saarisalo in 1927. In his book (“The Boundary between Issachar and Naphtali”, pp 59-62) he reported about his findings at the site. He identified a large ancient settlement mound measuring approximately 10 hectares (roughly 100 dunams) situated near the modern Arab village of el-Hadetheh. This was a significant discovery, as previous surveys like the Survey of Western Palestine had not recognized the full ancient tell at this location. He described the ancient site, Et-Tell, lies south of the village and occupies an area of 600m in length by 100-200m in breadth, surrounded by two parallel valleys that converge on the lower end. The Arab village lies on the north side, but on all other sides the slopes are steep and provides a good defense.

  The site owed its long-term settlement to its rich water supply, centered on ‘Ein Hadda (the spring giving the tell and local village their name). Saarisalo noted that the spring provided a reliable, continuous source of water, making it a natural hub for both agriculture and ancient travel across the plateau.

 Saarisalo focuses on the unique topographical layout of the mound. The back bone of the mound is 75m in breadth, with two parallel terraces of debris surrounding the promontory for all its length. The upper terrace is narrow, while the lower terrace is broader. He observed that the Tel is physically divided into two distinct sections or summits, separated by a broad (15m), artificial-looking trench or depression.  On the north half are Byzantine sherds and mosaics, while on the southern half is an earlier settlement. 

Saarisalo collected extensive potsherds across the tell, spanning several continuous settlement strata:

  • Late Bronze Age Origin: Saarisalo emphasizes that the sherd assemblage begins in the Late Bronze Age. He notes that this makes Tell el-Hadetheh the earliest established settlement in its immediate neighborhood on the plateau, preceding the surrounding smaller Iron Age farmsteads and villages.

  • Iron Age (Early Israelite & Monarchic Periods): The site yielded a high concentration of Iron Age I pottery, indicating a flourishing settlement during the biblical period when the tribes of Issachar and Naphtali settled the region.

  • Roman–Byzantine & Later Horizons: The ceramic evidence continued into the Roman, Byzantine, and Early Arab periods, showing that occupational activity shifted or expanded around the spring area over time.

  • Combining the size of the 10-hectare mound, the continuous Late Bronze/Iron Age pottery sequence, and the toponymic preservation , Saarisalo formally fixed the site as Biblical En-haddah (Josh 19:21), placing it securely along the northern territorial border of the tribe of Issachar.
  • Modern period

The site is an open public area. It was surveyed (although not published), but not yet excavated. Hikers and Bikers get here to dip into the waters of the spring.

Photos:

This section is arranged in the order from the north to south. On the north is the springs and the later period settlements – Roman/Byzantine to Ottoman period, while in the south are the ancient Bronze/Iron age settlements on an elongated ridge.

(a) Ein Haddah spring

A perennial spring on the north east side of the site was the main supply of water to the settlements that were established around it. In this dry land – water is life.

In the past a vaulted spring house was built over it. This is seen in an old photo of 1942 (link). However, now only the foundations are left.

A water trough was built here to provide water to the cattle.

A water basin, 5m long and 2m wide, stores the spring water. Inside it are several happy gold fish.


Visitors come here to enjoy the cool and refreshing waters.


The current height of the spring is 217m above sea level, but it could have been higher at ancient times. If it flows at a descent of 0.3%, it reaches the north east corner of the Biblical city (at 300m distance) with a drop of 1m. The height of the lone large olive tree at that point is 218m. So an aqueduct could have conveyed the water close to the edge of the Iron Age city and even fill up cisterns. Theoretically, if the spring was at slightly higher (219m) it could even fill up the dry moat on the north side of the mound.

(b) Arab Village

Ruins of the Arab village of Hadatha are scattered on a mound on the north side of the site, above and west of the spring.

This aerial view is towards the northern section of Tel Ein Haddah.


The major points of interest are indicated on this view. The spring is located on the right (east) side. Ruins of the Arab village  of Hadatha are located west of the spring and southwest  of it. An ancient road crosses the Arab village, passing along the palm tree. A large Arab cemetery is on the north east side of the spring.

The Ottoman period road, from the east,  crossed the village at this point in the middle of the ruins.  An impressive palm tree stands here with its new offspring. The spring is seen here in the background below the hill.


Uncle Ronnie stands in front of one of the few standing walls. This wall is composed of black basalt and white limestone stones – a typical style (“Ablaq” =speckled) that was common in the Mameluke and Ottoman periods.


The Arab village houses were demolished, leaving only few structural remains. Ruins of the village cover a vast area (38 dunams).

During our survey of Tel Ein Haddah we encountered a dozen trees that amazed us. The tree is commonly called the “Apple of Sodom”, or in Latin “Calotropis procera”. It is a large, multi-stemmed perennial shrub or small tree that can reach heights of 2 to 6 meters. It features broad, pale-green leathery leaves, grayish cork-like bark, and clusters of striking waxy flowers that are white on the outside and tipped with purple or violet petals. The tree produces smooth, round-to-oval green-to-yellowish pods that look deceptively like healthy apples, lemons, or small oranges.

The common names “Apple of Sodom” and “Dead Sea Apple” originate from classical historians and writers like Flavius Josephus and Tacitus. They wrote about deceptive fruits growing near the biblical sites of Sodom that looked appetizing on the outside, but when picked or squeezed, would burst open, leaving behind little more than dry internal fibers, silky fluff, and air (or appearing to dissolve into “smoke and ashes”). When the fruit matures, internal insect damage or fungal decay can hollow out the interior while leaving the outer skin intact. When compressed, the air-filled pod pops, scattering a cloud of fine, silky seed-hairs alongside dry inner remnants.

Inside the mature Apple of Sodom pod, nestled among the seeds, lies a dense mass of fine, white, silky seed-hairs (pappus fibers) resembling milkweed floss or raw cotton. Each individual hair is a hollow, air-filled tube coated with a natural wax layer, which makes the mass extremely lightweight, water-repellent, and buoyant. In arid and desert regions where true cotton (Gossypium) was scarce or expensive, nomadic and local populations gathered the floss to stuff cushions, small pillows, and bedding. While it lacks the durability and resilience of wool or down—and tends to pack down over time—it provided an accessible, locally sourced padding material. Because the fibers are naturally dry, fibrous, and coated in plant waxes, historical accounts note that the fluff was spun or twisted into primitive lamp wicks.

Every part of the plant – especially the stems, leaves, and green fruit- contains a thick, highly toxic, bitter milky white latex. Historically, indigenous desert populations used extracts from related species for arrow poisons. Contact with the eyes can cause severe irritation or temporary blindness, making it a plant to admire strictly from a distance during archaeological and botanical surveys.

Watch a video on the Apple of Sodom trees in Ein Haddah.

(c) Roman/Byzantine village

Remains of the Roman/Byzantine village are covered on the surface and under the Arab village, and also spread on the south side closer to the ancient mound. The Arab houses were partly built of the ancient Roman/Byzantine stones, reused by the Ottoman period settlers. Cut stones and shafts of columns are scattered over the village.

  •  Southern area Installations

On an area south of the Arab village, north of the Iron Age moat, are remains of agriculture installations that were cut into the limestone rock. These are probably dated to the Byzantine period.

Here is a part of an oil press, broken into 2 parts, covering a rectangular cavity.

There are also cisterns that were cut into the bedrock. A large area around here consists of underground tunnels cut under the limestone rock. There is a possibility that it served as a Jewish hiding complex during the revolts against the Romans.

Another agricultural installation is located nearby on the eastern side of this area, close to the ruins of the Byzantine period village. It probably initially served as a winepress, then converted later to a threshing floor (used to separate the grains from the wheat).


  • Byzantine Oil Press

A cylindrical weight of an oil press lies in the center of the village. Unlike earlier Roman-period presses that relied purely on hanging stone weights piled onto a free-moving lever, the Byzantine evolution introduced a vertical wooden screw anchored directly through or to the heavy stone cylinder. When operators turned the wooden screw, it forced the heavy cylindrical stone upward or pulled the structural framework tight, leveraging the immense dead weight of the stone to squeeze the olive baskets with enormous force, extracting the oil.


Because the stone was exceptionally heavy, it also served to anchor the lower framing of the screw mechanism securely against the forces of torsion and torque generated during operation. These stones were carved from hard local basalt into large, solid, geometric cylinders, often towering over a meter tall and weighing several tons. To connect the heavy stone to the wooden pressing apparatus, craftsmen carved specific attachment channels into the sides of the cylinder. Into this slot, a sturdy wooden beam or locking plank was inserted, tightly binding the lower end of the vertical wooden screw or the frame directly to the stone.


  • Southern area walls

Along the edge of the area, on both eastern and western sides, are walls 1m wide. The walls are made of small fieldstones between larger  stones. They share the same structure as the walls on both sides of the Iron Age city.

Here is a section on the eastern side:

And here from the western side:

(d) Iron Age Tel

The ancient site sits on an elongated topographical ridge. Flanking the ridge are two deep stream gorges—Nahal Ein Haddah drops steeply on its eastern side, while another deep ravine bounds the western side. The valley floors lie roughly 70 meters below the elevated summit. The ancient mound occupies a strategic, naturally defended spur on the plateau leading toward the Jordan Valley, characterized by strong regional winds sweeping across from the nearby Sirin ridge.

This is an aerial view of Tel, looking south. The are 3 stepped levels from the summit to the south. Traces of the city walls are seen along the peripheral side.  According the contour, it seems there were two or three parallel walls at different heights.

The geological formation of Tel Ein Haddah consists primarily of layers of soft chalk and limestone, capped by a surface layer of hard black basalt. The softer underlying rock made it relatively easy for ancient inhabitants to carve agricultural installations, water cisterns, and the dry moat across the northern side of the mound. Meanwhile, the local basalt stones were ideal for construction and for hewing heavy installations such as oil presses and millstones.

  This was once an Iron age period city covering and area of ~20 dunams. On both west and east steep hillsides of the elongated hill are two parallel walls – remains of the Bronze/Iron periods city walls.

A figurative AI illustration of the Iron Age city is shown here, as seen from the north east side.

Iron Age IIa city illustration – AI generated  Credit: Gemini AI / BibleWalks Collection

The ancient Biblical city consists of two sections:

  •    An “upper city” on the north side , a flat sector that spans 150 meters in length and 75 meters in width.
  •    A “lower city” on its south side. The lower city  spans 100 meters in length, tapering from 70 meters wide at the north end down to 40 meters at the south

(e) The moat

A moat separates the ancient city to the north , cut during the Bronze or Iron age. The extracted soil was probably used to raise the peripheral walls. On the east and west side of the moat the earth was pushed towards the valley, as seen here on the east side of the moat (the “belly” on the left, indicated by a curved line).

This is a ground view of the western edge, looking south, inside the bottom of the moat. Notice the height difference between the bottom of the moat and the top of the rocks.

Next is a view from the elevated section towards the same location, towards the north of the moat.


(e) Upper City

South of the moat is an enclosed area that we termed “The Upper City”, as it rises above other areas.

Here is a view from the north. The flat sector, between the moat and the southern wall above the “lower city”, spans 150 meters in length and 75 meters in width.


Centuries of local farming have cleared any surface structures. Only few lines of walls can be seen within this sector. The bases of the structures lie below the surface.


  • Tower?

On the north east side is a slightly higher area. Sections of possible walls can be seen around it. We believe it could have been the base of a tower that could have protected a gated entry to the Upper City.


Pottery sherds that we collected on the foothills were dated to the Iron Age IIa (upper sherds in the photo below), Late Bronze (lower right side) and later periods (Hellenistic/Roman) on the bottom left side,

 

(f) Lower City

A large section south of the “Upper city” is what we termed “Lower city”. Inside the area are remains of structures.

This expansive sector spans 100 meters in length, tapering from 70 meters wide at the north end down to 40 meters at the south.

The defensive walls surrounding the lower city—and indeed throughout En-Haddah—measure a consistent one meter in thickness.  The area is protected by a 1m wide wall. This section of the wall, on the eastern side, is just below the Upper city southern wall.


The peripheral wall covers that entire lower city. Here is a section on the west side. It is meticulously constructed using small, unhewn field stones layered directly on top of the natural bedrock.


The walls along the southern side of the lower city were also constructed directly on the exposed, quarried limestone bedrock.


  • Glacis?

On the southern side of the eastern walls below the lower city we found a long section of what looks like a glacis (Hebrew: Halaklaka, חלקלקה). This defensive element is made of tightly packed rows of small field stones that are arranged along the foothill.

  A glacis is an engineered, steeply sloped embankment built against the exterior base of a city wall, citadel, or rampart. Its primary job was to keep attacking forces and siege machinery (like battering rams or siege towers) physically distant from the vulnerable stone walls. The steep incline made it nearly impossible for enemy infantry to charge up the slope or set up scaling ladders effectively. Furthermore, defenders positioned on top of the wall could easily shoot arrows or roll boulders down onto anyone trapped on the exposed slope. During the Iron Age, these stone faces were heavily coated with a thick layer of mud, clay, or plaster.

Glacis systems are hallmark features of Bronze and Iron Age fortifications throughout the ancient Near East (found at sites like Jerusalem, Lachish, and Hazor).


  • Findings

Centuries of local farming have cleared any surface structures. However, the ceramic sherds scattered across this ground tell a clear story: the settlement here dates primarily to the Iron Age IIA period—the 10th to 9th centuries BC, often known as the Middle Israelite period. This sample we collected (and left on the site) represents this period.

We also found some basalt carved stones, such as this Iron Age bowl.

Another smaller object was a goat knuckle bone, a popular game (Knuckle Bones, astragalus) in this period:

(f) Eastern foothills

On the east side (below) is another deep gorge of Nahal Ein Haddah. The valley is about 70m below the hill.

This view shows the descent towards the valley on the east side, as seen from the Upper city.


In the far background are the wind energy mills of Sirin ridge. Indeed, the wind here is very powerful. You can feel it while standing on the mound here in Ein Haddah.


This is a view of the steep eastern slope, looking to the north. The place of the spring is seen in the background, 300m north of the moat. It is on the same height, so we can assume that an aqueduct led the spring water to the Upper and Lower cities along this slope.


Another view of the steep eastern slope, looking south.  The dirt road leads to another ancient city – Tel Rekhesh.


Our survey of the pottery sherds dated most of the sherds to the Iron Age IIa.

(e) Western Foothills

This is a view of the western foothills just below the Upper city. This section, on the first level below the city, is flat and could have been part of the inhabited city outside the walls.


At a lower level the slope becomes steep. Olive trees that were planted during the Ottoman period are arranged along this level.


At lower side of the western slopes, closer to the valley, there are no visible structures.


At a lower level, the foothills reach the bottom of the valley:


 

Videos

 (a) Aerial views

A drone flight over the site is seen here. The drone views the area of the ancient mound to the south side of the ruins of the Arab village.

Another aerial view, focusing on the Tel, is in this video.

(b) Video Tour

  A tour of the Biblical city on the southern mound was conducted on August 2026, and is summarized in this video tour.

Links and references:

* References:

  • “The Boundary between Issachar and Naphtali” – Aapeli Saarisalo – 1927 pp. 59-62  – reviews the site El-Hadeteh
  • British era archives (IAA archives, under Hadatha folder)
  • The Land of Issachar, N. Zori 1977, site 199 (p.142)

YouTube Videos:

* Internal sites:

Etymology (behind the name):

  • Ein – Hebrew for spring (‘Ain in Arabic)
  • Haddah – Hebrew: חדה (meaning sharp)
  • Hadetheh – Arabic for “new”; It derives from the triliteral Arabic root Ḥ-D-Th (ح د ث), which deals with newness, events, or currency. Similar to Hadash (חדש – Hebrew for new). The connection is not merely a similarity in sound: they are cognates, inherited from a common Proto-Semitic root, reconstructed as *ḥdṯ-, meaning “to be or become new.”
  • Al-Haditha frequently translate to “the new village” or “the new settlement.”
  • Yavne’el (Jabnael) – Moshav established in 1901. Hebrew: “G-D builds”. Taken from the name of a biblical city (Joshua 19:33). Its former name was “Yemma”.

 

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This page was last updated on Oct 19, 2026 (misc update)

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