Khirbet el-Qom is an archaeological site in the village of al-Kum, West Bank, in the territory of the biblical Kingdom of Judah, between Lachish and Hebron, 14 km to the west of the latter. Remains from the site dating to the Second Temple period include hundreds of Aramaic ostraca, what appears to be a 4th-century BCE shrine dedicated to Yahweh, and a burial cave featuring Hebrew inscriptions dating from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE.

Excavations

In the 1930s, Ben Zvi visited Khirbet al-Qum and stayed at the residence of Sheikh Suleiman from the Irgum family. Suleiman, the owner of the ruins at the site, said they had Jewish origins. He expressed interest in dating the site and inquired whether it was referenced in the "Torah". Archaeological excavations were conducted at the site in 1967 by William G. Dever on behalf of the Hebrew Union College.

Findings

Iron Age

Two Iron Age bench tombs carved into natural rock were discovered at el-Qom; both were investigated by William Dever in 1967 following their discovery by tomb robbers. Both tombs contain inscriptions, dating from the second half of the 8th century BCE, slightly after the Ashera tic Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions. The inscription from Tomb 2 is associated with a "magic hand" symbol, and reads: Unlike the Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions, this inscription do not include a place name with the name of Yahweh (the Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions talk of "Yahweh of Samaria" and "Yahweh of Teman"); this seems to indicate that they were written after the fall of Samaria, which left Yahweh as the god of one state only. the inscriptions from Khirbet el-Qom and Kuntillet Ajrud, along with great Levantine archives such as Ebla archive, Ugarit archive and Mari archive, were important factors in the reconceptualization of the ancient Israelite religion and its understanding as a part and parcel of its Near Eastern/Levantine/West Semitic/Canaanite environment. There is some scholarly debate about the translation, particularly for line three. A jug inscribed "to/for Yahmol" and a bowl inscribed "El" were also found.

Persian and Hellenistic periods

One thousand seven hundred ostraca in Aramaic may have been found on the site and the vicinity, dating from the Persian and Hellenistic periods, during which the area was classified as the Persian province of Idumea, with a mixed population of Edomites, Jews and Arabs. The site is called Maqqedah in the Idumean ostraca. Based on this, some scholars identify Khirbet el-Qom with biblical Makkedah. Khirbet el-Qom may have housed a Yahwistic shrine in the 4th century BCE, likely serving the small Judean population of northern Idumea, making it one of three known Yahwistic shrines in ancient Israel during this period, alongside the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim.

Roman period

A burial cave in El-Qom contained three Hebrew funerary inscriptions dating from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE, bearing names such as Miriam and Shalom. Currently, they are housed in the Israel Antiquities Authority storage facilities in Beit Shemesh.

Identification

Based on the findings and the possible name preservation of the ancient name in the adjacent valley of Wadi es-Safir, it has been suggested that Khirbet el-Qum is Shafir, a place mentioned in the Book of Micah (1:11).

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