Names
Transliterated Name |
Source |
Name |
Tel Afek |
Hebrew |
תל אפק |
Kŭlat Râs el 'Ain |
Arabic |
كولات راس يل 'اين | >
Binar Bashi |
Ottoman |
|
Surdi fontes |
Early Frankish |
|
'Auja |
Arabic |
'اوجا |
Abu Butrus |
Arabic |
ابو بوتروس |
Antipatris |
Hebrew |
אנטיפטריס |
Antipatris |
Ancient Greek |
Αντιπατρίς |
Pegae |
Hellenistic Period |
|
Introduction
Aphek is located about 12 km. east of Tel Aviv. It has a long history of habitation appearing for
example in 19th century BCE Egyptian Execration texts (
Pirhiya Beck and Moshe Kochavi in Stern et al, 1993).
Aphek is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in a list of conquered Canaanite cities
(
Joshua 12:18, etc.) and as
the base from which the Philistines set out to fight Israel (
1 Samuel 4:1,
1 Samuel 29:l)
(
Pirhiya Beck and Moshe Kochavi in Stern et al, 1993).
In the Hellenistic period, the city of Pegae occupied
the mound. It was expanded by Herod the Great and renamed Antipatris,
after his father (
Pirhiya Beck and Moshe Kochavi in Stern et al, 1993).
It was also occupied in Helenistic, Early Arab, and Ottoman times.
Maps and Plans
Chronology
Byzantine Earthquake - 4th-5th century CE
Karcz and Kafri (1978: 244-245) reported that
tilted and distorted walls and subsiding arches were encountered in the excavations of the Byzantine town of
Antipatris (Aphek) which led Kochavi (1976) and
Kochavi (personal communication to Karcz) to attribute the end and decay of the town to the earthquake of 419 AD
. In his preliminary report on excavations
Kochavi (1975) reported that very little was uncovered in
the Early Byzantine Period and suggested that Byzantine Antipatris, as a city of any importance, probably
came to its end around the beginning of the 5th century B.C.E. while
Kochavi (1981) reports that the entire city of Antipatris was destroyed by an earthquake in 419 CE.
Golan (2008) does not present any earthquake evidence but mentions that Kochavi thought that the city was destroyed by the Cyril Quake of 363 CE.
The fact that most of the coins dated to the second half of the fourth century CE suggests that the cardo may have been
abandoned at the beginning of the Byzantine period, which seems to corroborate the excavators’ conclusions
(Kochavi 1989) that assumed the city was destroyed in the year 363 CE.
The latest coins reported by
Kochavi (1975), apparently come from the Early Byzantine level, dated to
Constantine the Great (308-337 C.E.),
Constantius II (337-361 C.E.), and
Arcadius (395-408 C.E.).
Jones (2021) added
Caution must be exercised in interpreting the numismatic data, however, as the ceramic fords included
PRS 3 forms dating to the mid-5th-6th century (Golan 2008: fig. 5.5-6). More troubling is the apparent
presence of `Mefjar ware' (i.e. Islamic Cream Ware), which dates no earlier than the late 7th century
(see Walmsley 2001), in the `earthquake stratum' (Neidinger 1982: 167). This may indicate multiple
destructions, but without more complete publication of the excavations, this is difficult to evaluate.
It is, however, worth noting the presence of a bishop of Antipatris at the Council of Chalcedon in 451
(Dauphin 2000; Frankel and Kochavi 2000: 23, 31). This may be explained, as Fischer (1989: 1806) suggests,
by assuming that the role of Antipatris `was filled with a great number of smaller settlements'
like Khirbat Dhikrin (Zikrin) after the 418/419 earthquake, but it is equally likely that
Antipatris was simply not abandoned in the early 5th century.
Seismic Effects
Byzantine Earthquake - 4th-5th century CE
Intensity Estimates
Byzantine Earthquake - 4th-5th century CE
Effect |
Location |
Intensity |
Arch Damage |
|
VI + |
Tilted Walls |
|
VI + |
Folded Walls |
|
VII + |
This archaeoseismic evidence requires a minimum Intensity of VII (7) when using the
Earthquake Archeological Effects chart of
Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224).
Notes and Further Reading