Kiryat Ata
Kiryat Ata
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Kiryat Ata

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Kiryat Ata

Kiryat Ata (Hebrew: קריית אתא, lit.'City of Ata') also spelled Qiryat Ata, is a city in the Haifa District of Israel. In 2023 it had a population of 62,134, 92% of whom were Jewish citizens.

The Early Bronze Age site at Kiryat Ata has been extensively excavated since 1990, revealing stratified remains from the Neolithic, EB (=early Bronze Age), IB and EB II periods. At Tell el ‘Idham remains from a continuous habitation from the early Bronze Age, through the Persian age down to the Roman era have been identified.

Archaeologists Mordechai Aviam and Dan Barag (1935–2009) thought it to be the Capharatha (Greek: Καφαραθ᾽) mentioned by Josephus in the Lower Galilee, one of several views tentatively identified for the site.

Rock-hewn winepresses dating to the Byzantine era have been found here. Some have had crosses and Greek letters incised, supporting the theory that there was a Byzantine monastery located in the area. Ceramics from the Byzantine era have also been found here, and a building from the Byzantine or early Islamic period has been excavated.

In 1283 it was mentioned as part of the domain of the Crusaders, according to the hudna between the Crusaders and the Mamluk sultan Qalawun. At the time it was called Kafrata. Ceramics from the Mamluk era have also been found here. An excavation at Independence Street, Kiryat Ata, showed nearly continuous settlement dating from the Persian and Hellenistic eras up to the Mamluk era (late eleventh–early fifteenth century CE).

Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, Kufrata appeared in the census of 1596, located in the Nahiya of Acca, part of Safad Sanjak. The population was 15 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on wheat, barley, fruit trees, cotton, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,508 akçe.

The village appeared under the name of Koufour Tai on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled during Napoleon's invasion of 1799, while in 1856 it was named Kefr Ette on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.

In 1859 the population was estimated to be 100, and the cultivation was 16 feddans. In 1875 Victor Guérin visited, and found the village to have 50 houses.

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