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Shefa-Amr
Shefa-Amr or Shefar'am (Arabic: شفاعمرو, romanized: Šafāʻamru; Hebrew: שְׁפַרְעָם, romanized: Šəfarʻam) is an Arab city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2023 it had a population of 43,408 with a Sunni Muslim majority and large Christian Arab and Druze minorities.
Palmer writes that the name meant: "The margin or edge of 'Amr. Locally and erroneously supposed to mean the healing of 'Amer (ed Dhaher)." The city is identified with Shefar'am, an ancient Jewish town of great significance during Talmudic times. Some have proposed that its original meaning may be linked to the Hebrew words "Shefer" (שֶׁפֶר), signifying something nice, beautiful or good, and "'Am", (עַם) which translates to people.
Walls, installations and pottery sherds from the Early Bronze Age IB and the Middle Bronze Age IIB, Iron, Hellenistic and Roman periods have been excavated at Shefa-ʻAmr.
Shefa-Amr is first mentioned under the name Shefar'am (Hebrew: שפרעם) in the Tosefta (Tractate Mikvaot 6:1), followed by the Talmud redacted in 500 CE where it is mentioned in several places, in Tractate Avodah Zarah 8b and Rosh Hashanah 31b, et al.
Settlement has existed there without interruption since the Roman period, when it was one of the cities mentioned in the Talmud as containing the seat of the Jewish Sanhedrin during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The seat of the Sanhedrin was traditionally thought to be where the Old Synagogue "Maḥaneh Shekhinah" was built in later times. Old Shefa-'Amr was settled in the area where are now built the Police Station, the various Churches and Jews' Street. Decorated burial caves were documented by the Survey of Western Palestine in the late nineteenth century; they were found to be Christian tombs from the Byzantine era, dating to the 5th and 6th century CE. Greek inscriptions were also found.
Archaeological excavations of a cave and quarries revealed that they were used in the Roman and Byzantine eras. Shefa-ʻAmr contains Byzantine remains, including a church and tombs.
A salvage dig was conducted in the southern quarter of the old city exposing remains from five phases in the Late Byzantine and early Umayyad periods. Finds include a tabun oven, a pavement of small fieldstones, a mosaic pavement that was probably part of a wine press treading floor, a small square wine press, handmade kraters, an imported Cypriot bowl and an open cooking pot. Also discovered were glass and pottery vessels.
Under the Crusaders the place was known as "Safran", "Sapharanum", "Castrum Zafetanum", "Saphar castrum" or "Cafram". The Crusaders built a fortress, used by the Knights Templar, in the village. At the foot of the castle was a fortified settlement with a church, inhabited either by local Christians or Crusaders. The village, then called "Shafar 'Am", was used by Muslim leader Saladin between 1190–91 and 1193-94 as a military base for attacks on Acre.
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Shefa-Amr
Shefa-Amr or Shefar'am (Arabic: شفاعمرو, romanized: Šafāʻamru; Hebrew: שְׁפַרְעָם, romanized: Šəfarʻam) is an Arab city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2023 it had a population of 43,408 with a Sunni Muslim majority and large Christian Arab and Druze minorities.
Palmer writes that the name meant: "The margin or edge of 'Amr. Locally and erroneously supposed to mean the healing of 'Amer (ed Dhaher)." The city is identified with Shefar'am, an ancient Jewish town of great significance during Talmudic times. Some have proposed that its original meaning may be linked to the Hebrew words "Shefer" (שֶׁפֶר), signifying something nice, beautiful or good, and "'Am", (עַם) which translates to people.
Walls, installations and pottery sherds from the Early Bronze Age IB and the Middle Bronze Age IIB, Iron, Hellenistic and Roman periods have been excavated at Shefa-ʻAmr.
Shefa-Amr is first mentioned under the name Shefar'am (Hebrew: שפרעם) in the Tosefta (Tractate Mikvaot 6:1), followed by the Talmud redacted in 500 CE where it is mentioned in several places, in Tractate Avodah Zarah 8b and Rosh Hashanah 31b, et al.
Settlement has existed there without interruption since the Roman period, when it was one of the cities mentioned in the Talmud as containing the seat of the Jewish Sanhedrin during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The seat of the Sanhedrin was traditionally thought to be where the Old Synagogue "Maḥaneh Shekhinah" was built in later times. Old Shefa-'Amr was settled in the area where are now built the Police Station, the various Churches and Jews' Street. Decorated burial caves were documented by the Survey of Western Palestine in the late nineteenth century; they were found to be Christian tombs from the Byzantine era, dating to the 5th and 6th century CE. Greek inscriptions were also found.
Archaeological excavations of a cave and quarries revealed that they were used in the Roman and Byzantine eras. Shefa-ʻAmr contains Byzantine remains, including a church and tombs.
A salvage dig was conducted in the southern quarter of the old city exposing remains from five phases in the Late Byzantine and early Umayyad periods. Finds include a tabun oven, a pavement of small fieldstones, a mosaic pavement that was probably part of a wine press treading floor, a small square wine press, handmade kraters, an imported Cypriot bowl and an open cooking pot. Also discovered were glass and pottery vessels.
Under the Crusaders the place was known as "Safran", "Sapharanum", "Castrum Zafetanum", "Saphar castrum" or "Cafram". The Crusaders built a fortress, used by the Knights Templar, in the village. At the foot of the castle was a fortified settlement with a church, inhabited either by local Christians or Crusaders. The village, then called "Shafar 'Am", was used by Muslim leader Saladin between 1190–91 and 1193-94 as a military base for attacks on Acre.
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