RAMET EL-KHALIL
Occupied Jordan.
Site
2.4 km N of Hebron and 900 m above sea level, where
there was an oak named Ogiges, or Terebinthos according to Josephus (
AJ 1.186;
BJ 4.533), near which Abraham lived, 6 stadia from Hebron. According to Hieronymus (Commentar to Zechria 9.2) Hadrian sold captives of the Bar Kohbah revolt into slavery here. A market
is mentioned in both Jewish and Early Christian sources;
a pagan altar is mentioned as well. Eusebius (
Vita Const.
3.53) states that Constantine the Great destroyed the
altar and built a church in its place.
Excavation below the area of the Constantinian
church has uncovered remains of the Middle Bronze and
Iron Age occupation of the 9th-8th c. B.C.; it seems
probable that a high place existed here even at this early
date. Above these remains were traces of the Hellenistic
settlement. To the time of Herod the Great belongs a
massive wall, similar to that around the Cave of Machpelah at Hebron. The wall was rebuilt by Hadrian, who
also built a temple close to the E wall of the enclosure
in which a statue of Hermes was found. The Constantinian church was built above the ruins of the temple;
the church was destroyed during the Persian invasion
of A.D. 614 but was subsequently rebuilt. From a deep
well within the sacred compound came 1331 coins,
ranging in date from Hellenistic to the time of the
Crusaders, except for the period A.D. 70-135 when the
site was temporarily abandoned.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. E. Mader,
Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen im heiligen Bezirk, Ramat el-Halil (1957).
A. NEGEV