One day in April 2014, my son, Yonatan, and I set off to climb the rocky green hill opposite the modern yishuv of Kfar Hananya, just east of Rame and Karmiel. We knew there was an ancient grave of a rabbi at the foot of this hill, which you can see adjacent to the road, but we had no idea that the strewn rocks (which feature naturally on many hills in the region) were in fact, in this case, the ruins of the ancient Jewish town of Kfar Hananya. You can see more pictures here.
The hill above the village of Beer Sheba of the Galilee was fortified by Josephus Flavius in preparation for the Roman conquest at the Jewish Revolt in 67 CE. After the fall of the Galilee the fortress became ruined, and the population moved down to a more accessible site, closer to the ancient road. The lower village prospered in the Roman and Byzantine periods, based on farming and the pottery which made it famous.
The Jewish population lived here continuously for 25 centuries until the 16th century CE. After that the town was taken over by Arabs and referred to as Kafr ʿInān (Kafr 'Anan), and In the late 19th century, the village was described as being built of stone and having 150-200 Muslim residents. The village was captured on 30 October 1948 by the Golani Brigade as part of Operation Hiram. Although the villagers were removed elsewhere repeatedly, they kept returning for some time.
Modern Kfar Hananya, founded in 1977, is named after the ancient village, which is mentioned in the mishneh as a community on the border between the Lower Galilee and Upper Galilee. To the west is Tel Beer Sheba (of the Galilee), and was also inhabited since the Israelite period. There are many holy graves of distinguished Jewish scholars from the Roman period in the environs.
The closest tomb to the road is that of Rabbi Eliezer Ben Yaakov, nicknamed "Kav ve Naki", or "simple & small", as were his teachings. Further up the hill is the tomb of Rabbi Hananya ben Akashya. The tomb is cut into the rock, and inside the tomb, on each of the three sides, there are five cavities for bones.
The tombs of Rabbi Abba Khalafta and his two sons are located on the eastern side of Hananya valley, on the other side of the Carmiel road, under a large gall oak estimated to be some 500 years old, one of the oldest and largest in Israel. The rabbi lived atthe end of the 2nd century AD and was one of Kfar Hananya's most famous scholars.
Ancient Kfar Hananya served as a centre for the production of pottery - most of the cooking ware in the Galilee between the 1st century BCE and the beginning of the 5th century CE was produced here - and you can find many shards littering on the ground today. In fact the Tosefta speaks of "those who make black clay, such as Kefar Hananya and its neighbours."
Archaeological excavations have revealed shafts and bases of columns, caves, a pool, and a burial ground. An Aramaic inscription initially dated to the 6th century, and recently re-dated to Abbasid or Umayyad period, was found on a kelila (a type of hanging lamp) found in the synagogue. We were fascinated to see the remains of the synagogue, which was cut back into the rock, with a mikvah cut into the ground beside it.
In the 20th century, the village houses were made of stone (much of it reclaimed ancient masonry) with mud mortar; they were bunched close together and separated by semi-circular, narrow alleys. Many new houses were constructed during the last years of Mandatory Palestine.