Lavnin

Did You Know?

• The site lies on the western bank of Nahal Hakhlil.
• In April 2019, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee announced its incorporation into a new national park spanning over 1,000 dunams.
• The site is directly south of Nehusha.

Etymology and identification

Archaeologists disagree on the site's ancient name: some propose it was biblical Libnah (Joshua 15:42; 21:13) based on the Arabic name, while others suggest Chezib of Judah or Azekah (Joshua 10:10–11) as mentioned by Epiphanius. If it matches Eusebius' Lobana—described in his Onomasticon as a village in Eleutheropolitana near Beit Gubrin—it was still occupied in the 4th century CE. Boaz Zissu rejects Chezib of Judah because the site was clearly Byzantine, questioning whether it could be Eusebius' ruined Chasbi. Other proposals, such as Libnah at Tell eṣ-Ṣāfi or at ʻIrâq el-Menshiyeh (where Kiryat Gat stands), are now largely rejected. Lt. Col. Conder of the Palestine Exploration Fund was uncertain about Libnah's location but noted the name's connection to the white chalk of the Southern Shephelah.

Flora and fauna

Common fowl are partridge, honey-sucker, bulbul, black-headed bunting, and titmouse. The agamid lizard Laudakia stellio and hares are frequent; more rarely, mongoose and honey-badger appear.

Archaeology

Surveys have revealed potsherds, architectural elements, rock-cut tombs, and hiding complexes, with a network of underground hiding complexes likely dating to the Bar Kokhba revolt. A burial cave on the western slope includes a courtyard (mostly removed by a later bell-shaped quarry), an entrance chamber, a main burial chamber with eight kokhim, and an inner chamber. Above an entrance, two inscriptions were found: one in crude mirror-script Greek reading 'theos' (God), the other with Hebrew letters יה. Boaz Zissu dated this cave to the first century CE. Two additional looted burial caves from the Second Temple period on the eastern slope contained kokhim and undecorated ossuary fragments.

Research history

Lieut. H. H. Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund visited in 1874–75 and noted many caves, one with 120 niches for urns. In a 1998 survey, Boaz Zissu described a 'lion's den' with a side entrance and observation point, a Second Temple period ritual bath (mikveh), burial tombs, fortifications, and Byzantine graffiti. A 2001 survey by Zissu found burial caves, a columbarium, water cisterns, a decorated lintel, and an area with two pits and a room with an arched ashlar vault in the northeast.