Archelaïs (Ancient Greek: Ἀρχελαΐς) was a town in the Roman province of Judaea/Palaestina, corresponding to modern Khirbet el-Beiyudat (also spelled Khirbat al-Bayudat). It was founded by Herod the Great's son Archelaus to house workers for his date plantation in the Jericho area. It is represented on the Madaba mosaic map with a towered entrance flanked by two other towers.
Geography
Archelaïs was located about 7.5 miles north of Jericho, on the road leading to Scythopolis.
History
Archelais was founded by Archelaus, son of Herod the Great and ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. Salome bequeathed it to Livia in her will.
Agrippa I, king of Judaea in the early 40s CE, established a road station at Archelais.
In Christian times, the town became a bishopric. The names of two of its bishops: Timotheus, who took part in two anti-Eutyches synods held in Constantinople in 448 and 449, and Antiochus, who was at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
No longer a residential bishopric, Archelaïs is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
Inscriptions on the floor of a church discovered among the ruins of the town indicate that it was paved with Byzantine mosaics during the 560s.
Current destruction
Archelaïs is identified with Khirbet el-Beiyudat, an archaeological site, standing at the northern outskirts of the Palestinian West Bank town of al-Auja (31°57′58″N 35°28′18″E). The site is gradually being covered by modern construction and devastated by treasure hunters.
References
- Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, 17.13.1
- Avi-Yonah, Michael; Gibson, Shimon (2007). "Archaelais". In Fred Skolnik and Michael Berenbaum (ed.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 2 (2 ed.). Macmillan Reference USA & Keter Publishing House. p. 397. ISBN 978-0-02-865930-5. Retrieved 12 March 2022 – via encyclopedia.com.
- William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, I, p. 193
- ""Archelais - (Kh. al-Bayudat)" (Franciscan Cyberspot)". Archived from the original on 2012-08-19. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
- ^ Rogers, Guy MacLean (2021). For the Freedom of Zion: the Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66-74 CE. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 533. ISBN 978-0-300-24813-5.
- Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. III, coll. 673-676
- Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 453
- Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 837
- H. Hizmi, "The Byzantine Church at Khirbet el-Beiyudat", in Christian Archaeology in the Holy Land. New Discoveries. Essays in Honour of Virgilio C. Corbo ofm (SBF Collectio Maior 36), Edd. G. C. Bottini - L. Di Segni - E. Alliata, Jerusalem 1990 – cited in "Archelais - (Kh. al-Bayudat)" (Franciscan Cyberspot) Archived 2012-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
- Hizmi, Hananya (2018). Archelaïs (mod. al-Bayudat, Kh. el-Beyudat): Ground plan of the church (fig. 2672.A). Walter de Gruyter. p. 43. ISBN 978-3-11-054421-3. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - Jacobson, David M. (2014). "Editorial: Vandalism and Worse at Herodian Sites". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 146 (3). London: 173-176. doi:10.1179/0031032814Z.000000000103. ISSN 1743-1301.
- Ben Zvi, Sara Jo (8 January 2018). "Wanton Destruction on a Calamitous Scale". Segula Magazine. Jerusalem. Retrieved 20 May 2021.