Hannathon

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HANNATHON

HANNATHON (Heb. חַנָּתֹן), city in the territory of Zebulun between Rimmon and Iphtahel (Wadi al-Malik) in Lower Galilee (Josh. 19:13–14). It is mentioned in two el-Amarna letters as Ḥinnatuni or Ḥinnatuna (ed. Knudtzon, 8, 245); in one it is referred to as the place where the kings of Shimron and Acre attacked a Babylonian caravan which was on its way to Egypt, and in the other, as the place where the king of Acre freed Labayu, king of Shechem, after he had been captured at Megiddo. Tiglath-Pileser iii mentions Hannathon (Ḥinatuna) among the cities captured during his Galilean campaign in 733 b.c.e., together with Kanah and Jotbah. The site is generally identified with Tell al-Badaywiyya at the western end of the Bet Netofah Valley, on an important road near Rammun, Kanah, and Jotapata. Pottery dating from the Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, and Iron Ages has been found there. An alternative identification locates Hannathon at Khirbat al-Harbaj in the southern end of the plain of Acre (but see *Achshaph).

bibliography:

Alt, in: pjb, 21 (1925), 62ff.; Y. Aharoni, Hitnaḥalut Shivtei Yisrael ba-Galil ha-Elyon (1957), index; Aharoni, Land, index; Albright, in: basor, no. 11 (1923), 11; idem, in: aasor, 2–3 (1923), 23f.

[Michael Avi-Yonah]