Beit 'Amra

History

Ancient period

Beit 'Amra is believed to be identical with Beit 'Amar, a site mentioned in a document dating from the second century CE, in which a Jewish widow declared her rights fulfilled. The document, written in Hebrew and Aramaic on papyrus and said to be signed at Beit 'Amar, also mentions two other villages in the southern Hebron Hills: Aristobolia and Upper Anab. The document is self-dated to the "year four of the destruction of the House of Israel", which scholars believe refers to 4th year after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, thus dating the document to circa 140 CE. This document indicates that Jews remained in the southern Hebron Hills in the aftermath of the revolt.

Potsherds from the early Roman period were found at Khirbet Beit 'Amra.

Ottoman period

French explorer Victor Guérin visited the place in 1863, which he described as a ruin. He noted that "these ruins extend over a large hill, whose lower parts are provided with sustaining walls. A good many cisterns are cut in the sides of the hill. Several of these are provided with the stones intended to stop the orifice. On all sides are to be seen old subterranean magazines, once belonging to houses now destroyed, the ruins of which are covered with brushwood. The vestiges of two churches, almost completely destroyed, are still visible. They are both built east and west; one occupied the higher part of the village, the other the lower. On the site of the first, among other things, are the fragments of a baptismal font."

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine found it to be a "ruined site on a hill, resembling Khurbet 'Aziz in character. Cisterns, ruined walls, shafts of pillars, and lintel stones were observed".

British Era

Control of the village passed to the British after they defeated the Ottoman Empire in World War 1. The area was administered until 1948 as the British Mandate for Palestine.

Jordanian Era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit 'Amra came under Jordanian rule.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 119 inhabitants in Beit 'Amra.

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Beit 'Amra has been under Israeli occupation.

Footnotes

Bibliography

References

1. (February 2018). "Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017". [[State of Palestine]].
2. From personal name, Amra, according to Palmer, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/397/mode/1up 397]; a variation of "Omar", see p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/268/mode/1up 268]
3. משגב, חגי. (2013). "Notes on the Beit 'Amar Document / הערות לתעודה מבית-עמר". Cathedra: For the History of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv / קתדרה: לתולדות ארץ ישראל ויישובה.
4. Bar-Asher, Moshe. (2014-01-31). "Studies in Classical Hebrew". De Gruyter.
5. Eshel, E., [[Hanan Eshel. Eshel H.]], & Yardeny A. (2009). A document from "year four of the destruction of the house of Israel" in which a widow declared that she received all her rights. ''Cathedra'' 132. 5-24. [Hebrew] "The phrase "for the destruction of the House of Israel" may be interpreted as a count method that began with the destruction of the Temple, in 70 CE, or with the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 136 CE. Since the writing of the document is advanced, and has forms characteristic of the second century CE, it turns out that it is a count that began after the Bar Kokhba revolt. The places mentioned in the document: Beit 'Amar, Upper Anab and Aristobulia, are ancient settlements in the southern Hebron Hills. If indeed the new document is to be dated to 140 CE, it can be suggested that Jews continued to use the hideout caves even during the religious edicts imposed by Hadrian after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba rebellion, and also that Jews remained in the southern Hebron Hills even after the suppression of the revolt. [...] Beit 'Amar - this place is not mentioned in the historical sources. Based on the mention of the Upper Anab and Aristobulia it should be identified in the southern Hebron Hills, and it seems that the reference is to Beit-'Amra, which is 3 km west of Yatta."
6. Guérin, 1869, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr06gugoog#page/n221/mode/1up 208]. As translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/351/mode/1up 351]
7. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/351/mode/1up 351]
8. Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensusPages/JordanCensus1961-p22.pdf 22]