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Motza

Coordinates: 31°47′38″N 35°10′6″E / 31.79389°N 35.16833°E / 31.79389; 35.16833
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For the nearby community settlement, see Motza Illit.
View of Motza

Motza, also Mozah or Motsa, (Hebrew: מוֹצָא, Arabic: موتسا) is a neighbourhood on the western edge of West Jerusalem. It is located in the Judean Hills, 600 metres above sea level, connected to Jerusalem by the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway and the winding mountain road to Har Nof. Established in 1854, Motza was the first Jewish farm founded outside the walls of the Old City in the modern era. It is believed to be located on the site of a Biblical village of the same name mentioned in Joshua 18:26Template:Bibleverse with invalid book.[1]

History

Antiquity

Motza is the site of the Canaanite and later Israelite town of Mozah, which according to the Hebrew Bible was allotted by Joshua to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:26). The name Mozah was found stamped on pottery handles in Tell en-Nasbeh, a site identified with the biblical city of Mizpah, also in the territory of Benjamin.

In 2012, Israeli archaeologists discovered the Tel Motza temple, an Israelite cultic building dating to the monarchic period (Iron Age IIA).[2]

Second Temple period

During the Second Temple period, Motza was the place whence willow branches were cut down for the abundance of willows that grew in the valley, along the riverine brook, and brought to the Temple for ceremonial worship.[3][4]

Biblical Mozah is listed among the Benjamite cities of Joshua 18:26Template:Bibleverse with invalid book. It was referred to in the Talmud as a place where people would come to cut young willow branches as a part of the celebration of Sukkot (Mishnah, Sukkah 4.5: 178).

Motza was identified as the Emmaus of Luke in 1881 by William F. Birch (1840–1916) of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and again in 1893 by Paulo Savi.[5] Excavations in 2001–2003 headed by Professor Carsten Peter Thiede let him conclude that Khirbet Mizza/Tel Moza was the only credible candidate for the Emmaus of the New Testament.[6]

After the demise of the Jewish polity in Jerusalem following the First Jewish–Roman War, Vespasian settled 800 Roman soldiers in the town, which became a Roman settlement known as Colonia Amosa. Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant, it became known as Qalunya.[7]

Ottoman era

Residents of Motza before 1899
Motza farmstead, 1912

In 1854, farmland was purchased from the nearby Arab village of Qalunya (Colonia) by a Baghdadi Jew, Shaul Yehuda, with the aid of British consul James Finn. A B'nai B'rith official signed a contract with the residents of Motza residents that enabled them to pay for the land in long-term payments.[8][9] Four Jewish families settled there. One family established a tile factory which was one of the earliest industries in the region.

Motza was home to one of Israel's oldest wineries, the Teperberg Winery, then called Efrat, established in 1870.[10]

In 1871, while plowing his fields, one of the residents, Yehoshua Yellin, discovered a large subterranean hall from the Byzantine period that he turned into a travellers' inn which provided overnight shelter for pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.

In 1894 Motza became a moshava (village).[11]

When Theodor Herzl visited Palestine in 1898, he passed through Motza, which then had a population of 200. Captivated by the landscape, he planted a cypress tree on the hill. After he died in 1904 at age 44, it became an annual pilgrimage site by Zionist youth, who planted more trees around Herzl's tree.[12] During World War I, Herzl's tree was cut down by the Turks who were levelling forests for firewood and supplies.[12]

British Mandate

Azra sanatorium 1937

David Remez named the sanatorium opened in the village Arza, or "cedar", in reference to Herzl's tree.[13] Arza, established in the 1920s, was the first Jewish "health resort" in the country.[14]

Motza was violently attacked in the 1929 Palestine riots (see below),[8][15][16] and was abandoned for one year by its Jewish inhabitants.[16]

Farmer Shmuel Broza in Motza, 1930

The flourishing orchard of the Broza family is mentioned in the Hope Simpson Report in 1930.[17] The children of Motza attended school in one of the rooms built above the vaulted hall. Their teacher was Moshe David Gaon, later father of singer and actor Yehoram Gaon. Motza was the only Jewish presence in the area. Kfar Uria and Hartuv were further west in the Judean foothills.[8][18][19]

According to a census conducted in 1931 by the British Mandate authorities, Motza had a population of 151 inhabitants, in 20 houses.[20]

In 1933 the villagers founded the neighbouring Upper Motza (Motza Illit).

Motza tile factory 1934

In December 1948, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 recommended that "the built-up area of Motsa" be included in the Jerusalem "Corpus separatum", which was to be detached from "the rest of Palestine" and "placed under effective United Nations control". However, like other provisions of Resolution 194, this was never carried out in practice, and Motza became part of the State of Israel.

1929 murders

The Arza sanatorium, 1934[21]

Despite good relations with neighbouring Arab communities,[citation needed] the village was attacked during the 1929 Palestine riots. Several residents of Qalunya attacked an outlying house belonging to the Makleff family, killing the father, mother, son, two daughters, and their two guests. Three children survived by escaping out a second-story window; one, Mordechai Maklef, later became Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army. The attackers included the lone police officer and armed man in the area, as well as a shepherd employed by the Makleff family. The village was subsequently abandoned by Jews for a year's time.[16]

Refugees from Motza sent a letter to the Refugees Aid Committee in Jerusalem describing their plight and asking for help: "Our houses were burned and robbed...we have nothing left. And now we are naked and without food. We need your immediate assistance and ask for nothing more than bread to eat and clothes to wear."[22]

State of Israel

In 2006, the Yellin and Yehuda families helped restore Joshua Yellin's original home, among the oldest and most derelict buildings at the site.[23]

From a municipal perspective, Motza, now called Ramat Motza, is affiliated with the Jerusalem Municipality. The nearby Motza Illit is under the jurisdiction of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council.[24]

Archaeology

Archaeologists found at Tel Motza remains of a settlement dated to the Neolithic period (about 6000 BCE), indicating that Motza was part of an ancient economic center.[25][26]

Neolithic settlement

The site was called "Big Bang" of Prehistory because of the preservation of the artefacts and the size of its area.[27]

Excavations at Tel Motza took place in 2012–13 and 2019.[28][25][29] The area was excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) because of the highway construction, and the researches are conducted by IAA archaeologists Hamoudi Khalaily and Jacob Vardi.[29]

A 9,000-year-old Neolithic site was discovered at Motza.[30]

This Neolithic settlement is considered the largest ever discovered in Israel, and changed the beliefs about this area being uninhabited during that period. "This is most probably the largest excavation of this time period in the Middle East, which will allow the research to advance leaps and bounds ahead of where we are today, just by the amount of material that we are able to save and preserve from this site", reported archaeologist Lauren Davis from the IAA.[29][31][32][33]

It has been discovered that the area was home to about 3,000 residents.[33][34][35][36][37]

Flint tools (arrowheads, axes, blades and knives), figurine of an ox made of clay, a stone-carved human face, seeds, stone bracelets, animal bones and other objects have been found from the site. According to the archaeologists, "Amongst others, unique stone-made objects were found in the tombs, made of an unknown type of stone, as well as items made of obsidian (volcanic glass) from Anatolia, and sea-shells, some of which were brought from the Mediterranean Sea and some from the Red Sea."[33][34][35][36][37]

Iron Age Israelite settlement

Excavations in Motza (2012) unearthed the Tel Motza temple, a large building revealing clear elements of ritual use, dated to the 9th century BCE. A rare cache of ritual objects found near the building included tiny ceramic figurines of men and animals. An analysis of animal bones found at the site indicated that they belonged only to kosher animals.[28] Excavations at the site continued as late as 2013, led by archaeologists Shua Kisilevitz, Zvi Greenhut, and Anna Eirikh-Rose on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).[38][39] Some finds, such as the possible presence of a Canaanite storm god, have been interpreted as further evidence that First Temple era Judahite religion ("Yahwism") was markedly different from the monotheistic Judaism depicted much later in the Bible.[40]

See also

  • En Esur, Chalcolithic fortified proto-city in the Sharon Plain
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Motza.

References

  1. ^ National Campus for the Archeology of Israel Archived 2007-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ First Temple Period Ritual Structure Discovered Near Jerusalem
  3. ^ Danby, H., ed. (1933), The Mishnah, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-815402-X, s.v. Sukkah 4:5, p. 178
  4. ^ Wheaton, Gerry (2015-02-26). The Role of Jewish Feasts in John's Gospel. Cambridge University Press. p. 140. ISBN 9781316299753.
  5. ^ W. F. Birch, "Emmaus", Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement 13 (1881), pp. 237–38; Paulo Savi, "Emmaus", Revue Biblique 2 (1893), pp. 223–27.
  6. ^ Thiede, Carsten Peter (2005). "Die Wiederentdeckung von Emmaus bei Jerusalem" [Rediscovering Emmaus near Jerusalem]. Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum (in German). 8 (3). Walter de Gruyter: 593–99. doi:10.1515/zach.2005.8.3.593. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  7. ^ Khalidi, W. (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. p. 309. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
  8. ^ a b c Motza, Atarot, and Neveh Yaacov
  9. ^ לגרב ימ בכרב ימ
  10. ^ Rogov, Daniel (2012). The Ultimate Rogov's Guide to Israeli Wine. Toby Press. p. 550.
  11. ^ Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p.341, ISBN 965-220-186-3.
  12. ^ a b Planting from the remains
  13. ^ Modern pilgrimage[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ How Israel's socialist retreats for workers turned into luxury hotels
  15. ^ Ancient Motza
  16. ^ a b c Segev, Tom (1999). One Palestine, Complete. Metropolitan Books. p. 324. ISBN 0-8050-4848-0.
  17. ^ "Hope Simpson Report". Archived from the original on 2008-01-26. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  18. ^ Herzl's Tree Archived 2007-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ סיפור הפרברים: חמישה אתרים בשולי ירושלים
  20. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 41
  21. ^ Das Palästina-bilder-buch; 96 photographien. OCLC 2733078.
  22. ^ Jewish memorabilia to be auctioned in Jerusalem, Haaretz
  23. ^ עבודות שיפוץ ושימור לבית משפחת ילין במוצא
  24. ^ Israel Government Maps
  25. ^ a b The long road to straightening out a curve
  26. ^ Temple and sacred vessels from Biblical times discovered at Tel Motza, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 Dec. 2012, accessed 29 July 2019
  27. ^ "9,000-yr-old Site near Jerusalem is the "Big Bang" of Prehistory Settlement". The Vintage News. 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  28. ^ a b Israeli archaeologists uncover ancient temple just outside Jerusalem, Haaretz.
  29. ^ a b c Amanda Borschel-Dan. "A 'game changer': Vast, developed 9,000-year-old settlement found near Jerusalem". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  30. ^ Khalaily, Hamoudi; Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Barzilai, Omri; Boaretto, Elizabetta; Bocquentin, Fanny; Le Dosseur, Gaëlle; Eirikh-Rose, Anna; Goring-Morris, A. Nigel; Greenhut, Zvi; Marder, Ofer; Sapir-Hen, Lidar (2007). "Excavations at Motza in the Judean Hills and the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B in the Southern Levant" (PDF). Paléorient. 33 (2): 5–37. doi:10.3406/paleo.2007.5218. ISSN 0153-9345. JSTOR 41496809.
  31. ^ "In pictures: 9,000-year-old settlement found". 2019-07-16. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  32. ^ "Prehistoric city offers glimpse of ancient living near Jerusalem". Reuters. 2019-07-16. Archived from the original on 2019-07-18. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  33. ^ a b c Dockrill, Peter. "A "Game-Changing" 10,000-Year-Old Neolithic City Has Been Unearthed Near Jerusalem". ScienceAlert. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  34. ^ a b "Archaeologists Unearth 9,000-Year-Old Settlement in Israel | Archaeology". Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  35. ^ a b Holland, Oscar (2019-07-17). "9,000-year-old settlement unearthed near Jerusalem". CNN Style. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  36. ^ a b "Israel Unexpectedly Discovers 9000-Year-Old Settlement". CBN News. 2019-07-16. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  37. ^ a b Hasson, Nir; Schuster, Ruth (2018-07-16). "9,000-year-old Neolithic City Discovered in Jerusalem Valley". Haaretz. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  38. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2013, Survey Permit # A-6786.
  39. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Preliminary Report: Moza, Tel Moza, volume 125, year 2014
  40. ^ Ariel David Judahite Temple by Jerusalem May Have Housed Statue of Canaanite God Haaretz 27 October 2021
  • "Talking Picture Magazine", March 1933, p. 45, an article on the film: The Motza Colony, a drama after the event of the murder of the Makleff Family.

31°47′38″N 35°10′6″E / 31.79389°N 35.16833°E / 31.79389; 35.16833

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