page_title: Yavne-Yam
section_title: Hellenistic Port
hierarchical_section_title: Yavne-Yam / History / Hellenistic Port
caption_attribution_description: Archaeological Museum Beit Miriam in kibutz Palmahim, Israel מוזיאון בית מרים - הים ומלואו" הוא מוזיאון לארכאולוגיה השוכן בקיבוץ פלמחים מעל מצוק הצופה לים. המוזיאון מתרכז בממצאים ארכאולוגים שנחפרו באזור הקרוב לפלמחים, בחלקו התחתון של ערוץ נחל שורק וממצאים שנמשו מהים בקרבת הקיבוץ. כתובת יבנה ים, כתובת יוונית מתקופת החשמונאים. בכתובת זו החקוקה על אבן גיר קשה, מבקשים הצידונים תושבי יבנה-ים מאנטיוכוס אאופטור בנו של אנטיוכוס אפיפנס "הרשע" שייתן להם הקלות במיסים בגין שירותי הים שנתנו לסבו. הכתובת באה לאשש את המסופר בספר מכבים ב' על הסיוע שנתנו הצידונים לאנטיוכוס השלישי סבו של אאופטור אשר שמו חקוק על האבן.
context_page_description: Yavne-Yam or Minet Rubin is an archaeological site located on Israel's southern Mediterranean coast, about 15 km south of Tel Aviv. Built on eolianite hills next to a small promontory forming the sole anchorage able to provide shelter to seagoing vessels between Jaffa and the Sinai, Yavne-Yam is notable for its role as the port of ancient Yavne. Excavations carried out by Tel Aviv University since 1992 have revealed continuous habitation from the second millennium BCE up to the Middle Ages; the famous Yavne-Yam ostracon is named after the site.
context_section_description: The material culture uncovered at the site suggests that under Persian rule, Yavne-Yam was inhabited by Phoenicians from Sidon, also revealing a strong Hellenic influence. Alexander the Great's conquest of the Levant magnified such effects, and Yavne-Yam displays the prosperity and increased Hellenization of the population resulting from the political changes brought about by the Macedonian conquest and subsequent Ptolemaic and Seleucid control.
  It was this Hellenization which eventually led to the Seleucid-Jewish conflict of the 2nd century BCE. What begun as tensions between hellenized and observant Jews, in 166 BCE erupted into an open revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Cities that had been thoroughly hellenized, such as Yavne (Iamnia) and Yavne-Yam, suffered the brunt of the Maccabean Revolt. According to 2 Maccabees, Judas Maccabeus, first leader of the revolt, "attacked the people of Jamnia by night and set fire to the harbor and the fleet, so that the glow of the light was seen in Jerusalem, thirty miles distant." Discoveries at the site and elsewhere, however, cast doubt on this account. During a preliminary survey conducted in December 1986, a fragmentary Greek inscription was found in Yavne-Yam, documenting correspondence between Seleucid king Antiochus V Eupator and the local Sidonian community. Dated to the summer of 163 BCE, it reveals the longstanding cooperation of the town with Seleucid authorities, at a time when inland Yavne was known as a base for operations against the rebels. Furthermore, the discovery on Delos of altars erected by the citizens of Iamnia and the persistence of Greek ware in the archaeological record have led archaeologists to believe Yavne-Yam had in fact resisted Maccabean attacks and remained a free Greek city for decades after the rebellion. It was eventually sacked and incorporated into the Hasmonean state in the late 2nd century BCE, during the rule of John Hyrcanus or Alexander Jannaeus.
caption: Inscription documenting correspondence between Antiochus V and Yavne-Yam's Sidonian community
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