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The Estate of the Southern Jordan River
 This area which included Jericho, Engedi, and later Phasaelis
and Archelais on the west side of the Jordan river and
Betharamtha/Livias on the east side of the river, was in
antiquity a date palm and balsam plantation. The products from
this estate were world famous as was the wealth derived from
them. The balsam trees—yielding the precious balsam oil--only
grew here in Palestine and in Egypt and were thus a rare and
very sought-after commodity. The dates from this region were
regarded as some of the finest in the world.
Theophrastus (372-288 BC; Historia Plantarum 9.6.14) first
referred to the estate when he wrote (in the Ptolemaic period)
of two paradeisoi in Syria (evidently at Jericho and Engedi)
where balsam grows. Paradeisos is a Persian loan word that
commonly indicates during the Hellenistic period that an older
Persian estate has been taken over by a Hellenistic king. Pliny
the Elder (AD 23-79; Naturalis Historia 12.111-124) maintained
that these two “gardens” (horti) were in the early period
(evidently the Persian period) only about 13 acres (20 iugera)
or less each. But Strabo (64 BC-AD 21; Geographica 16.12.41)
reported that the date palm plantation alone in his time had
grown to eleven miles long (100 stadia). Pompeius Trogus (late
first century BC to early first century AD; in Justinus,
Historiae Philippicae, Epitome 3.2) wrote that the balsam
plantation at that time was 128 acres (200 iugera). Thus the
agricultural enterprise by the Herodian period was a large
estate and must have been enormously profitable.
 Herod built a series of marvelous palaces
in Jericho where he could retire in winter and oversee this
huge estate. Later he developed another palm plantation north
of Jericho in his newly founded city of Phasaelis (Arabic site
of Phasayil). According to the Madaba Map from the
Byzantine era, date palms still grew at Phasaelis in the sixth
century AD. After the death of Herod the Great, his son,
Archelaus (ruled Judea from 4 BC to AD 6), [
Chart] rebuilt a
royal palace at Jericho (Herod’s palace had been burned by
insurrectionists) and developed yet another field of palm
trees at Archelais. [
Map]
 The area
east of the Jordan river, in the ancient territory of Peraea,
was also a part of this date palm plantation complex. The
plantation was in the area of an Old Testament city called Beth
Haram (or Beth Haran; Joshua 13:27, Numbers 32:36) and was
called then in Aramaic Betharamtha. Herod the Great had a palace
there as well and this date plantation also grew world famous
dates (Josephus, War 2.59). Later, Herod’s son Antipas named the
town Livias or Julias after the wife of Emperor Augustus
(Josephus, Antiquities 18.27; War 2.168). Pliny the Elder wrote
(Naturalis Historia 13.44) that the dates of Jericho were
especially good but also good were those from Archelais,
Phasaelis, and Livias. The outstanding qualities of these dates,
wrote Pliny, were their juiciness and their sweetness.
According to the sixth century pilgrim, Theodosius, Livias was
twelve Romans miles from Jericho across the Jordan river. Today
most archaeologists identify the ruin of Tell er-Rameh as the
site of the ancient town. The Madaba Map also pictures date
palms still growing in the area of Livias/Betharamtha in the
sixth century AD. [
Map] Thus the complex of
plantations that stretched from Engedi to the south to Phasaelis
to the north and from Jericho and Archelais to the west to
Betharamtha/Livias to the east formed a huge estate that
produced very profitable crops of balsam oil and dates. Herod
the Great probably inherited this estate from the Hasmonean
rulers who in turn had inherited it from the Seleucids and
Ptolemies. Herod expanded the estate by developing Phasaelis and
his son Archelaus developed Archelais. [
Map] |
