Rumana (Arabic: رمانة; Hebrew: רֻמָּנָה, רומאנה) is an Arab village in northern Israel. Located near Nazareth, it falls under the jurisdiction of al-Batuf Regional Council. In 2022 its population was 1,276.[2]
Sherds ascribed to the Early Bronze Age I and the Intermediate Bronze Age have been found, as well as a cluster of sherds from the Iron Age II (tenth–eighth centuries BCE). A building with sherds from the Iron Age II and the Persian era have also been excavated.[4]
Graves dating to the Persian era and remains of an architectural complex from the Roman era (first–third centuries CE) have been excavated here.[5]
A small number of remains from the Mamluk era has also been found.[4]
Ottoman era
Rumana, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596, the village was located in the nahiyaofTabariyya in the liwaofSafad. It had a population of 9 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, fruit trees, cotton, goats and beehives.[8]Pierre Jacotin called the village Roumani on his map in 1799.[9]
Biblical scholar Edward Robinson passed by the village in 1852, and assumed it was the ancient Rimmon of the Tribe of Zebulun.[10] French explorer Victor Guérin described the village in the 1870s as being small, and protected from the outside by a continuous wall, and hedges of cactus. He also found many fine remains from former times and also speculates that it might be the Biblical site of Rimon, which is mentioned in the Book of Joshua.[11] (Joshua 19:13) In Palestine Exploration Fund's 1881 Survey of Western Palestine, the village (called Rummaneh) was described as:
A small village built of stone, and containing about 70 Moslems. It is situated on a low ridge above the plain, and there are a few olive-trees around. The water supply is from cisterns and a well.[12]
A population list from about 1887 showed that er Rummaneh had about 40 Muslim inhabitants.[13]
In the 1931 census the population was counted with nearby Rumat al-Heib, and together they had 197 inhabitants; 195 Muslims and 2 Christians, in a total of 36 houses.[16]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 590, all Muslims[17] while the total land area was 1,493 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[18] Of this, 28 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 796 for cereals,[19] while 5 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[20]
State of Israel
In 1948 the village was captured by the Israeli army during Operation Dekel, 15–18 July.[21] It remained under martial law until 1966.
