Tall al-Turmus

Tall al-Turmus
Tall al-Turmus
Arabic	تل الترمس
Also Spelled	Tell at-Turmus
Sub-district	Gaza
Coordinates	31°43′29.83″N 34°46′21.71″E
Population	760 (1945)
Area	11,508 dunums 11.5 km²
Date of depopulation	July, 1948
Cause(s) of depopulation	Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Current localities	Arugot, Timorim

Tall al-Turmus (Arabic: تل الترمس‎) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Gaza located on a low hill on the coastal plain of Palestine, 38 kilometers (24 mi) northeast of Gaza. In 1945, it had a population of 760 and a land area of 11,508 dunams. The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

History

Roman sarcophagus, 3rd century, discovered at Tel Turmus, Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem

According to the inhabitants, Tall al-Turmus was founded in the late 19th century. Its name refers to the vegetation surrounding the village; tall means "hill" and turmus means "lupin". The residents, all of them Muslims, constructed their houses of adobe, building them first on the hill and later expanding the village site eastward and westward. It shared a school with the neighboring village of Qastina. Enrollment in the school reached 160 in the mid-1940s. Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy.

Israeli forces from the First Battalion of the Givati Brigade captured Tall al-Turmus early in Operation An-Far on July 9-10, 1948. During this operation, the inhabitants of the village were among a minority of Palestinian villagers in the area to have been driven from their village towards the Gaza Strip rather than eastwards towards Hebron. The Jewish settlement of Timorim was established the lands of Tall at-Turmus in 1954. According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, "The debris of the houses are strewn over the site and can be found near the clumps of cactuses and the sycamore and eucalyptus trees that grow there."

Archaeology

A salvage excavation at Tell Turmus was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in April 2000 prior to the installation of a water pipe. The remains of a pear-shaped hearth were uncovered, surrounded by pieces of burnt clay that probably used to line the hearth. Inside were two pottery vessels containing burnt animal bones, organic material and a bone implement embedded with stone blades probably used as a sickle. The hearth may date to the Chalcolithic period or Early Bronze Age.Two fragments of a Chalcolithic incised scapula were found at Tall al-Turmus.

References

Bibliography

• Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html
• Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-224-5
• Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6. http://books.google.com/?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=benny+morris&q.

External links

• Tall al-Turmus from Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center