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. The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[4]
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.[4]
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."[4]
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.[5]
