Phinehas, Hill and Tomb of

Phinehas, Hill And Tomb Of

According to Lieut. Conder these have been identified. He says (Tent Work, 1:77):

"The village of Awertah, called Abearthah in the Samaritan dialect, stands in the Plain of the Miikhnah, and is sacred to the Samaritans and to the Jews as conmiraining the tombs of Phinehas and Eleazar, Abishall and Ihamarin. It is probably to be recognized as the Hill of Philnehas, where Eleazar was buried according to the Bible (Jos 24:33), and which is described a in Mount Ephraim.

"In 1872 I visited the village and examined the two principal monuments. That of Eleazar, west of the houses, is a rude structure of masonry in a court open to the air. It is eighteen feet long, plastered all over, and shaded by a splendid terebinth. In one corner is a little mosque with a Samaritan inscription bearing the date 1180 of the Moslem era. The tomb of Phiueha is s apparently an older building, and the walls of its court have an arcade of round arches now supporting at trellis covered with a grape-vine; the floor is paved. A Samaritan inscription exists here as well as at the little mosque adjacent. The tombs of Ithaunmar and of Abishna, the supposed author of the famous roll, are shown by the Samaritans, close by." (See illustration on following page.)