Hula Valley Archives - Biblical Archaeology Society

What Is the Hula Valley?

Nathan Steinmeyer — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:00:05 +0000

The Hula Valley at sunrise. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

Today, the Hula Valley, north of the Sea of Galilee, is one of the most fertile agricultural regions in Israel. In the biblical period, however, it was better known as an important trade route connecting the commercial centers of Syria and northern Mesopotamia with the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt. Home to important biblical sites like Hazor, Dan, and Abel Beth Maacah, the Hula Valley is never mentioned by name in the Bible but it played an important role in the geopolitical history of the region.

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Exploring the Hula Valley

A fertile valley between the Golan Heights and the Upper Galilee, the Hula was home to several major Bronze Age and Iron Age cities. The valley also formed the northernmost extension of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. While today the region is filled with agricultural fields, historically the area was made up of extensive marshlands centered on the Hula Lake, which was fed by the Hasbani, Banias, and Dan rivers. The waters from the Hula Lake would then flow south through the marshlands into the Sea of Galilee. The Hula Lake has sometimes been identified as the Waters of Merom, where Joshua fought and defeated the Canaanite kings led by Jabin, the king of Hazor (Joshua 11). However, those “waters” are more often thought to refer to various springs located along the western side of the valley.

The six-chambered gate of Israelite Hazor. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

Although the Hula Valley has been inhabited since prehistory, its major settlements—Hazor, Dan (Canaanite Laish), and Abel Beth Maacah—were all established as Canaanite cities in the Bronze Age (c. 3300–1200 BCE). During this period, Hazor was the largest fortified city in the southern Levant and one of the most important in the entire Near East, with cultural and economic ties to Syria and Mesopotamia. This status is reflected in the Book of Joshua, where Hazor is called “the head of all those kingdoms” (Joshua 11:10).

Courtesy BAS.

The Hula Valley came under Israelite control during the Iron Age (c. 1200–586 BCE), when it became a frequent battle ground between the Israelite and Aramean kingdoms, as witnessed in the famous Tel Dan Stele. The valley’s major cities were largely destroyed during the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom by Tiglath-Pileser III (c. 733/732 BCE). The area thrived again during the Roman period (c. 37 BCE–324 CE), when it formed part of the agricultural hinterland of Caesarea Philippi/Panias.

View of the agricultural fields of the Hula Valley from Tel Hazor. Courtesy Nathan Steinmeyer, BAS.

With a warm Mediterranean climate and lots of water, the valley is exceedingly rich in flora and fauna, and today it is home to a large nature reserve. The valley is an important stop on the migratory path of birds traveling between Europe and Africa. As such, it is often filled with hundreds of bird species, including pelicans, cranes, herons, ibises, and many more. It is also home to many mammal species, including boars, jackals, otters, and lynx. The Hula Lake once covered nearly 5 square miles and was one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the region. However, following systematic attempts in the 20th century to drain the surrounding marshland in order to combat malaria, today the lake is only around 0.5 square miles.

This article first appeared in Bible History Daily on March 3, 2025.

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12,000-Year-Old Natufian Bone Flutes

Nathan Steinmeyer — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 13:30:29 +0000

Complete Natufian bone flute from Eynan-Mallaha. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

Some 12,000 years ago, at one of the last Natufian sites in Israel, flute music was all the rage, bone flute music to be precise. According to a study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, the people of Eynan-Mallaha in the Hula Valley used carved bone flutes to imitate the sound of predatory birds. Whether they were used for the first duck calls, as a way to communicate, or simply for music, these tiny objects are by far the oldest-known instruments in the Middle East.

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Making Music with Hunter-Gatherers

The last hunter-gatherers in the Levant, the Natufians (c. 13,000–9,700 BCE), were also the first group to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. Now, they are also the earliest known group in the region to have made music, or at least something like music. Excavated at the site of Eynan-Mallaha in northern Israel, seven tiny wing bones—dated to around 12,000 years ago—are all the evidence we have of this ancient practice.

The bones, which all belong to small duck-like waterfowl known as the Eurasian coot and teal, all bear unmistakable signs of craftsmanship, with finger holes bored into their sides and one of their ends carved into a mouthpiece. The bone flutes were noticed while researchers analyzed over 1,000 bird bones discovered at Eynan-Mallaha, a site where bird hunting supplied a large portion of the daily diet. Carrying out micro-CT scans on the bones, an international team analyzed the carefully made holes and determined they were carved to allow a person’s fingers to cover them. All seven flutes had noticeable wear patterns, demonstrating that they had seen considerable use. In addition to the holes, the flutes had small traces of red ochre, which may have been for decorative purposes.

Creating reproductions of the flutes from similarly sized bird bones, the team studied how they were played and the range of sounds they could produce. They discovered that they closely mimicked the sounds of predatory birds, specifically the Eurasian Sparrowhawk and the Common Kestrel, both of which are still common in the Hula Valley at various times of the year. “The replicas produce the same sounds that the hunter-gatherers may have made 12,000 years ago,” said Laurent Davin and Hamoudi Khalaily, two of the study’s authors. “One of the flutes was discovered complete. So far as is known it is the only one in the world in this state of preservation.”

Sectional image of the bone flute. Courtesy CAD, photos L.D.

Since the bones of smaller birds, which break far more easily when worked, were needed to produce such a sound, the team suggests that this sound was sought on purpose. What that purpose was, however, is not certain.

One theory is that the bone flutes were used in hunting, specifically to either scare prey birds into the air so they could be captured or to attract the birds by mimicking their sounds. The talons of various birds of prey were used as tools and ornaments in prehistoric cultures. According to Khalaily, “If the flutes were used for hunting, then this is the earliest evidence of the use of sound in hunting. This discovery provides important new information on hunting methods and supplements the various prehistorical tools that mark the start of the transition to agriculture and the cultivation of plants and animals in the southern Levant.”

Another possible purpose of the bone flutes, however, was for creating music in social or cultic settings. In many other cultures where birds play an important role in daily life, bird calling often becomes part of the musical repertoire. To this day, the Hula Valley is an important passageway for birds migrating between Europe and Africa. It is estimated that over 500 million birds pass through the valley each year. Although Eynan-Mallaha features several permanent stone dwellings, the inhabitants were still hunter-gatherers who would have relied on the annual bird migrations as well as the birds that call the lush valley home year around. As such, birds would have played an important role within both the society and its music.

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Ruins at Banias – King Herod’s Palace Identified at Caesarea Philippi

Michele Barasso — Wed, 18 May 2022 13:30:41 +0000

The ruins at Banias include the Cave of Pan and other cultic structures dedicated to Pan, Caesar Augustus, the Nymphs, and Zeus. The lush greenery west of the cliff face may hide another archaeological treasure—King Herod’s palace. Photo: gugganij, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

King Herod’s palace may have been found at Caesarea Philippi (modern Banias). Though the site was excavated by famed archaeologist Ehud Netzer more than 40 years ago, scholars re-examining archaeological material from Netzer’s dig have now concluded that the so-called opus reticulatum building at Banias must belong to King Herod’s palace.

The site of Banias, at the foot of Mt. Hermon, overlooks the Hula Valley and the headwaters of the Jordan River. Its rugged landscape and lush vegetation offer abundant opportunities to hike and swim. But the site’s ancient ruins are no less impressive. The Paneion—a cave sanctuary dedicated to the Greek god Pan—was established in front of the craggy natural cave along a rock terrace during the Hellenistic period. More construction followed under Rome’s client kings in Judea, starting with Herod the Great, who was awarded the territory by Emperor Augustus. To honor his imperial patron, Herod had a “beautiful temple of white stone” (Josephus Flavius, Antiquities 15.363) built for him near the Paneion.

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In their article “Proof Positive: How We Used Math to Find Herod’s Palace at Banias,” published in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Frankie Snyder and Rachel Bar-Nathan aim to reveal a different Herodian edifice. Some 100 yards west of the sacred grotto is a rectangular platform where, according to the authors, King Herod’s palace once stood. In their gritty crime drama, the authors take on the role of detectives, examining clues recovered from “the scene.” A mathematician with a weak spot for geometry and an archaeologist who excavated the site with Netzer, Snyder and Bar-Nathan were able to piece together (literally!) a convincing case for King Herod’s palace at Banias.

This retention wall, constructed in a distinctive net-like pattern called opus reticulatum, supported a platform on which Herod the Great may have built his palace at Banias. Photo from Ehud Netzer’s Archive.

During two short excavation seasons in the late 1970s, Netzer examined a series of Roman-era concrete walls decorated with opus reticulatum that supported the southern end of the ancient building. Common to Roman architecture around the turn of the era, this net-like brick work is extensively attested only at two other sites in Roman Palestine—Herod the Great’s Third Palace at Jericho and the so-called Herod’s Monument in Jerusalem. This led Netzer to conclude that the opus reticulatum building was built under Herod the Great. Netzer further believed the building was the temple that Herod erected for his imperial patron.

Fancy Floor. The reconstructed decorative floors from Banias have close parallels in other royal projects of Herod the Great, suggesting that the Banias building was King Herod’s palace. Photo: Courtesy Frankie Snyder.

Forty years later, Snyder and Bar-Nathan respectfully disagree. “Scattered about the excavations were approximately 170 small geometrically cut tiles and their fragments that once created an elegantly patterned floor known as opus sectile. Meaning “cut work” in Latin, the floor was patterned with triangular, square, and octagonal shapes,” the authors state, revealing the crucial piece of evidence. The decorative floors, they claim, have parallels in a palace at Jericho built by Herod the Great. Other clues that the opus reticulatum building at Banias is part of King Herod’s palaceare architectural. Arched stairways cut into the mountain to support the building are also characteristic of Herod, who liked to build in dramatic locations (think Masada). Finally, the ground plan is very suggestive of other royal projects of Herod the Great at Jericho.

To personally examine all the evidence in this detective story and to follow the methodical reconstruction of the decorative floors from the opus reticulatum building, read Frankie Snyder and Rachel Bar-Nathan’s article “Proof Positive: How We Used Math to Find Herod’s Palace at Banias,” published in the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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