TAMAR

TAMAR (Heb. תָּמָר), locality on the borders of Judah, appearing as Hazazon-Tamar in Genesis 14:7, where it is described as a dwelling place of the Amorites between Kadesh and Sodom. This precludes the identification with En-Gedi attempted in II Chronicles 20:2. According to the Masoretic Text of I Kings 9:18, Solomon built "Tamar in the wilderness," but this reading is not certain as the parallel verse in II Chronicles 8:4 has Tadmor (Palmyra). Ezekiel lists it as a boundary point of the land of Israel, together with Meribath-Kadesh (47:19; 48:28). A Roman fort called Thamara is indicated on the Tabula Peutingeriana, a Roman road map, and is also mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy and by Eusebius (Onom. 8:6ff.), who places it one day's journey from Mampsis (Kurnub). It is also shown on the madaba map . Alt has identified the fort of Tamar with Qaṣr al-Juhayniyya (present-day Mesad Tamar), but Aharoni has argued convincingly for an identification with ʿ Ayn al-Ḥuṣb (En Hezeva), where there are remains of a Roman fort garrisoned by Cohors I Centenaria. Excavations were made at the site of the castellum by M. Gichon in 1973–76. The fort was apparently founded prior to the Roman annexation of the area from the Nabateans in 106 C.E., with the corner towers added at the time of Trajan. Abandoned during the time of Hadrian, the fort was seized at the time of Aurelian's conquest of the Palmyran Empire in 271–73 C.E. The fort was in use, with minor repairs, until the Muslim conquest of 635 C.E. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Aharoni, IEJ, 13 (1963), 30–42. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roll, IEJ, 39 (1989), 260; Y. Tsafrir, L. Di Segni, and J. Green, Tabula Imperii Romani. Iudaea – Palaestina. Maps and Gazetteer. (1994), 247, S.V. "Thamara." (Michael Avi-Yonah / Shimon Gibson (2nd ed.)