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During September–November 2000, the ‘En Parod aqueduct was documented and cleaned (Permit No. A-3304; central map ref. NIG 2404/7604; OIG 1904/2604), prior to widening the road. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the Department of Public Works, was directed by E. Damati (photography), with the assistance of V. Essman and V. Pirsky (surveying).
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The beginning of the aqueduct is located at the spring that flows behind the trough (Fig. 1:1), which was built west of the road in the 1950s, at the initiative of Y. Ben-Zvi, the president of the State of Israel. The aqueduct (Fig. 1:2; height c. 1.5 m) extended for a distance of 25 m and terminated at a ruinous, ancient flour mill (Fig. 1:3). The walls of the aqueduct’s channel did not survive in Section 2, yet its bottom can be discerned on top of the aqueduct’s wall. A long winding aqueduct emerged from the base of the mill and conveyed water to several flour mills along the slope, which descends to the west of Qibbuz Parod, toward the site of Kefar Hananya. The road to Zefat was paved on top of this aqueduct and to its east, the continuation of the aqueduct that was renovated during the British Mandate, is visible (Fig. 1:4). It was built of concrete (width 0.25 m, height 0.2–0.3 m) on the remains of the ancient aqueduct’s wall and was covered with concrete slabs that were affixed with cement to the sides of the aqueduct’s channel (Fig. 2). The aqueduct continued for a distance of 36.5 m until its destruction by mechanical equipment (Figs. 1:5; 3). Plaster remains of the ancient aqueduct bottom (length c. 2.5 m, width 0.4 m; Figs. 1: A; 4) were discovered next to the end of the concrete Mandatory aqueduct, which emerged again south of the approach road to Qibbuz Parod. Two piles of large sections of the ruinous aqueduct wall were overlain in the field near where the aqueduct was severed north of the road; these allowed reconstructing the route of the missing aqueduct sections. The continuation of the aqueduct south of the approach road began at a concrete culvert (Fig. 1:6; length c. 2.5 m), built below the road that led to the village of Farradiya. The aqueduct turns in a sharp angle to the southeast and continues for a distance of c. 300 m in several waterfalls, to overcome the steep descent. The aqueduct wall in this section is well preserved and stands more than 3 m high in one of the waterfalls.
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It is difficult to determine the precise date when the aqueduct was built, as it was only cleaned; yet it seems that its beginnings were ancient. The Jewish traveler, Rabbi Moshe Basula, who visited Kefar ‘Anan (Kefar Hananya) in the 1520s, tells of a dispute over rights to use the water from ‘En Parod between the residents of Kefar Hananya, who claimed that theirs were from time immemorial, and those of the adjacent village of Farradiya. It seems that the spring water was divided between the two villages by means of a common water system. Since the residents of Kefar Hananya required large quantities of water for their ceramic production during the period of the Mishnah and Talmud, it is possible that the water system shared by the two villages was already in use during the Early Roman period.
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To view the figures, click on the figure caption
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