Bronze Age The earliest inhabitation at Khirbet Tibnah dated to the
Early Bronze Age, a period spanning approximately 3300–2000 BC.
Classical antiquity Emil Schürer wrote in the 1880s that Thamna () – a city within the district of Diospolis (
Lydda) and which served once as a
toparchy (administrative city) during the
Roman period – is to be identified with the biblical city of
Timnath-serah, now known as the ruin (
khirba in Arabic) of Tibnah (Tibneh) in
Samaria. According to
Eusebius'
Onomasticon, which was written in the 4th century, the tomb of
Joshua was in his time still visited at a place near the village.
Roman and Byzantine periods Thamna was the administrative center of a
toparchy. In 66 CE, at the onset of the
First Jewish–Roman War, the toparchy was placed under the command of John the
Essene. disagreed. Ceramics from the
Late Roman and the
Byzantine periods have been found at Khirbet Tibnah. On the north slope of the hill south of Khirbet Tibnah lies a Jewish
necropolis. Based on comparison to similar sites and discoveries at the site, archaeologist Dvir Raviv suggests that it may have been established in the
Hellenistic period and used until the
Bar Kokhba revolt. The necropolis consists of 16 known graves, and there are an additional six in the surrounding area. The
rock-cut tombs have
kokhim (shafts for burials) that are typical to that period. In some of them were the remains of
ossuaries. In the valley just below the necropolis there is an unusually large
mikveh with two entrances.
Crusader period Khirbet Tibnah is one of the places tentatively identified by Röhricht with the
Crusader Tyberie.
Ottoman period In 1596, the Tibnah (
Tibya) site was listed as village in the
nahiya Quds, in the administrative district
Liwā` of Jerusalem, in a
tax ledger of the "countries of Syria" (
wilāyat aš-Šām) and which lands were then under
Ottoman rule. During that year, Tibna was inhabited by 20 family heads, all
Muslim. The Ottoman authority levied a 33.3% taxation on agricultural products produced by the villagers (primarily on wheat, barley, and olives), besides a marriage tax and supplement tax on goats and beehives. Total revenues accruing from the village of Tibna for that year amounted to 3700
akçe.
Charles William Wilson, who travelled through Palestine in 1866, reported a cemetery containing nine tombs south of the town, which was once capital of the surrounding district: one of these tombs was large, with a portico supported on piers of rock with very simple capitals. One of the piers was apparently destroyed between 1866 and 1873. There were niches for over 200 lamps at the tomb entrance. Inside was a chamber with fourteen graves, or
kokhim, with a passage leading into an inner chamber containing one grave. He also wrote about a 40 foot high oak tree near the tomb, known as Sheikh et-Teim, and a village about 3 miles to the east, called
Kefr Ishu'a, or Joshua's Village. Amateur archaeologist
Victor Guérin visited in 1863 and in 1870 and described several ruins.
Khirbet Tibnah is described in 1882 as a
tell overlooking a deep valley (Wady Reiya) on the north and the ancient Roman road to the south. A cemetery was situated on a flat hill nearby, and to the northwest, the spring of
Ein Tibnah emerged from a rocky channel. On the southwest was an oak tree some 30 or 40 feet high, and two
wells, one of them dry. West of the tree were traces of ruins believed to be those of an Arab village.
Mandate period The village was not inhabited in the late
mandatory period. == Investigation ==