The town was located in the mountainous region of
Ephraim, north of
Mount Gaash. It has been variously identified with two possible locations, Kifl Hares and Khirbet Tibnah. Both
E. Schürer and archaeologist
W. F. Albright identified Timnath-heres with
Thamna, mentioned in
Greco-Roman sources including the writings of
Josephus.
Eusebius, in his
Onomasticon, mentions the site under the entry of Gaas (Mount Gaash), a mountain in Ephraim (), "near the village of Thamna."
Conder &
Kitchener of the
Palestine Exploration Fund, steering clear of committing themselves to pinpointing the position of the biblical Timnath-heres in either Kifl Haris or Khirbet Tibnah, mention only the classical references to the place
Thamnatha /
Thamna (as in
Pliny,
Hist. Nat. v. 14 and in
The Jewish War 3.3.5), saying that this place is to be identified with the present ruin
Tibneh (marked on sheet xiv), and that "some have identified it with Timnath-heres." During the first-century CE until its destruction, Thamna served as an administrative district (toparchy).
Kifl Hares One possible location Timnath-heres has been identified with is the
Palestinian village of
Kifl Hares, located 6 kilometres west of
Salfit in the
West Bank.
Khirbet Tibnah Another candidate is
Khirbet Tibnah, located between
Deir Nidham and
Nabi Salih, east of the
Israeli town of
Shoham and near the settlement of
Halamish. ==References==