Chalcolithic The site has remains dating back to the
Chalcolithic age.
Bronze Age Tombs from the
Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Ages have been excavated here. A number of burial caves cut into chalk-like bedrock are dated to Middle Bronze Age IIA and are believed to have been reused during Late Bronze Age II. The pottery assemblage consists of vessel types from the Early, Middle and Late Bronze periods, with the later pottery finds presenting both local types and imports, such as Cypriot ‘milk bowls’ and bilbils as well as a few Mycenaean vessels.
Classical Age The site is what remains of the
biblical town of
Aphik or Aphek, which is mentioned in (as "Apheq") and (as "Aphīq"), belonging to the
Tribe of Asher. According to
Biblical history, this area was part of
Cabul and was given to
Hiram I by
Solomon as a reward for various services rendered to him in building the
First Temple. . Pottery from the
Persian,
Hellenistic, The Hospitalliers owned the water mills here for a number of years. Between 1235 and 1262 the Hospitalliers had a dispute with the
Templars about water rights. Two
aqueducts, dating from this era, have been excavated. According to
al-Maqrizi, it had come under
Mamluk rule in 1291, when it was mentioned under the name of
Kerdanah when sultan
al-Ashraf Khalil allocated the village's income to a
waqf in
Cairo. A two-story fortress still stands. A water-powered flour mill operated on the lower floor.
Ottoman era Incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517, it appeared under the name
Kufrdani in the
census of 1596, located in the
Nahiya of
Acca of the
Liwa of
Safad. The village was noted as "hali" (empty), but taxes were paid, a total of 1,800
akçe. All of the revenues went to a
waqf. The stair to the tower roof of the mill, and two more wheel-chambers in the southern part of the mill was added in the Ottoman period. In 1875
Victor Guérin visited, and noted about
Tell el-Kerdaneh: "To the north and bottom of this
tell, along the marsh, we observe the remains of an enclosure which measured 54 steps long by 40 wide, and which seems to have been that of a fortified
khan. All the walls have been removed; the inner blockage alone partly remained." About the surrounding march, and mill, he noted that it was the origin of the
Nahr Na'min, and "These springs, at their origin, are immediately abundant enough to form a considerable river and to turn the millstones of a millstone. Near this mill, we note the lower foundations of an old bridge and the remains of a tower pierced with loopholes and
ogival vaults. It had two floors, and was built with
ashlars on which many crosses were traced, and some at a height that the hand cannot reach. Therefore, these crosses could not be engraved there by passing travelers, who would have needed a ladder to place them so high, but they must go back to the time when this tower was occupied by Christians, and most likely date from the time of the Crusades. Above the front door was a mâchecoulis balcony, the trace of which is very visible." In 1881, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) found at
Kh. Khurdaneh (east of the mill) only heaps of stones. The name, Kh. Kurdâneh was taken to mean
the ruin of Kurdâneh, p.n. In 1900,
Gottlieb Schumacher found here markings on the mill which he took to be
Phoenician.
British Mandate era The area was acquired by the Jewish community under the
Sursock Purchase. In 1925 a Zionist organisation purchased 1,500
dunums in
Kordaneh, from Alfred Sursuk, of the
Sursuk family of
Beirut. At the time, there were 20 families living there. In the
1931 census of Palestine,
Mathanat Kurdani was counted under
Shefa-'Amr. ==See also==