Naboth refuses King Ahab his vineyard (adapted). Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842–1942), Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
The Story of Naboth’s Vineyard and the Ancient Winery in Jezreel
What light can archaeology shed on the significance and location of the vineyard?
Published: May 23, 2017
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Last Updated: October 28, 2026
Nadav Na’aman, “Pharonic Lands in the Jezreel Valley in the Late Bronze Age. Appendix: The Ancient Name of the Jezreel Valley,” in Canaan in the Second Millennium B.C.E.: Collected Essays Volume 2 (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2005) 233–241 (239).
For a description of Shunem as having agricultural fields, see 2 Kings 4:1–44, 8:1–6.
Excavations commenced in June 2013 in four very different areas—K, M, P and S..
The first large-scale excavations at Tel Jezreel were conducted in the 1990s by David Ussishkin of Tel Aviv University and John Woodhead of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, and it focused on excavating the remains of a 9th-(more likely 8th) century-BCE military enclosure. David Ussishkin and John Woodhead “Excavations at Tel Jezreel 1990–1991: Preliminary Report,” Tel Aviv 19 (1992): 3–56; David Ussishkin and John Woodhead, “Excavations at Tel Jezreel 1992–1993: Second Preliminary Report,” Levant 26 (1994): 1–71; David Ussishkin and John Woodhead, “Excavations at Tel Jezreel 1994–1996: Third Preliminary Report,” Tel Aviv 24 (1997): 6–72. See my discussion of this complex in my “Jezreel: A Military City and the Location of Jehu’s Coup ,” TheTorah.com (2017).
Jennie Ebeling, Norma Franklin, and Ian Cipin, “Jezreel Revealed in Laser Scans: A Preliminary Report of the 2012 Survey Season,” Near Eastern Archaeology 75.4 (2012): 232–39.
Most, if not all of these pits were originally hewn ca. 10 – 9th cent. BCE and approximately 100 other examples can be found at Samaria and other hill-top sites from that period. Franklin, “Samaria,” 190–195; Franklin, “Jezreel,” 46.
James B. Pritchard, Winery, Defences, and Soundings at Gibeon (Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1964). I discuss the function of these bottle-shaped pits in detail in my forthcoming, “Exploring the Function of Bell-Shaped Pits: With a View to Iron Age Jezreel.”
The kibbutz told us this in response to inquiry about whether they had taken in any soil to analyze. They did not know about the discovery of the winery and their information about soil conditions was totally unexpected. The kibbutz planted a large olive growth in the western fields but did not attempt a vineyard in the area to the north—sadly the rich vineyard-friendly soil north of the ancient winery was not large enough for the economics of a modern-day vineyard.
Rafael Frankel, Wine and Oil Production in Antiquity in Israel and Other Mediterranean Countries (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 54.
Michal Dayagi-Mendels, Drink and Be Merry: Wine and Beer in Ancient Times(Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1999), 30.
Rafael Frankel, Wine and Oil Production, 27, 52, 56.
Ahlström “Wine Presses,” 19–21.
Gösta W. Ahlström, “Wine Presses and Cup Marks of the Jenin–Megiddo Survey,”Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 231 (1978): 19–49 (48).
Though not the case for Jezreel, some early wineries were undoubtedly altered in later periods and continued to function. See, Carey E. Walsh, The Fruit of the Vine: Viticulture in Ancient Israel (Harvard: Harvard Semitic Museum Publications, 2000), 149-150.
Norma Franklin, “Samaria: From the Bedrock to the Omride Palace,” Levant 36 (2004): 189–202 [190–94].
See discussion in Marvin A. Powell, “Wine and the Vine in Ancient Mesopotamia: the Cuneiform Evidence,” in The Origins and Ancient History of Wine (eds., Patrick E. McGovern, Stuart J. Fleming, and Solomon H. Katz; Amsterdam: Overseas Publishers Association, 1996), 97–122 [118-119]; David Stronach, in The Origins and Ancient History of Wine (eds., Patrick E. McGovern, Stuart J. Fleming, and Solomon H. Katz; Amsterdam: Overseas Publishers Association, 1996), 175-195 [175]; Albert Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium B. C. (1114–859 BC) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 292–298. This is in stark contrast with festivities that took place during the vernal equinox when palace employees also received wine, but just a modest 1 kāsu, 0.2 litres or one ordinary glass. See, Frederico Mario Fales, “A Fresh Look at the Nimrud Wine Lists,” in Drinking in Ancient Societies (ed. Lucio Milano; Padova: Sargon Srl, 1994) 361–380 (369).
The fermentation process enhances the nutritional content and preservation of food, including wine. However it was probably the antimicrobial and anti-oxidant properties present in the alcohol and polyhydroxy aromatic compounds, the latter stronger than even carbolic acid, properties essential to preserve health. (McGovern et al 1997:17). Patrick E. McGovern, Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viticulture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 17.
