Adullam is an ancient ruin, formerly known by the Arabic appellation ʿAīd el Mâ, built upon a hilltop overlooking the Elah Valley, south of Bet Shemesh in Israel. In the late 19th century, the town was still in ruins. The hilltop ruin is also known by the name Khurbet esh-Sheikh Madkour, named after Madkour, one of the sons of the Sultan Beder, for whom is built a shrine and formerly called by its inhabitants Wely Madkour. The hilltop is mostly flat, with cisterns carved into the rock. The remains of stone structures which once stood there can still be seen. Sedimentary layers of ruins from the old Canaanite and Israelite eras, mostly potsherds, are noticeable everywhere, although olive groves now grow atop of this hill, enclosed within stone hedges. The villages of Aderet, Neve Michael/Roglit, and Aviezer are located nearby. Access to the site may be obtained by passing through the cooperative small holders' agricultural villages of Aderet or Neve Michael. The ruin lies about 3 kilometers south of Moshav Neve Michael.
History
Biblical era
The "Adullam" mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is usually thought to be identical with Tell Sheikh Madkhur, that is, the archaeological ruin referred to in this article as "Adullam." Adullam was one of the royal cities of the Canaanites referred to in the Hebrew Bible. Although listed in Joshua as being a city in the plain, it is actually partly in the hill country, partly in the plain. It stood near the highway which later became the Roman roadin the Valley of Elah, the scene of David's victory over Goliath. It was here that Judah, the son of Jacob, came when he left his father and brothers in Migdal Eder, where he befriended a certain Hirah, an Adullamite, and where he met his first wife, the daughter of Shua. It was one of the towns which Rehoboam fortified against Egypt. Micah calls it "the glory of Israel." King David sought refuge in Adullam after being expelled from the city ofGath by King Achish. I Samuel refers to the Cave of Adullam where he found protection while living as a refugee from King Saul. It was there that "every one that was in distress gathered together, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented." Certain caves, grottos and sepulchres are still to be seen on the hilltop, as well as on its northern and eastern slopes. It was in Adullam that Judas Maccabaeus retired with his fighting men, after returning from war against the Idumaeans. As late as the early 4th century CE, Adullam was described by Eusebius as being "a very large village about ten miles east of Eleutheropolis."
Ottoman era
Adullam was an inhabited village in the late 16th-century. An Ottoman tax ledger of 1596 lists `Ayn al-Mayyā in the nahiyaḪalīl, and where it is noted that it had in 1596 thirty-six Muslim heads of households. The copyist of the same tax ledger had erroneously mistaken the Arabic dal in the document for a nun, and which name has since been corrected by historical geographers Yoel Elitzur and Toledano to read A'ïd el-Miah, based on the entry's number of fiscal unit in the daftar and its corresponding place on Hütteroth's map. The Arabic name, being a corruption of Adullam, is a product of popular etymology. In the late 19th century, the hilltop ruin and its adjacent ruins were explored by French explorer, Victor Guérin, who wrote:
, at 11:20 , we descend to the east in the valley. At 11:25 , I examine other ruins, called Khirbet A'id el-Miah. Sixty toppled houses in the wadi formed a village that still existed in the Muslim period, as the remains of a mosque there observed. In antiquity, the ruins that cover the plateau of the hill of Sheikh Madkour and which extend in the valley were probably one and the same city, divided into two parts, the upper part and the lower part.
Early drawings depicting the so-called "Adullam cave" have tentatively been identified with the cavern of Umm el Tuweimin, and the cave at Khureitun, because of their immense size. Modern-day archaeologists have rejected these early hypotheses.
*Hurvat Adullam - thought to be the site of biblical Adullam, with nearby caves.
*Hurvat Itri - remains of a Jewish village from the 1st-2nd centuries CE, containing Mikvehs, a synagogue, a columbarium, and burial caves.
*Hurvat Borgyn - remains of a 2nd-century CE settlement, including fortifications, wells, burial caves, a wine press, and other agriculture oriented finds.
