Rumana, Israel

History

The Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine found cisterns and rock-cut caves, and traces of ancient remains at this village.

Sherds ascribed to the Early Bronze Age I and the Intermediate Bronze Age have been found, as well as a cluster of sherds from the Iron Age II (tenth–eighth centuries BCE). A building with sherds from the Iron Age II and the Persian era have also been excavated.

Graves dating to the Persian era and remains of an architectural complex from the Roman era (first–third centuries CE) have been excavated here.

It has been suggested that Rumana was Romette, a casuale belonging to the Knights Hospitallers in the Crusader era.

A small number of remains from the Mamluk era has also been found.

Ottoman era

Rumana, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596, the village was located in the nahiya of Tabariyya in the liwa of Safad. It had a population of 9 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, fruit trees, cotton, goats and beehives. Pierre Jacotin called the village Roumani on his map in 1799.

Biblical scholar Edward Robinson passed by the village in 1852, and assumed it was the ancient Rimmon of the Tribe of Zebulun. French explorer Victor Guérin described the village in the 1870s as being small, and protected from the outside by a continuous wall, and hedges of cactus. He also found many fine remains from former times and also speculates that it might be the Biblical site of Rimon, which is mentioned in the Book of Joshua. (Joshua 19:13) In Palestine Exploration Fund's 1881 Survey of Western Palestine, the village (called Rummaneh) was described as:

A small village built of stone, and containing about 70 Moslems. It is situated on a low ridge above the plain, and there are a few olive-trees around. The water supply is from cisterns and a well.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Rummaneh had a population of 37, of which 33 were Muslims and 4 Christians. The Christians were all Melkite. The population had increased sharply in the 1931 census to 197; 195 Muslim and 2 Christians, in a total of 36 houses.

In 1945 the population was 590, all Muslims while the total land area was 1,493 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 28 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 796 for cereals, while 5 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

State of Israel

In 1948 the village was captured by the Israeli army during Operation Dekel, 15–18 July. It remained under martial law until 1966.