Rujm el-Hiri

The name Rujm el-Hiri, "stone heap of the wildcat", was originally taken from Syrian maps.

MusA>Mizrachi et al. (1996). "Report of the 1988–1991 Exploration...", pp. 167–195. The term rujm in Arabic (pl. rujum; Hebrew: rogem) can also refer to a tumulus, a heap of stones underneath which human burial space was located. The name is sometimes romanized as Rujm Hiri or Rujum al-Hiri.

Rogem Hiri is a Modern Hebrew phonetic adaptation of the Arabic name Rujm el-Hiri. A modern Hebrew name used for the site is Gilgal Refaʾim, "Wheel of Spirits" or "Wheel of Ghosts", as refa'im means "ghosts" or "spirits".{{cite web |title=Rogem Hiri – Ancient Mysterious Construction |publisher=Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs |access-date=24 August 2009 |url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/israelexperience/history/pages/rogem%20hiri%20-%20ancient-%20mysterious%20construction.aspx |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304204852/http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/israelexperience/history/pages/rogem%20hiri%20-%20ancient-%20mysterious%20construction.aspx |archive-date=4 March 2016}}{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/in-the-wildcat-s-pile-of-stones-1.11251 |title=In the wildcat's pile of stones |newspaper=Ha'aretz |access-date=24 August 2009 |archive-date=26 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226131234/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/leisure/in-the-wildcat-s-pile-of-stones-1.11251 |url-status= live}}

File:Rujm el Hiri View Top.jpg

The site's size and location, on a wide plateau which is also scattered with hundreds of dolmens, means that an aerial perspective is necessary to see the complete layout. The site was made from Basalt rocks, common in the Golan Heights due to the region's history of volcanic activity. It is made from 37,500–40,000 tons of partly worked stone stacked up to {{convert|2|m|ft|sp=us}} high.{{cite book |first=Anthony F. |last=Aveni |title=Skywatchers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDBu_x6vlZ4C&pg=PA323 |access-date=30 March 2011 |year=2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-70502-9 |pages= 323–324}} M. Freikman estimates that the massive monument would have required more than 25,000 working days to build.{{cite journal |last=Freikman |first=M. |title=A Near Eastern megalithic monument in context |journal=Journal for Ancient Studies |year=2012 |issue=3 |pages=143–147 |url=http://journal.topoi.org/index.php/etopoi/article/download/99/129 |access-date=12 April 2013 |archive-date=25 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025115540/http://journal.topoi.org/index.php/etopoi/article/download/99/129 |url-status= dead}}

The remains consist of a large circle (slightly oval) of basalt rocks containing four smaller concentric circles, each getting progressively thinner; some are complete, others incomplete.{{cite book |first=Clive L.N. |last=Ruggles |title=Ancient Astronomy: An encyclopedia of cosmologies and myth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9YYqiXm-lkC&pg=PA366 |access-date=29 March 2011 |year=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-477-6 |pages= 366–368}} The walls of the circles are connected by irregularly placed smaller stone walls perpendicular to the circles.

The central tumulus is built from smaller rocks and is thought to have been constructed after the surrounding walls. Connecting to it are four main stone walls. The first wall, shaped like a semicircle, is 50 m in diameter and 1.5 m wide. That wall is connected to a second one, an almost complete circle 90 m in diameter. The third wall is a full circle, 110 m in diameter and 2.6 m wide. The fourth and outermost wall is the largest: 150 m in diameter and 3.2 m wide.

A central tumulus {{convert|65|ft|m}} in diameter and {{convert|15|ft|m}} high is surrounded by concentric circles, the outermost of which is {{convert|520|ft|m}} in diameter and {{convert|8|ft|m}} high. Two entrances to the site face the northeast ({{convert|29|m|ft|sp=us}} wide) and southeast ({{convert|26|m|ft|sp=us}} wide). The northeast entrance leads to an accessway {{convert|20|ft|m}} long leading to the center of the circle which seems to point in the general direction of the June solstice sunrise. The axis of the tomb discovered at the site's center is similarly aligned.

The site was cataloged during an archaeological survey carried out in 1967–1968 by Shmarya Guttman and Claire Epstein. The surveyors used Syrian maps, and a Syrian triangulation post was found on top of its cairn. After this initial study, serious archaeological excavations commenced in the 1980s under Israeli professors Moshe Kochavi and Yoni Mizrachi, as part of the Land of Geshur Archaeological Project.{{cite journal |last1=Kochavi |first1=Moshe |last2=Renner |first2=Timothy |last3=Spar |first3=Ira |last4=Yadlin |first4=Esther |title=Rediscovered! The Land of Geshur |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |date=July–August 1992 |volume=18 |issue=4 |url=http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Rediscovered!_The_Land_of_Geshur,_Moshe_Kochavi,_Timothy_Renner,_Ira_Spar_and_Esther_Yadin,_BAR_18:04,_Jul/Aug_1992. |access-date=6 April 2013 |archive-date=12 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200312061152/http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Rediscovered%21_The_Land_of_Geshur,_Moshe_Kochavi,_Timothy_Renner,_Ira_Spar_and_Esther_Yadin,_BAR_18,_Jul/Aug_1992 |url-status= dead}}{{cite news |last=Rosenberg |first=Stephen Gabriel |title=The wheel of giants |url=http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/The-wheel-of-giants |access-date=6 April 2013 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=12 March 2009 |archive-date=20 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220090057/https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/The-wheel-of-giants |url-status= live}}

In 2007, the site was excavated by Yosef Garfinkel and Michael Freikman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Freikman returned in the summer of 2010 for further investigation of the site's date and function.{{Cite web |url=http://digs.bib-arch.org/digs/rujm-el-hiri.asp |title=Rujm el Hiri, Israel – Find a dig |access-date=29 March 2011 |archive-date=1 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201043508/http://digs.bib-arch.org/digs/rujm-el-hiri.asp |url-status= dead}}

Freikman believes that the tomb in the center was built at the same time as the rings. Tomb robbers looted the remains, which included jewelry and weapons, but based on the discovery of one Chalcolithic pin dropped in a passageway, Freikman's theory is that the tomb was the centerpiece of the rings.Brit-Am [British-American] Megalithic Bulletin Update No. 14 ([http://www.britam.org/megaliths/MT14.html BAMBU-14] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182421/http://www.britam.org/megaliths/MT14.html |date=3 March 2016}})

Any astronomical use of the site has been refuted by a study published in November 2024.[https://www.timesofisrael.com/study-shows-ancient-golan-stone-circle-was-not-an-astronomical-observatory-after-all/ Mystery unsolved: Ancient Golan stone circle not an astronomical observatory after all], Gavriel Fiske for Times of Israel, posted and retrieved 2 January 2025. By disproving any alignment of the structure with important astronomical phenomena such as sun solstices and equinoxes at the time of its construction, this study excludes previous interpretations based on such hypotheses.

The site is probably the source of the legends about "a remnant of the giants" or Rephaim of Og.{{cite web |website=wise-obs.tau.ac.il |url=http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/judaism/jewish_astro.html |title=Astronomy in Israel: From Og's Circle to the Wise Observatory |author-link=Yuval Ne'eman |first=Yuval |last=Ne'eman |publisher=Tel Aviv University |access-date=6 April 2011 |archive-date=29 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170529080409/http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/judaism/jewish_astro.html |url-status= live}}

Ruggles and others wrote that what appeared to them to have been an astronomy-based place of worship (see next paragraph), has later become a burial site for leaders or other important individuals. Supporting this theory was the tomb in the dolmen. However, no human remains were found, only objects pointing to its function as a tomb. They considered at the time that, even if it were a tomb, that was not the site's original function, as they were dating the tomb as being 1,000 years newer than the other structures at the site.

Archaeologist Rami Arav suggests the site was used like the excarnation structures or dakhmas of the Zoroastrians, in which dead persons were laid out for birds to remove the flesh from their bones.

Before the publication of the 2024 study, which refuted any astronomical use of the site (see introduction of this section), several interpretations of Rujm el-Hiri's purpose were based on a presumed alignment of the structure with the sun solstice and equinox.

According to one hypothesis, the site was used for special ceremonies during the longest and shortest days of the year (sun solstices). Until the 2024 study, it was thought that in the year 3000 BCE, on the longest day, the first rays of the sun shone through the opening in the north-east gate, which is 20 by 29 meters. However, they did not shine in a perfect angle. It was assumed this is because the builders did not have sufficiently accurate architectural tools. This interpretation suggests that the residents probably used the site to worship Tammuz and Ishtar, the gods of fertility, to thank them for the good harvest during the year. It was further presumed that after the erection of the tomb in the center, the rays' path was blocked.

Some believe the site was used as an ancient calendar. At the times of the two equinoxes, the sun's rays would pass between two rocks, 2 m in height, 5 m in width, at the eastern edge of the compound. According to an older interpretation presented by Anthony Aveni and Yonatan Mizrachi, the entrance to the center opens on sunrise of the summer solstice. Other notches in the walls indicate the spring and fall equinoxes.{{cite web |last=Hirst |first=K. Kris |title=Ancient astronomy at Rujm el-Hiri: Star watching in ancient Israel |website=About.com Guide |url=http://archaeology.about.com/od/archaeoastronomy/a/rujmelhiri.htm |access-date=29 March 2011 |archive-date=5 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205191144/http://archaeology.about.com/od/archaeoastronomy/a/rujmelhiri.htm |url-status= dead}}

There are also suggestions that the site was used for astronomical observations of the constellations, probably for religious calculations. Researchers found the site was built with dimensions and scales common for other period structures, and partly based on the stars' positions.

The Golan Trail, a marked 130-kilometer walking trail that stretches along the whole length of the Golan Heights, passes Gilgal Refa'im.{{Cite web |url=http://www.walkinisrael.com/tours/GolanTrail.php |title=Hiking tour: The Golan Trail |access-date=29 March 2011 |archive-date=5 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705062823/http://www.walkinisrael.com/tours/GolanTrail.php |url-status= dead}}

{{Wide image|Gilgal Refa'im panorama.jpg|1200px|Rujm el-Hiri viewed from ground level}}

New Age movements advocating a return to nature gather at the site on the June solstice and on the equinoxes to view the first rays of the sun shine through the rocks. {{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

• Anak
• Atlit Yam, which contains a semi-circle of megaliths, today submerged, with a 6700~6270 BCE destruction date.
• Carahunge
• Levantine archaeology

{{Reflist|25em}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book |title=Skywatchers |first1=Anthony F. |author-link=Anthony Aveni |last1=Aveni |edition=2nd, revised, illustrated |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-292-70502-9}}
• {{cite journal |title=The geometry and astronomy of Rujm el-Hiri, a megalithic site in the southern Levant |last1=Aveni |first1=Anthony |last2=Mizrachi |first2=Yonathan |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |volume=25 |issue=4 |year=1998 |pages=475–496(22) |doi=10.1179/009346998792005261}}
• Israel Exploration Journal 46 (3–4), 1996, Israel Exploration Society.
• Mizrachi, Yonathan; Zohar, Mattanyah; Kochavi, Moshe; Murphy, Vincent; Lev-Yadun, Simcha (1996). “Report of the 1988–1991 Exploration Efforts at Rogem Hiri, Golan Heights”. pp. 167–195.
• Simcha, Lev-Yadun; Mizrachi, Yonathan; Kochavi, Moshe (1996). “Lichenometric Studies of Cultural Formation Processes at Rogem Hiri, Golan Heights”. pp. 196–207.
• {{cite book |title=The Holy Land: An Oxford archaeological guide from earliest times to 1700 |first=Jerome |last=Murphy-O'Connor |edition=5th, illustrated |publisher=Oxford University Press US |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-923666-4}}
• {{cite book |title=Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land |first1=Avraham |last1=Negev |last2=Gibson |first2=Shimon |edition=4th, revised, illustrated |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8264-8571-7}}
• {{cite book |title=Ancient Astronomy: An encyclopedia of cosmologies and myth |first=Clive L. N. |last=Ruggles |edition=Illustrated |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-85109-477-6}}

{{Refend}}

• Publications by, or with contributions by, Prof. Yonathan Mizrachi:
• Mizrachi, Yonathan. 1992. "Rujm el-Hiri: Toward an understanding of a Bronze Age megalithic monument in the Levant". Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. June 1992. 350 pages including color plates and charts. Published in English.
• Aveni, Anthony and Yonathan Mizrachi. 1998. “The Geometry and the Astronomy of Rujm el-Hiri, a Megalithic site in the Southern Levant”. Journal of Field Archaeology 25(4)
• Mizrachi, Yonathan. (1992). “Bronze Age Circles on the Golan Heights”. National Geographic. December, Vol. 182, Number 6. In section Geographica (no page numbers).
• Mizrachi, Yonathan. (1992). “Mystery Circles on the Golan”. Biblical Archaeology Review. July/August, Vol. 18, No. 4, 46–57.
• Mizrachi, Yonathan. 1996. “Rujm el-Hiri”. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. New York: Oxford University Press. Invited Entry.
• Mizrachi, Yonathan and Mattanyah Zohar. 1993. “Rogem Hiri (Rujm el-Hiri)”. The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holly Land, Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society and Carta Publishers Inc.
• {{cite journal |last=Kochavi |first=M. |title=The Land of Geshur Project: Regional Archaeology of Southern Golan (1987–1988) |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |year=1989 |issue=39 |pages=1–9}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Freikman |first1=M. |last2=Porat |first2=N. |title=Rujm el-Hiri: The Monument in the Landscape |journal=Tel Aviv |year=2017 |volume=44 |issue=44, 1 |pages=14–39 |doi=10.1080/03344355.2017.1280973 |s2cid=135086511}}

{{Commons}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180217082839/https://www.highbeam.com/Search?searchTerm=author%3a%22Gooley%2c+Tristan%22&orderBy=Date+DESC Following Nature's Signpoints, Geographical magazine]
• [http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/The-wheel-of-giants The wheel of giants, Jerusalem post]
• [http://jqjacobs.net/archaeo/sites/rujem.kmz GoogleEarth placemark of Rujem el-Hiri Monument]
• [https://map.openaerialmap.org/#/35.80097794532776,32.90856830899735,18/square/12211223013301032123?resolution=high&_k=vvskvu Aerial image] of the site taken by a drone (by Weizmann Institute Ecophysiology Group; 10 November 2018)
• {{Citation |title=Video by Kan 11 (Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation) |date=17 June 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P25SuBuTPDY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/P25SuBuTPDY |archive-date=19 December 2021 |url-status=live |language=he, en |access-date=18 September 2021}}{{cbignore}}

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Category:Chalcolithic

Category:Geoglyphs

Category:Former populated places in the Golan Heights

Category:Megalithic monuments

Category:Megalithic monuments in the Middle East

Category:Prehistoric sites on the Golan Heights

Category:Burial monuments and structures

Category:Stone circles in Asia