Tel Kabri: Canaanite Palace and the Oldest Wine Cellar
A Middle Bronze ruler's palace with Minoan-style frescoes and forty jars of spiced wine
Found 1986 — Aharon Kempinski (Tel Aviv University) and Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier (Heidelberg), 1986–1993; Eric H. Cline (George Washington University) and Assaf Yasur-Landau (University of Haifa), 2005–2019
Where Tel Kabri, western Upper Galilee, near Nahariya (Israel)
Dates from c. 1950–1600 BCE · Middle Bronze IIA–B · Age of the patriarchs; Canaanite city-states
Now at Finds at the University of Haifa and Israel Antiquities Authority; the palace is backfilled on Kibbutz Kabri land
How Tel Kabri: Canaanite Palace and the Oldest Wine Cellar was found
Kempinski's team found a painted plaster floor and Aegean-style fresco fragments in a large hall. Cline and Yasur-Landau's project showed the palace was far bigger than thought (over 6,000 sq m) and in 2013 opened a storeroom holding 40 large jars in place; residue analysis by Andrew Koh found tartaric acid and flavourings — honey, mint, cinnamon bark, juniper — proving they held wine. More storerooms with over 100 jars followed in 2015. Work paused after 2019.
What it is
The largest Middle Bronze palace excavated in Israel, with orthostat-lined halls, a painted floor imitating Minoan designs, and over 2,000 fragments of Aegean-style wall painting — the only Minoan-style frescoes found in the country. The 'wine cellar' was a 5 by 8 m room whose jars held about 2,000 litres.
Why it matters for the Bible
Kabri gives a concrete picture of a Canaanite royal court in the era Genesis describes for Abraham's dealings with local kings: large-scale feasting, imported luxury, wine spiced much as later Near Eastern texts prescribe. It illustrates the sophistication of the 'Canaanites' Israel later met, and shows Crete and Canaan in contact centuries before the Philistines. No biblical name attaches to it; Kempinski guessed at Rehob of Asher, but the identification is unproven.
The Hebrew word: YAH-yin
יַיִן
יַיִן is pronounced YAH-yin and means wine (Strong's H3196).
Places
- Rehob (proposed) — רְחֹב (reh-CHOV) — broad place, street
- Asher (tribal territory) — אָשֵׁר (ah-SHAYR) — happy, blessed
Events
Canaanite city-states before the conquest · Tribal allotment of Asher
Tel Kabri: Canaanite Palace and the Oldest Wine Cellar in Scripture
Genesis 49:20 'Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties' — Kabri, in Asher's later territory, was a palace of royal feasting.
Joshua 19:28 First mention of Rehob in Scripture.
Judges 1:31 Asher did not drive out the Canaanites of Rehob and its neighbours; Kabri is one candidate for that Rehob.
Questions people ask
What is Tel Kabri: Canaanite Palace and the Oldest Wine Cellar?
The largest Middle Bronze palace excavated in Israel, with orthostat-lined halls, a painted floor imitating Minoan designs, and over 2,000 fragments of Aegean-style wall painting — the only Minoan-style frescoes found in the country. The 'wine cellar' was a 5 by 8 m room whose jars held about 2,000 litres.
When was Tel Kabri: Canaanite Palace and the Oldest Wine Cellar discovered?
It was found in 1986 by Aharon Kempinski (Tel Aviv University) and Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier (Heidelberg), 1986–1993; Eric H. Cline (George Washington University) and Assaf Yasur-Landau (University of Haifa), 2005–2019, at Tel Kabri, western Upper Galilee, near Nahariya.
Where is Tel Kabri: Canaanite Palace and the Oldest Wine Cellar today?
Finds at the University of Haifa and Israel Antiquities Authority; the palace is backfilled on Kibbutz Kabri land.
Which Bible verses does Tel Kabri: Canaanite Palace and the Oldest Wine Cellar relate to?
Genesis 49:20, Joshua 19:28, Judges 1:31.
Related discoveries
- גִּבְעוֹןGibeon Winery and Inscribed Jar HandlesRock-cut wine cellars and handles stamped 'Gibeon' that fixed the city's identity
- רֹאשׁHazor: The Middle Bronze City Named at MariCanaan's largest city, already famous in Avraham's world
- חֶבְרוֹןHebron (Tel Rumeida)Cyclopean walls of the Canaanite city where Avraham settled
- לְבֵנָהTel Shimron Corbelled VaultA 3,800-year-old mudbrick passage in the Canaanite city of Shimron (2023)
- גְּרִזִיםTananir Sanctuary on Mount GerizimA Middle Bronze courtyard building above Shechem, once called 'Joshua's altar'
- שַׁעַרTel Dan Canaanite Gate ('Abraham's Gate')A mudbrick arched gateway from the age of the patriarchs
Sources
- Koh, A. J., Yasur-Landau, A. & Cline, E. H., 'Characterizing a Middle Bronze Palatial Wine Cellar from Tel Kabri, Israel', PLOS ONE 9 (2014)
- Wikipedia, 'Tel Kabri'
- Tel Kabri Archaeological Project
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