Search for the source of “The Source”
20 February 2009This article is contributed by Jack Elliott, a Historical Archaeologist, who writes about James Michener’s famous novel - “The Source”.
Jack writes:
Rotem -
Here’s something I thought of years ago, but had no occasion to write up. However, given your website’s focus on sites of the
Holy Land, I thought that it might be of some use.
I refer to the site of Tell Makor from James Michener’s The Source with which I’m sure that you are familiar. The tell and the stories that surround it are, of course, fictional. Indeed Michener tells the reader at the beginning that “Makor, its site, its history and its excavation are wholly imaginary.” However, they have their bases in reality, and as I will argue, there is indeed a specific site around which Makor was imaginatively constructed.
The inspirations for The Source are varied. Michener related more than once that he conceived the story while on a tour of Athlit Castle on the Mediterranean south of Haifa:
“…they took me to see an old Crusader castle at Athlit. It was pretty well falling apart so they didn’t allow tourists in general in, but they took us down into the donjon and they went on around a bend and I was left there alone, pretty far underground with this superb vaulting . . . . ”
- from an online typescript by Michener - see link
And:
“As I stood in the dungeon of that ancient fortress with the shadowy forms of warriors long dead moving in the dust, I suddenly conceived my entire novel The Source. Feverishly, in a small notebook I always carry, I outlined the seventeen chapters, taking no more than minutes to do so, and they remained just as I wrote them down, and in their exact order . . . . ” (Michener quoted on pp 159-160, in Stephen James, Michener: A Writer’s Journey, University of Oklahoma Press, 2005)
The story however, focuses on an inland tell, not a castle on the Mediterranean. There are of course many tells which probably influenced Michener. Megiddo in particular has a series of temples, one of top of another, much like Makor, and also has a long water tunnel much like the one constructed by Jabaal the Hoopoe in The Source. Of note, the back of the dust jacket from the hardbound edition depicts Michener standing on top of Tell Beth Shean.
However, in terms of a specific location, Makor is certainly not at the site of any known tell. Its location is shown fairly precisely on maps in the book as located ca 10 km east of Akko on the north side of the road to Tsefat. I suspect that most would say that Michener did not have an exact site in mind — that he merely picked out an approximate location on the map to put his imaginary tell.
Har Gamal
However, as it turns out, Michener did have a very specific site in mind, one known today as Har Gamal (“Mt Camel”, named after its double-hump form). My contention is based on the fact that in the book he provides the coordinates for Makor: 17072584 (pages 1 and 7 in hardback edition. These coordinates are at 32 degrees, 55 minutes, 4 seconds North — 35 degrees, 13 minutes East), and these are not merely random, made-up numbers which would make no sense; they indeed pinpoint a site located ca 10 km east of Akko on the north side of the Akko to Tsefat road, just as Michener’s maps show, and that site is the hill known as Har-Gamal.
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Additionally, the land at these coordinates appears very similar to the land shown on the large scale maps of the site (primarily the map on page 2 entitled “Tell Makor May 1964 C.E.”; but also map on page 68, “Makor 9831 B.C.E.”). There is no kibbutz at this site as his map shows nor is there a tell per se. However, judging from the topographical maps and satellite images Har Gamal has a tell-like appearance.
A GoogleEarth image of Har Gamal that includes the surrounding areas that were depicted on michener’s map: wadi, hills, kibbutz, expedition camp, highway, etc.
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Looking on this site on the Google-Earth image you can see further similarites to Michener’s map:
- On the south side of Har Gamal is a road leading from Akko to Tsefat.
- North of the hill is a deep, wide wadi as is also on Michener’s map.
- To the north of the wadi is the beginning of the hills of the Lower Galilee; on Michener’s map this area is identified as simply “Mountain.”
- To the northwest of Har Gamal is more level land, a suitable area for Michener to place his Kibbutz Makor and its farmland.
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Cave of Pigeons - Ma’arot Yonim
Furthermore the Survey of Israel, Haifa Quadrangle (1:100,000) indicates that there are caves in the immediate vicinity called “Ma’arot Yonim,” “Caves of Pigeons,” while Michener tells us that Makor has a large cave that was occupied by the family of Ur in the year 9831 (see maps on pp 68 (”Makor 9831 B.C.E.”) and 588 (”Ma Coeur 1291 C.E.)”
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Although there are some differences in detail between Har Gamal and Tell Makor, it seems extremely improbable that Michener would have accidentally provided the coordinates for what turns out to be a landscape that is so similar to Makor. I believe that the conclusion is almost inescapable that he modeled Makor and its environs on this site.
While writing The Source, Michener lived in the Dan Carmel Hotel in Haifa for months. More than one time he must have stopped his car alongside the highway beside Har Gamal and in his mind’s eye saw the imaginary tell, kibbutz, and archaeological expedition, and saw the family of Ur erecting the monolith on top of the mound, and saw the city Makor growing up around it. He would have roughly sketched the terrain and used these sketches for his cartographer Jean Paul Tremblay to draft the maps used in the book (Tremblay was cartographer for many of Michener’s novels).
El Makr
I might add one additional note. About halfway between Akko and Har Gamal there is an Arab village named El Makr (as seen in the first photo above). While I realize that the Arabic name (and its Hebrew transcription) is written with a kaff (k) while Makor is actually written with a Qof (q) — so it should be transcribed as Maqor — yet there is enough similarity that Michener might have picked up on this village name, noted its similarity to the word for “source,” and transferred the name over to Har Gamal. This would not be as certain as my identification of the the real site with the fictional site, yet worthy of consideration.
Jack Elliott
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Read the whole article [pdf].
Read more about Har-Gamal.
Read more about Pigeons caves.
To purchase this book - visit our bookstore.
Read more about what is a Tell.
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