Talk:Aqir

Thompson book, Aqir, Ekron
Hi, the book of Thompson is not 2003 but a facsimile of an old book first published in 1880. The identification of Aqir and Ekron was meanwhile disproven. Aqir is quite some distance from the correct location at Tel Mikron. Zerotalk 11:28, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
 * OK, although its Tel Mikne or ancient Ekron. Can you give me a source for the disproven theory?--Sreifa (talk) 11:54, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Aqir and Tel Mikne are almost 10km distant, so "nearby" is not a valid description. I'm making a map.  One thing I didn't determine yet is when the identification of Ekron and Tel Mikne was established. I'll be back... Zerotalk 05:37, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
 * You're right that the Aqir and the Tel are not at the same spot. Tels are often not resettled. Aqir is actually today's Kiryat Ekron (if I'm not mistaken), whose name is also taken from... you guessed it! but it would seem that residents of the region preserved the name from some kind of memory, unless you know of a different source for the name. (I'm not knocking the possibility, but the Aqir-Ekron thesis sounds solid to me.)--Sreifa (talk) 05:45, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
 * See File:Ekron1939.jpg. Yes, Aqir became Kiryat Ekron, which article confounds the issue by saying that Ekron was "presumably where now stands the modern town Gedera".  The nearby 1880s colony called Ekron was renamed Mazkeret Batya sometime during the Mandate period (though that article doesn't mention the original name).  It does appear that the identification of Ekron and Tel Mikne is now accepted by the experts, so some cleanup is required.  The "Aqir-Ekron thesis" was a conjecture made at a time in the past when Aqir was incorrectly identified as Ekron, so it no longer exists.  You either need to find a modern revival of it, or you need to make a case that this obsolete conjecture deserves mention in the article.  Zerotalk 06:44, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
 * ok, I was changing the Kiryat Ekron page as you wrote. The source of the changes is from the Hebrew page. Alot of Hebrew sources still support the "Aqir-Ekron thesis", I'll see if I can find something in English. --Sreifa (talk) 06:57, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, the Hebrew wiki says that Baron R. changed the name to Mazkeret Batya but the residents continued to use the old name. Is that right? Also, the name in official documents of the mandate period such as the two censuses is Eqron (see Talk:Mazkeret Batya). The British had no reason to adopt a name different from what was in use, so it must have been that at the beginning of the mandate period Eqron was the name preferred by the residents. I also see only Ekron being used by some Zionist sources, such as "Zionist Work in Palestine" by Israel Cohen, published by the Zionist Central Office in 1911. (Perhaps it represents coolness towards Rothschild?) Maybe we can't figure out the full story, but we should mention that use of the name Ekron/Eqron persisted even past the end of the mandate (at least until 1950), should we not? Zerotalk 08:01, 29 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Mazkeret Batya residents did continue to use Ekron, and I've heard some old timers use it even today, but then they clarify if they mean Mazkeret Batya or Kiryat Ekron (depends on their experiences). On the other hand, on the map that you uploaded it's MB.
 * Eqron / Ekron is very similar in Semitic languages. In English it's a matter of transliteration because there's no difference between K and Q (without the U); the Hebrew letter kuf (Arabic qaf) makes a "k" sound (would you pronounce the two spellings differently?) so it's hard to say what was used by the residents. I spelled with a "k" because of the existing page (Ekron), not to complicate things further. From what little I know of transliteration conventions, the attitude today is to keep it simple. --Sreifa (talk) 08:50, 29 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I see Ekron and Eqron as being the same word. Zerotalk 09:17, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Mistake in palestinerememered.com
The description according to Khalidi, 1992, here...is for the wrong village! That description is actually the one given for Abu al-Fadl, Ramla. Cheers, Huldra (talk) 01:57, 23 February 2011 (UTC)