Jokneam (יקנעםYQNHM) was a city “in Carmel” (Josh 12:22), and near a brook (Josh 19:11) and was a Merarite Levite city (Josh 21:34) of Zebulun in the 7th Century BC (the time of the composition of the Book of Joshua). This is all the Bible says regarding Jokneam. Seriously. So, what is the extra-biblical history of the site, then (since the Bible refuses to give us any important information)? We first start with the Topographical List of Thutmose III, which puts a city called En Qan’amu (113) between Helkath (Tell Qasis?) and Geba (32°37’N, 35° 8’11″E). It seems reasonable that the name Yokneam was formed by replacement of the “en” with a yod, a common way of formation of North Palestinian place names beginning with a yod (e. g. Yenoam). However, Tell Qeimun (renamed Tel Yokneam by the Israelis), long preserving the name of Jokneam (Eusebius mentions a village of his day just south of modern Tell Qeimun as the Kamon of Judges 10:5, he does not state the location of Jokneam), was called in the Amarna Period [x-(x)-i]G-ma-te (EA 257, pg. 254). The only conclusions can be: Jokneam had two different names before the Iron Age, En-Qan’amu/Jokneam and Tell Qeimun are different places (unlikely), and, finally, [x-(x)-i]G-ma-te/Jokneam/Qeimun and En Qan’amu are two different places. Nothing is certain at the present.
Against Jebel al-Lawz 
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