A Boundary Stone from Kafr NafaḤ and the Preservation of Ancient Place Names in the Northern and Central Golan Heights

A Roman imperial boundary stone, erected under Diocletian in c. 300 CE, was reused as a covering stone of a fourth-century CE grave. It bears the Greek names of the villages Ramathana and Kapharnapha, identified as the late Ottoman villages Ramtaniyye and Kafr Nafaḥ. This is the first instance where ancient names were preserved by the modern ones in the central Golan Heights, overturning previous assumptions in this regard. Archaeological evidence from both sites confirms their existence in the Roman and Byzantine periods. It seems that the preservation of the name of Kafr Nafaḥ is due to its location along an important road. Although the original location of the stone remains unknown, its findspot suggests that the boundary between the two villages was near Kafr Nafaḥ.