A Toponymic Reassessment of the Abil al-Qamḥ Diocletianic Boundary Stone: Identifying Golgol at al-Zūq al-Fauqānī

A recent study by Ecker and Leibner in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly examined a Late Roman boundary stone discovered at Abil al-Qamḥ (biblical Abel Beth Maacah), contextualizing the inscription within the Diocletianic tax reforms. This article presents a revised identification of Golgol, one of two toponyms mentioned in the inscription, and places it at al-Zūq al-Fauqānī, approximately 1.5 km southeast of Abil al-Qamḥ. Drawing on British Mandate cadastral maps, this study focuses on the Arabic micro-toponym Juneijil (Jnējəl), situated near al-Zūq al-Fauqānī, which preserved the toponym Golgol. This identification offers a more plausible linguistic and geographical correlation with the boundary stone inscription and underscores the need for a broader reassessment of site identifications in the Diocletianic boundary stone corpus.