[1] Others place Beit HaKerem south of Jerusalem, at Ramat Rachel, where cairns on the ridge may have served as beacons of old.
[3][4] Neubauer, citing the Church Father Jerome, writes that from Bethlehem one could see Bethacharma, thought to be the Beit HaKerem of Jeremiah.
Beit Hakerem was a district center during the Persian Period and is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah as one of the towns resettled by the Jewish exiles returning from the Babylonian captivity and who helped to construct the walls of Jerusalem during the reign of Artaxerxes I (Xerxes).
[8] The Mishnah, compiled in the 2nd-century CE, mentions "the valley of Beth-Kerem" being a place where there was reddish-brown earth.
[10] Archaeological finds at Ramat Rachel have yielded dozens of seal impressions on jar handles from the 4th-3rd centuries BCE bearing the inscription yehud, the official name of the province of Judah in this period.