byzantine period Archives - Biblical Archaeology Society

The Nun of the Rings

Nathan Steinmeyer — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:00:47 +0000

Excavator uncovering a mosaic at the Byzantine monastery. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

Editor’s Note: This blog article contains images of human skeletal remains.

Excavations near Jerusalem’s Old City have revealed the first known archaeological example of a nun participating in extreme asceticism. Primarily known through written records, this Christian practice involved abstaining from pleasure to the point of self-affliction. Although historical sources indicate that this was a predominantly male act undertaken by monks, the new archaeological discovery, and a few notable historical examples, show that it could also be performed by nuns.

Nuns and Byzantine Asceticism in Jerusalem

While excavating a Byzantine monastery, archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered a grave under the church altar. Inside the grave, they discovered a poorly preserved skeleton, bound with nearly 30 iron rings around its arms, neck, and legs. These rings were then attached to plates on the abdomen that gave the whole skeleton the look of wearing armor. However, this was not a form of torture, but rather a type of self-affliction meant to restrict worldly pleasures. Such acts, known as extreme asceticism, were an unusual way in which some monastics would seek to reject their earthly existence and bring their souls closer to God.

Grave of the Nun of the Rings. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

After performing tests on the enamel of the skeleton’s teeth, the archaeologists were surprised to discover the individual was a woman. This makes the woman, dubbed the “Nun of the Rings,” the only known archaeological example of such a practice being performed by a woman, and one of only a handful of examples of the rare practice known anywhere.

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“The nun is an expression of a phenomenon that was widespread among Byzantine monks in antiquity, which was accompanied by excessive extremism,” said Zubair ʼAdawi and Kfir Arbiv, directors of the excavation. “The monks forced destructive acts and self-harm onto the body. Among the described forms of affliction were prolonged fasts; wrapping iron chains and various accessories around the body; tying the body to rocks; loading on heavy weights; tying the body and placing it in a device which forced it to stand and to deny sleep; self-imprisonment and contraction into a narrow and isolated living space—inside abandoned towers, caves or cells; in hanging cages; on the tops of pillars or even living in the treetops. In some cases, the monks threw themselves into a fire or in front of animals of prey.”

Close up of the nuns neck and arm rings. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

Extreme asceticism, especially wrapping the body in chains, is thought to have originated around modern Turkey and Syria before it spread to the rest of the Middle East and then to Europe. The excavators suggest the Nun of the Rings was likely either a nun who came to Jerusalem from Syria, or a local nun who adopted the custom after seeing travelers to the city. A similar individual, though a man, was previously discovered at the Mar Elias monastery between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

This article was first published in Bible History Daily on March 14, 2025.

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An American Monk in Sinai

Moses and the Monks of Nebo

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Where Was Moses Buried?

Marek Dospěl — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 12:00:21 +0000

Where was Moses buried? We don’t know exactly. Nor did the biblical writers: “Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command. He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day” (Deuteronomy 34:5–6).

The monastic complex atop Mount Nebo grew in the fourth–sixth centuries around where Moses was buried according to the Bible. From Davide Bianchi, A Shrine to Moses (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2021), p. 174; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

This uncertainty, however, did not discourage early Christians, who determined that Moses died and was buried on Mt. Nebo, in what is today central Jordan. Known locally by its Arabic name, Siyagha, Mt. Nebo began attracting Christian worshipers in the early fourth century, when Christianity was acknowledged in the Roman Empire as a lawful religion. Its connection to Moses and the Exodus narrative brought in Christian monks, who wanted to live and pray near where Moses was buried, as well as pilgrims, who wished to commemorate the prophet and contemplate God’s promises to his people.

The monastic network of Mt. Nebo included other Christian sites, such as ‘Uyun Musa, Khirbat al-Mukhayyat, Ma‘in, and Madaba. Biblical Archaeology Society.

In her article “Moses and the Monks of Nebo,” published in the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Debra Foran outlines the early history of Christian pilgrimage to and around Mt. Nebo and describes some of the central monuments in the region. “A network of monastic communities extended from [Mt. Nebo] to the east as far as the desert fringes and to the south until the Wadi Mujib (the biblical Arnon River). This development was likely connected to the growing monastic movement across the southern Levant during the Byzantine period, exemplified by the Judean Desert monasteries near Jerusalem.”

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Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Foran also delves into related questions of how the monks of Mt. Nebo interacted with the local population. “Interwoven into this monastic landscape was an active and prosperous lay population that catered to its ascetic neighbors. The rural population also served the many pilgrims traveling through the region.”

One of the earliest Western pilgrims to the Holy Land was a noble woman named Egeria (or Etheria), who in the 380s visited the alleged place where Moses was buried. In her Latin itinerary, she wrote:

So we arrived at the summit of that mountain, where there is now a church of no great size on the very top of Mount Nabau. Inside the church, in the place where the pulpit is, I saw a place a little raised, containing about as much space as tombs usually do. I asked those holy men [i.e., monks] what this was, and they answered: “Here was holy Moses laid by the angels, for, as it is written, no one knows his burial place, and because it is certain that he was buried by the angels. His tomb, indeed, where he was laid, is not shown to this day; but as it was shown to us by our ancestors who dwelt here, so do we show it to you, and our ancestors said that this tradition was handed down to them by their own ancestors (XII, 1–2).

Northern baptistery of the Mt. Nebo Byzantine basilica features a baptismal font (front) and elaborate mosaics dating to c. 530 C.E. Photo by flowcomm, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The small church that Egeria visited was rebuilt and expanded in the fifth century to include several side chapels and a baptistery (see photo), all of which were decorated with intricate mosaics or paved with marble tiles arranged in geometric patterns. This Byzantine basilica was recently excavated, and a new church (termed the Memorial Church of Moses) was built over it to protect the archaeological remains and provide visitors with the visual experience of the sixth-century church. During the restorations in 2013, an empty tomb was discovered in the center of the nave of the basilica. Foran writes:

Located at the highest point of the mountain, this tomb initially may have been part of an earlier shrine dedicated to Moses that was later incorporated into the basilica and sealed under its floor. The monastic community of Mt. Nebo possibly regarded this tomb as a burial monument dedicated to Moses, and it could have been the one that Egeria and her fellow pilgrims saw in the fourth century.

Where was Moses buried? This empty tomb in the center of the basilica on Mt. Nebo is likely the traditional site of Moses’s burial, around which the first monks settled. From Davide Bianchi, A Shrine to Moses (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2021), p. 64; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

Several other monastic sites around the alleged burial site of Moses at Mt. Nebo flourished during the Byzantine period (fourth–seventh centuries). Among them were ‘Uyun Musa (the Springs of Moses)—a perennial spring in the valley to the northeast of Mt. Nebo that also offered caves for Christian hermits (see photo). There is also Khirbat al-Mukhayyat, which is a hill about 2 miles southeast of Mt. Nebo that has at least three churches dating from the sixth and seventh centuries. This site is the focus of current explorations within the Town of Nebo Archaeological Project, directed by Foran.

Caves at ‘Uyun Musa (2 mi. northeast of Mt. Nebo) provided shelter to the Christian monks who came to live and pray near where Moses was buried. From Davide Bianchi, A Shrine to Moses (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2021), p. 166; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.

To further explore the Christian monuments of Mt. Nebo, read Debra Foran’s article “Moses and the Monks of Nebo,” published in the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Moses and the Monks of Nebo,” by Debra Foran, in the Summer 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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This article was first published in Bible History Daily on July 20, 2022

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Ships in the Desert

Nathan Steinmeyer — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:00:36 +0000

Carving of a ship discovered in the Byzantine church in Rahat. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

While carrying out salvage excavations in the city of Rahat in the northern Negev desert, archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) came across something unexpected: depictions of boats carved into the walls of a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church. The IAA believes the carvings shed important light on Christian pilgrimage routes in the sixth century CE.

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Pilgrimage through the Desert

Found alongside an ancient Roman road through the Negev, however, the nautical graffiti are perhaps less surprising than they first appear. Being only half a day’s walk from the Mediterranean port of Gaza, the church where the carvings were discovered would have likely been one of the first stops for many pilgrims to the Holy Land. Disembarking their ships at Gaza, Christian pilgrims would have made their way inland along the Roman road, heading towards Beer Sheva, the Negev’s main city. From there, the pilgrims would have reached the Negev’s many monasteries but also more northerly routes to the holy sites of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

“This is a greeting from Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to Gaza port,” said excavation directors Oren Shmueli, Elena Kogan-Zehavi, and Noé David Michael in a press release. “Apparently, it is a true graphical depiction of real ships in which the pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land.” Pilgrim graffiti at churches and other holy sites are fairly common in the Byzantine period, with carvings of crosses even found on the early walls of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The remains of the church discovered in Rahat. Courtesy Assaf Peretz, IAA.

According to Deborah Cvikel of the University of Haifa’s Department of Maritime Civilizations, “One of the ships drawn on the church walls is depicted as a line drawing, but it may be discerned that its bow is slightly pointed and that there are oars on both sides of the vessel. This may be an aerial depiction of the ship, though it seems the artist was attempting a three-dimensional drawing. It may be that the lines below it portray the path beaten by the oars through the water. Another drawing depicts what is apparently a two-masted ship. The main mast has no sail but seems to show a small flag in its upper section. The foremast is slightly raked towards the bow and bears a sail known as an artemon. The exacting detail indicates the artist’s familiarity with maritime life.”

Ship carved into a stone in the Rahat church. Courtesy Yoli Schwartz, IAA.

The salvage excavations, which have resulted from Rahat’s rapid expansion in recent years, have already provided numerous discoveries from the end of the Byzantine period and the beginning of the early Islamic period (c. 634–1099 CE), including a Byzantine farmstead, a luxurious early Islamic estate, and a small mosque.

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A Byzantine Church on the Temple Mount?

Nathan Steinmeyer — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 11:00:26 +0000

The glass weight from the Temple Mount.
Courtesy TMSP, Zev Radovan/Razia Richman.

Workers at the Temple Mount Sifting Project (TMSP) have uncovered two unique weights that hint at the existence of a Byzantine church on the Temple Mount before the early Islamic period (c. 634–1099 CE). Publishing their findings in the journal Israel Numismatic Research, the team suggests the unique finds were official weights of the sort that were kept in major churches according to Byzantine law.

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Weighing a Byzantine Church

Both weights discovered during sifting were rare four keratia denominations, each weighing just 0.02 ounces, with one made of purple glass and the other of brass. These types of weights were used in the Byzantine period (c. 324–634 CE) to measure gold coins and coin fragments during transactions. In this period, the law required each city to keep an official set of weights in the most holy church of the city. According to the TMSP, it is likely that these weights belonged to such a set of official weights.

Given that the weights and a range of other impressive Byzantine-period finds have come from the area of the ancient Temple Mount, the team believes there was very likely a Byzantine church built there in antiquity. This counters the generally held view that the Temple Mount was largely abandoned at that time.

Around 0.7 inches in diameter, the glass weight was made by impressing a small glob of molten glass with a stamp. The impression depicts a haloed imperial bust above a cross-shaped monogram flanked by two smaller busts, along with a Greek inscription reading “of Euthalios.” According to the team, Euthalios was likely a high-ranking Byzantine official who had the weight manufactured. The weight was probably made in the sixth or seventh century, at an official workshop in the capital of Constantinople.

The Brass Weight.
Courtesy TMSP, Zev Radovan/Razia Richman.

The second weight, made of brass with a silver inlay, is about 0.5 inches wide and nearly square. The inlay of the weight consists of the Greek letters kappa delta. The first letter is the abbreviation for keratia, and the second letter stands for the number four, thus clearly showing that it was a four keratia weight. Like the glass weight, the brass one is well made and was likely part of a larger official set.

During the Byzantine period, the primary gold coin used was the solidus, first minted under Constantine the Great in 309. This coin equaled 24 keratia, with eight keratia typically being the lowest accepted denomination. However, due to inflation towards the end of the Byzantine period, it became normal to cut coins into ever smaller parts, thus necessitating the use of smaller weights.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project works to sift debris that was dumped in the Kidron Valley following a construction project on the Temple Mount (Noble Sanctuary) in 1999. As all sifted debris comes from unstratified contexts, it is largely impossible to establish the archaeological context for the finds. If the team’s conclusions are correct, however, it could be yet more evidence for the existence of a church built on the site of the ancient Temple Mount during the Byzantine period.

This article first appeared in Bible History Daily February 2024.

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Reconstructing an Early Christian Cathedral in the Galilee

Nathan Steinmeyer — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:30:29 +0000

An artistic rendering of the early Christian cathedral at Hippos-Sussita. Courtesy Yannis Nakas, Hippos Expedition.

Did this cathedral in the Galilee play an exceptionally large role in the daily practice of baptisms during the Byzantine period (c. 324–634 CE)? According to excavators Arleta Kowalewska and Michael Eisenberg from the University of Haifa, it likely did.

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Baptism at Hippos-Sussita

Within the archaeological site of Hippos-Sussita, near the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, sits the ruins of a once large and magnificent cathedral. With inner dimensions of 92 by 59 feet, the church—one of seven built in the city—was certainly the largest in the area. However, archaeological reconstructions of the cathedral suggest that it was important not only for its size but also its function as a key site for local baptismal rituals.

The ruins of the cathedral at the end of excavations in 2022. Courtesy Michael Eisenberg.

Although it was in use at the same time as the other churches in Hippos, the cathedral had something the other churches did not. While other early churches contained baptismal fonts or small chapels, the cathedral boasted a large photisterion, a specific hall dedicated for baptismal rites. The hall alone measured nearly 60 by 40 feet. In addition to the photisterion, the team also uncovered a smaller baptismal chapel in the cathedral’s southern wing. This small chapel featured a marble chancel screen and a small baptismal font that may have been used for children. They also discovered a large marble block, with three rounded indentations that could have been used to hold oil during baptismal ceremonies.

A marble vessel possibly used for holding holy oil. Courtesy Michael Eisenberg.

What does all this mean for the practice of baptism in the Galilee? According to the team, the cathedral likely played a very important role, perhaps performing the majority of adult baptisms in the entire region. While small baptismal fonts—like that found in the cathedral’s southern wing—were likely used for children, the exceptionally large photisterion was almost certainly utilized for the adult baptism. As such, it may have been the main site of conversions in the area, and the place where new believers received the sacrament. Indeed, the bishopric commanded by the Hippos-Sussita cathedral possibly extended across much of the eastern shore of the Galilee and into sections of the southern Golan as well. After all, Hippos-Sussita was the largest Christian city in the region, having been one of the ten cities of the Decapolis.

The Cathedral of Hippos-Sussita

Excavations have revealed much more than just the baptismal area. While many of the churches in the city were beautiful structures, the cathedral is by far the most exquisite. Decked out with a red-and-white marble checkerboard floor and brightly plastered walls, the main prayer hall’s two-story space would have been a sight to behold. Along the nave were two rows of pristine granite columns, topped with ornately decorated marble capitals. These columns, tinted with pink and green, would have added even more color to the cathedral. In all, there are 18 columns that each stand over 15 feet tall and weigh nearly 4 tons.

The early Christian cathedral’s red and white tiled floor. Courtesy Michael Eisenberg.

“To our eyes today they might look tacky, kitschy even, but that was their taste,” Eisenberg told Haaretz. The stones used for constructing many of the imposing Byzantine buildings at Hippos had been taken from earlier Roman-period temples and public buildings that had collapsed after an earthquake in 363 CE. Yet, the awe-inspiring cathedral had the first choice for the most impressive building materials. Indeed, analysis revealed that its columns originated from sites as far away as Egypt, the Aegean, and Asia Minor. While these were impressive building materials in the Roman period, they were even rarer during the Byzantine period, which highlights the cathedral’s importance and status in the Christian city.

The cathedral’s multi-colored marble column shafts. Courtesy Michael Eisenberg.

More Finds from the Early Christian Cathedral

The team uncovered several inscriptions throughout the early Christian cathedral and the baptistery hall, one of which even helped the team in the building’s identification. According to Eisenberg in an interview with Bible History Daily, the inscription “mentions the function and terminology of the hall—photisterion (φωτιστήριον)—‘place of illumination.’” While most halls of this type are commonly referred to as baptisterium, the region east of the Galilee apparently used this alternate term. “It served several liturgical functions, and the baptismal font was one of them,” said Eisenberg.

Aerial photo of Hippos-Sussita. Courtesy Michael Eisenberg.

Other inscriptions within the church helped date the uppermost phase of its construction to the late sixth century. However, as excavations revealed, this was not the first phase of the church, and a lower level was discovered about 2 feet below. Unfortunately, the earliest phase is hard to date. “It most probably dates to before the sixth century or the end of fifth, but it may be even earlier,” Kowalewska told Bible History Daily.

Other finds from the early Christian cathedral included a 3-foot-tall candelabrum and an intriguing reliquary discovered on the floor of the baptistry. The 92-pound stone box would have been used to store relics belonging to the church, although those have long since disappeared. The box featured a carved cross on one side and a stone lid that would have added even more weight to the hefty object. Although larger reliquaries are known, the team suggests that this one might have been portable and paraded around the cathedral on various holy days. This could make it one of the heaviest portable reliquaries ever excavated.

A second earthquake in 749 CE likely caused the early Christian cathedral’s eventual collapse, leaving the columns strewn around the site in much the same way they were found when the church was first built.

Learn more in Bible History Daily:

Inscriptions of Everyday Byzantine Christians Discovered

Hidden Christian Cross at Hippos-Sussita

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Pan at Hippos: Face of Greek God Unearthed

The Spade Hits Sussita

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Review: A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective

BAS Staff — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 04:06:56 +0000

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective

By Joseph Patrich
(Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2018), xii + 174 pp., 193 ill. (maps, plans, reconstructions, photos), $34 (hardcover)
Reviewed by Joseph L. Rife

This book takes its title from the poignant words of Hannah Szenes, who lived in a kibbutz just south of the ancient coastal city of Caesarea Maritima and was executed by the Nazis during a clandestine operation in Europe to save Hungarian Jews. The haunting poem, which remains so powerful in the collective consciousness of Israel, captures the numinous beauty of the place while evoking the memory of the poet’s tragic end.

One of the wealthiest administrative, commercial, and cultural centers on the eastern Mediterranean seaboard between Alexandria and Antioch, Caesarea was also a hotbed of religious ferment and scholarship: the headquarters of the Roman prefect over Judaea; the destination of the apostles Peter and Paul; a powder keg for the Jewish Revolt against Roman rule in 66–70 C.E.; the home of Rabbi Abbahu and the place where Rabbi Akiva was executed; and the site of an ecclesiastical library where Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome conducted research. After its zenith during the Roman and Byzantine periods, the city was reborn as a booming port with opulent neighborhoods during the Islamic caliphates. Capitalizing on its location, the Crusaders rebuilt the urban core as a European castle (with a massive moat and Gothic architecture) and occupied it for one and a half centuries.

The ruins of this great city are spectacular. Since the 1950s, archaeologists have slowly uncovered the vast ancient and medieval settlement, which had been largely abandoned to the sand dunes since the late 13th century. Investigation both on land and under water by Israeli and American teams accelerated during the 1980s to early 2000s. In 2017, an ambitious new phase of research was inaugurated: the Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, a collaboration between the Israel Antiquities Authority and Vanderbilt University. Visitors today can see the ancient roads and sewers, harbor works, houses and places of worship, venues for entertainment, markets and warehouses, and fortifications. Managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Caesarea is popular as both an archaeological site and a relaxing getaway—complete with a lavish new visitor center, which opened in 2019, in the ruins of the temple to Roma and Augustus.

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A Walk to Caesarea is an essential introduction to this remarkable city. A distinguished researcher, author Joseph Patrich provides an up-to-date synthesis of what we know about the site. The first half of the book is a historical survey spanning the Hellenistic port to the 19th-century Bosnian village and the creation of modern Israel, with a focus on the Roman Empire and late antiquity—between Herod’s foundation in c. 10 B.C.E. and the Muslim conquest in 640 C.E. The second half is an archaeological itinerary following two routes, one through the heart of the city and one skirting its periphery. Appendices cover small museum exhibits in the area, as well as Roman hydraulic engineering along the lines of the aqueducts northeast of Caesarea.

It is a marvelous accomplishment that Patrich has captured the complexity of Caesarea’s history and archaeology in such a lucid, authoritative, and compact book. A day of focused reading will suffice to finish it, and the traveler can easily pack it for the road. Patrich brings the city to life by examining its ingenious infrastructure, shifting neighborhoods, and stunning art that adorned its homes and byways—from sculpted sarcophagi and porphyry statuary to stashes of gold and jewelry. The text is enhanced by vivid photographs and architectural reconstructions, insets on ancient testimony or historical themes, a glossary, a timeline, and a judicious bibliography for further reading in English and Hebrew.

This book is sure to attract a wide readership. Scholarly readers may quibble with interpretive idiosyncrasies, but they will appreciate Patrich’s honesty in admitting that his own perspective is just that, a “position” open to debate. Nonspecialist readers may find too much to digest, but they will appreciate having a full guide for selective use rather than a brief overview lacking what they seek. The book achieves a rare balance between breadth and depth that should cement its place as both a scholarly and a popular classic for years to come, a current and accessible alternative to its best precursor, King Herod’s Dream (W.W. Norton, 1988).

The story of this magnificent city continues to unfold and is in many ways the story of the Holy Land itself, a place of peace and prosperity, war and destruction. As we walk to Caesarea in the footsteps of Hannah Szenes and Joseph Patrich, we witness the vicissitudes of our mortal drama. We can also draw strength and peace from the inspiration of the landscape (evolving though it is), from the joy of exploring our past (painful though it has been), and from the hope of learning more (challenging though it will be).

Joseph L. Rife is Associate Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, Anthropology, and Religion at Vanderbilt University. He is a specialist in the eastern Roman provinces, and he directs excavations at Caesarea and in Greece.

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Caesarea Beneath the Sea
by: Robert L. Hohlfelder
Of all the great seaports of antiquity, Caesarea Maritima is the only one readily accessible to underwater archaeologists. Many ancient ports, like Piraeus, the port of Athens, cannot be carefully examined because they are still in use. Other harbors of antiquity have silted in over the centuries and today serve a variety of purposes that preclude archaeological investigation. Such has been the fate of Ostia, the ancient port of Rome, where modern Rome’s airport now sits.

Caesarea Maritima: The Search for Herod’s City
by: Robert J. Bull
Herod, the ancient world’s master builder, constructed a magnificent port city on the Mediterranean coast of Palestine. He called it Caesarea in honor of his Roman patron Augustus Caesar. Maritima distinguished it from the many other cities that bore this much honored name, notably Caesarea Philippa, another city in Herod’s kingdom, located inland at the source of the Jordan River.

What Jesus Really Meant by “Render Unto Caesar”
by: David T. Ball

The full line of the quote is, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17). It might seem like Jesus is telling us that we should cheerfully fulfill our annual financial obligation to the IRS (or at least the government) despite how onerous it sometimes feels. More generally, the passage is usually taken to mean that civil obligations exert claims on us apart from our religious responsibilities. Keep politics and religion separate. That, at least, is how the passage is often interpreted. Some have gone so far as to cite this passage as discouraging any kind of civil disobedience, even when governments are unjust.

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A Virtual Visit to the “City of Mosaics”

Nathan Steinmeyer — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 05:04:56 +0000

The walled city of Byzantine Jerusalem, as depicted on the sixth-century Madaba Map, the oldest-known map of the Holy Land.

With many people unable to travel during the past year, archaeological and tourism sites across the Middle East have faced extremely difficult times. The ancient biblical city of Madaba, located 20 miles south of Amman in central Jordan, is no exception. In 2019, the city known for its ancient churches and beautiful mosaics saw nearly 650,000 visitors, but during the year of the pandemic, Jordan’s “City of Mosaics” became a ghost town.

With support from the One Place, Many Stories program, however, towns like Madaba that are dependent on tourism are finding new and innovative ways to draw attention to their sites and hopefully attract tourists in the future. The program, developed with support from CyArk, a nonprofit organization funded through the U.S. Departments of State’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, has helped community members create 3D, interactive models of several of the city’s historical sites. Most notable is the Church of St. George, which houses the famous sixth-century C.E. Madaba Map, the oldest-known map of the Holy Land that features a stunning mosaic depiction of Jerusalem. Other Madaba landmarks that have been modeled include the Church of St. Mary and the Burnt Palace, both of which feature stunning and elaborate mosaics from the Byzantine period. These incredible 3D models, along with guided virtual tours and stories from local community members, have now been made available online for anyone to view, completely free.

Already a major settlement by the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2100–1550 B.C.E.), Madaba was a Moabite border town that is mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible, first as a town destroyed by the Israelites (Numbers 21:30), and later as part of the territory allotted to the tribe of Reuben (Joshua 13:16). The famous Moabite Stone records that Mesha, king of Moab, re-conquered the city for the Moabites in the ninth century B.C.E.

Under Roman and Byzantine rule, the city rose to even greater prominence and became a hub of early Christian life, with numerous churches and monasteries, many adorned with beautiful mosaic pavements. Today, the excavated remains of many of these sites can be visited, including several Roman churches, halls, a palace, and a well-preserved Roman street.

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The Other Side of Beth Shemesh

Michele Barasso — Fri, 28 May 2021 13:00:30 +0000

Aerial view of Tel Beth Shemesh, showing Israel’s heavily traveled Highway 38 cutting through the site’s western and eastern mounds, with the wide and lush Soreq Valley in the distance. While the more prominent western mound was heavily excavated throughout the 20th century (see remains and excavation trenches in foreground), the archaeology of the eastern mound, visible across the roadway, has only recently been revealed through extensive salvage excavations.
Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Tel Beth Shemesh was one of the first biblical sites to be excavated in the Land of Israel. The site is perched on a low hill overlooking the wide Soreq Valley, a main water source crossing lush agricultural land, on the border between the higher Shephelah (foothills) to the west and the Judean Highland to the east. Biblical Beth-Shemesh appears in the Books of Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles—notably as the place where the Philistines returned the briefly captured Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites (1 Samuel 6).

In 1856, Edward Robinson identified the archaeological site as biblical Beth-Shemesh, using both its geographical features, which correlate with biblical and other textual descriptions, and the Arabic name of an abandoned village found on its eastern side: Ein Shams (‘Ain Shems).

The first to excavate the site was Duncan Mackenzie, who launched an expedition in 1911 on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. This was followed by a large-scale American expedition led by Elihu Grant of Haverford College between 1928 and 1931. In 1990, Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman launched a new, multi-year expedition on behalf of Bar Ilan University (1990–1993), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1994–1996), and Tel Aviv University (1997–present).

As the point where three of the world’s major religions converge, Israel’s history is one of the richest and most complex in the world. Sift through the archaeology and history of this ancient land in the free eBook Israel: An Archaeological Journey, and get a view of these significant Biblical sites through an archaeologist’s lens.

These past excavations concluded that the site was inhabited from the Middle Bronze Age IIB (c. 1750 B.C.E.) to the end of the Iron Age IIB (eighth century B.C.E.), when King Sennacherib of Assyria destroyed the Judahite city in 701 B.C.E. Much later, during the Byzantine period (fifth–seventh centuries C.E.), a large building was erected on top of the ancient ruins (see below).

With excavations focused on the western mound, where the Bronze and Iron Age remains were close to the surface, it was wrongly assumed that the site of Beth Shemesh was bordered by the road that divided the ancient mound from the abandoned Arab village to the east. This road later became Israel’s Highway 38.

In 2018, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) mandated salvage excavations at the ruins of the Arab village, Tel Beth Shemesh (East), to allow for the expansion of Highway 38. The excavations, which I directed, were carried out by the Israeli Institute of Archaeology, on behalf of Tel Aviv University and the IAA, with the assistance of Dr. Aaron Tavger and Yoram Haimi, from 2018 to 2020. The excavations were funded by Israel’s National Transport Infrastructure Company (Netivei Israel).^[i] Until our excavations, there had been no investigation of what lay under the abandoned village bordering the site on the east, except for the examination probes conducted by the IAA’s Eli Hadad and Nathan Ben Ari.

Our discoveries surpassed our expectations. Exposing remains from the Late Bronze Age to the Ottoman period, our excavations proved that Tel Beth Shemesh (East) was indeed part of the ancient site.

The area under construction was divided into three sections, A, B, and C. We excavated in Section A, the deepest and most stratigraphically complex of the three. Our excavations spanned several hundred 5-by-5-meter squares, totaling 1 hectare. Sections B and C were excavated by Hebrew Union College (HUC).

The remarkable findings from our excavations in Section A, which identified remains from the Late Bronze Age to the 20th century, are summarized below.

Stratum	Period	Approx. Dates	Activity
1	Modern\Pre–Modern	19th–20th centuries CE	Seasonal agricultural activity; Foreign expeditions’ camp
2	Mamluk–Ottoman	c. 15th–19th centuries CE	Village
3	Late Byzantine/ Early Islamic	c. 7th–10th centuries CE	Town\Village
4	Late Roman–Byzantine	4th–7th centuries CE	Agricultural/ Industrial area
5	Late Hellenistic (Hasmonean) – Early Roman	1st century BCE–2nd century CE	Jewish village
6	Iron Age IIC – Persian – Early Hellenistic	7th–2nd centuries BCE	Agricultural production
7	Iron Age II	9th – 8th centuries BCE	Quarrying
8	Late Bronze – Iron Age I	12th–11th centuries BCE	Water cistern

A general aerial view of the salvage excavation sections at Tel Beth Shemesh.
Source: Beit Shemesh municipal GIS system, Graphic design: Nurit Rozenfeld; courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Late Bronze Age to Iron Age I (12th–11th centuries B.C.E.)

Remains from the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I (c. 12th–11th centuries B.C.E.) are well documented on the western mound. On the eastern mound, however, only a single complex was found: a large cistern (about 16 ft in diameter and 13 ft deep) identified east of Highway 38. The cistern dates to the Late Bronze Age. In one of its upper fill layers, we identified a wall or platform dating to the Iron Age I. A later installation (an Iron Age II pit) was cut through the side of the cistern, indicating that by the Iron Age II (c. ninth to early sixth centuries B.C.E.), the existence and contour of the cistern were already unknown.

As this cistern is the solitary Late Bronze Age find from among the nearly 1,000 excavation squares dug east of Highway 38 (by both the Tel Aviv and HUC teams), it is safe to assume that there was not a continuous occupation covering the entire site (i.e., the western and eastern parts of the mound). Instead, it seems that the cistern was an isolated feature that likely went out of use at the end of the Late Bronze Age or in the early Iron Age I.

Iron Age II (ninth–early sixth centuries B.C.E.)

During the Iron Age II, the eastern mound saw its first identifiable settlement. The earliest recognizable human activity from this period is quarrying, followed in the subsequent Iron Age IIB-C period by agricultural production facilities that cut into the quarried area or re-used its existing rock-cut surfaces. At least four olive-oil presses, dated from around the seventh to fifth centuries B.C.E., were identified in situ. This adds to the ten installations uncovered in the neighboring HUC excavation to the south (in Sections B and C).

The ancient inhabitants of Beth Shemesh made not only olive oil but also wine. We discovered three winepresses dating to this period.

Aerial view of the rock quarries—and olive and wine presses—that were utilized by the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh during the Iron Age. Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Interestingly, in no place where we found Iron Age II remains did they superimpose any prior occupational layer. This means our identification of an Iron Age IIC (c. 700–586 B.C.E.) settlement negates previous archaeological and historical reconstructions regarding the fate of the Iron Age II Judahite town of Beth Shemesh—that is, that the site was abandoned after Sennacherib’s attack in 701 B.C.E. Further, the material remains from the Iron Age IIC reflect a level of Judahite continuity, as indicated by pillar and animal figurines, and lmlk and rosette stamp impressions—all typical of Judahite culture.

Assortment of Judahite pottery, figurines, and stamped jar handles found during the excavation. Photo by Sasha Flit.

This preliminary assessment suggests that the site remained strongly affiliated with Judah even after Sennacherib’s campaign. No destruction or abandonment was identified at the site—neither from the Assyrian campaign nor from the Neo-Babylonian campaigns of the early sixth century B.C.E. Alterations to the olive oil and wine installations suggest a continuation of an agricultural economy at the site. This, together with the few yhud (Judah) impressions and even a yršlm (Jerusalem) impression, may indicate a continued economic and political affinity to Jerusalem.

Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods (fifth–third centuries B.C.E.)

Although only a few architectural remains can be solidly assigned to the Persian and early Hellenistic periods, numerous ceramics and coins from these periods have been uncovered. It appears, for the most part, that the Iron Age II agricultural installations continued in use until the third century B.C.E., a notion further reinforced by Early Hellenistic pottery recovered from atop the Iron Age IIC floors.

A building complex that includes a partially modified cave found in the western part of the site may be dated to this period. The cave was accessible through a built entrance of large stones, later deliberately filled and blocked around the second century B.C.E. Later, probably during the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–136 C.E.), the cave was reused and connected to a more extensive “hideout system” that included a long underground corridor and cistern (see below).

Hasmonean and Early Roman Periods (c. second century B.C.E.– second century C.E.)

During the Hasmonean period, the site underwent its first major change since the Iron Age II: It evolved into a Jewish village. Late Second Temple period settlements share a distinct material culture, such as the presence of ritual baths (or miqvehs, of which at least seven have been found at Beth Shemesh) and limestone vessels, and an absence of pig bones.^[ii]

One of several miqvehs (ritual baths) discovered during the excavation of Tel Beth Shemesh (East). Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Unfortunately, many of the architectural elements of the village did not survive, likely due to the massive construction activities that took place later during the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. With the exception of a single intact dwelling from the period, what remained included mainly subterranean installations (miqvehs) and cisterns.

And yet, one special building did survive. In the northwestern part of the site, we found (near the edge of the settlement overlooking the Soreq Valley) a monumental rectangular structure (measuring 21 by 33 ft), originally built during the Early Roman period (late first century B.C.E.–first century C.E.). Built of finely dressed ashlar blocks with drafted margins, the structure survived to a height of 10 feet on its northern side. Along its interior walls, we identified a plastered bench.

Due to the building’s quality of construction, position, and uniqueness within the site, it can be clearly interpreted as a public structure. Further, given its architectural elements, as well as the masonry and bench, it most likely served as a synagogue during the latter part of the Second Temple period.^[iii]

View of the monumental building uncovered during the excavations but now dismantled. The building likely originally functioned as a synagogue, although it was later rebuilt and transformed into part of a larger Christian chapel during the Byzantine period.
Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Sadly, this unique building was dismantled by the IAA during the excavation—with plans to reconstruct it in an alternate location—to allow for the construction of the new road. The dismantling, however, provided important insight into the building’s construction.

While most of the eastern wall and the northeastern corner were original to the building (first century B.C.E.–first century C.E.), most of the western wall and the northwestern corner were rebuilt during the Byzantine period (fifth–seventh centuries C.E.). It was remarkable, therefore, to discover that while the external facade of the structure seemed uniform, the internal building technique was entirely different between the earlier and later phases. The Byzantine construction also included several decorative architectural elements in secondary use. These elements were placed so that the decoration faced inward, while the external face was chiseled with drafted margins, imitating the Early Roman style. The reconstruction aimed to replicate the original form of the building, including a reconstruction of the bench, even though it is unclear if the bench served any purpose during this period.^[iv]

The Jewish inhabitants of the eastern mound most likely abandoned their village during or shortly after the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–136 C.E.). Evidence for this comes from underground hideout systems, previously unknown at Beth Shemesh. Underground, rock-cut hideout systems were used in Judea and Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 C.E.) and became widespread during the Bar-Kokhba Revolt. This is particularly true for the Shephelah, where the natural soft limestone allowed for easy and quick tunneling. Aside from one system that stretches more than 130 feet and incorporates several (earlier) chambers, most of the hideout systems at Beth Shemesh are small in scale. They were probably used by domestic households for emergency necessities. Although most of the systems were found empty, with many partially collapsed due to the fragmentary nature of the site’s bedrock, some contained complete vessels, coins, and even iron agricultural tools.

Following the second-century C.E. abandonment, the site was not resettled until the end of the Roman period (fourth century C.E.).

First used during the Persian and Hellenistic periods, this cave, together with an elaborate system of manmade tunnels, functioned as a hide out for the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh during the time of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–136 C.E.). Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Late Roman and Byzantine Periods (fourth–seventh centuries C.E.)

In the fourth century C.E., the site was settled anew, but in a completely different style and function: as an industrial center with pottery kilns, at least one winepress, and two large olive-oil press compounds. The kilns (found at the northern edge of the site) are among the largest and best preserved ever discovered in Israel from the period. They include two chambers, each 17 feet in diameter and at least 15 feet deep. Although the roofs did not survive, they were clearly domed structures. The eastern kiln is the best preserved, as it still includes the burning chamber, along with its arched entry, heat vents, a small part of the firing chamber floor, and even some of the original clay powder from the vessels fired inside.

View of the extensive excavations in the northwestern part of Tel Beth Shemesh (East) where archaeologists uncovered the remains of major industrial activities, including olive oil presses and pottery kilns, dating to the Byzantine period. Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

The kilns and their technology will be thoroughly dealt with in future publications,^[v] though it is already clear that these kilns almost exclusively produced storage jars, presumably to pack and market the products of the site’s agricultural installations, namely wine and olive oil.

Of the two large olive-oil press complexes we discovered, the southern complex, which included two presses, was better preserved due to its continued use through the Early Islamic period (seventh–tenth centuries C.E.). The large winepress (measuring 33 by 21 ft) in the northwestern edge of the site included a central treading floor with a screw press and a secondary treading floor with separating and storage vats. The winepress was well built— made with heavy, industrial mosaic floors—and was clearly intended for long-term use and durability. Unlike the large olive press, the winepress was abandoned during the Early Islamic period (seventh–tenth centuries C.E.), after which its vats were used as dumps for the still-operating olive press—as suggested by the hundreds of olive seeds found in its fill.

Excavated winepress, with artistic reconstruction of operation shown at right.
Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology; drawing by C. Herriot, based on study by E. Ayalon.

Despite the overwhelming industrial nature of the site during this period, several complexes also suggest non-industrial and even religious uses. Between the two olive presses, a large area may have been used for storage or dwelling. Plus, the Second Temple period synagogue was reconstructed to include a decorated, multi-colored mosaic floor, only the frame of which remains. The mosaic may have been deliberately disassembled during the Early Islamic period, due to a prohibition of figurative art depicting humans and animals. The presence of the east-west oriented mosaic, which covered the newly sectioned-off southern third of the building, clearly suggests the special status of the structure—one that may have included or even continued religious practice. Interestingly, this decorated area, alongside the reconstruction of parts of the building as described earlier, represent the only identified instance of an earlier building being reused during the Byzantine period in our section of Tel Beth Shemesh. Furthermore, the phenomenon of erecting religious buildings on top of older sacred buildings is well attested throughout the Byzantine empire. In most cases at our site, the early architecture was simply demolished to obtain stones for secondary construction and to use the bedrock as foundations.

To the south of the synagogue (now likely used as a chapel), a new building was constructed. It had an antechamber and a vaulted main room, leading to an underground cavity that collapsed in antiquity, probably in the Early Islamic period. Its massive stone floors—as with the reconstructed walls of the synagogue—included many decorative architectural elements. These similarities hint that the two buildings may have been part of a single religious complex. Marble fragments, amulets, and several capitals bearing cross reliefs, all found in secondary use or fills, suggest that the complex was a Christian chapel.

Aerial view of the eastern mound’s Byzantine-period religious complex, which included both the adapted and reused earlier synagogue (left, with mosaic floor partially visible) and a new ceremonial building (right) that featured an antechamber, vaulted ceiling, and stone pavement. Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

We assume that the industrial installations, storage or domestic units, and possible chapel belong to the large Byzantine complex at Tel Beth Shemesh, excavated by Duncan Mackenzie in 1911. The massive complex, about three-quarters of an acre in size, was identified by Mackenzie as a convent. It is possible, however, that it was used as a farmstead, while the religious buildings of the settlement were, in fact, excavated by our expedition.

Early Islamic Period (seventh–tenth centuries C.E.)

The site continued to evolve over time, and during the Early Islamic period, it became a rural settlement once again—but with patrician houses and rich ceramics. Many of the Byzantine industrial complexes were abandoned or covered, some reused as domestic areas. The chapel complex was built over—perhaps even with a deliberate defacing of the decorated mosaic.

During the mid-eighth century C.E., the site suffered a major destruction, probably due to an earthquake (possibly the great earthquake of 749 C.E.). Part of the olive press’s northern wall collapsed on top of a pen for goat and sheep that was there at the time. Dozens of in situ skeletons of the livestock, buried under the collapsed stone blocks, portray the severity and suddenness of this event.

The town recovered after this destruction and the olive press was rebuilt. However, the site was again abandoned in the tenth or early 11th century C.E., not to be reoccupied until the 15th century.

The skeletal remains of sheep and goat crushed by a collapsed wall provide vivid testimony of a major destruction at Tel Beth Shemesh in the mid-eighth century C.E. Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Mamluk and Ottoman Periods (15th–19th centuries C.E.)

During the 15th century, in the Mamluk period, the settlement at Beth Shemesh resumed with the establishment of another rural village—named Ein Shams. The settlement stretched over at least 1.75 acres and included a mosque, later known as the Weli of Abu-Mizar. ^[vi] Another sheik’s tomb, the Weli of Abu-Ghazala, may have been located in the eastern part of the village. Duncan Mackenzie mentions the Weli of Abu-Ghazala in his 1912 report, and Sir Charles Wilson describes a surviving building in the eastern part of Ein Shams’s ruins in 1881, possibly representing the tomb. Beyond these, however, no other references to this monument appear in 19th or early 20th-century texts.^[vii]

Illustration made by Charles Wilson in 1881 of Ein Shams and the mound of Beth Shemesh. Image from Picturesque Palestine, vol. II, div. III (London: Appleton, 1881)..

We uncovered two underground olive-oil presses dating to the Ottoman period: one near the Weli of Abu-Mizar and another to the north.

Alongside the public buildings and agricultural installations, we found a domestic area concentrated on the eastern part of the site. The domestic units themselves present dense architecture, which include a main room sometimes divided into two elevations. The upper space was likely reserved for sleeping, while the lower room was reserved for general use and to shelter livestock. A doorway (or two) sometimes led to a courtyard, which in many cases also included a water cistern or an underground storage cave (in many instances, the secondary use of an earlier water cistern or even a hideout system). The domestic units were grouped together in long “trains,” perhaps indicating the organic growth of the family.

Despite the flatness of the site’s existing surface, the inhabitants wished to build their settlement on a sloping hill. Thus, they invested a tremendous amount of effort into sculpting the surface and landfills (some 8 ft thick) to enhance the existing—but moderate—slope of the site from southeast to northwest. The suggested Weli of Abu-Ghazalah and even simpler dwellings were constructed on top of such fills.

By the end of the 18th or early 19th century, the village was abandoned, most likely due to civil unrest and land disputes that plagued the country during that time.^[viii] Most of the inhabitants probably relocated to the nearby village of Deir Aban, about 2.5 miles east of Beth Shemesh.

During the Ottoman period, the Weli of Abu-Ghazala (shown here in the section under the corner of the reconstructed and relocated Weli of Abu Mizar, the white building with arched forecourt) was constructed atop a thick layer of fill intended to artificially create a slope on the natural plateau of the mound. Photo courtesy Israeli Institute of Archaeology.

Our excavation of Ein Shams is one of the largest of an Ottoman-period settlement to have ever taken place in Israel and, to the best of our knowledge, worldwide. In the past, many archaeologists were simply not interested in the late Islamic periods and regarded their layers of material remains as obstacles in reaching the “real” finds of earlier periods. Unfortunately, it was this kind of scientific bias that led, for more than a century, to a misunderstanding of the full extent of the size and chronology of Beth Shemesh, as no scholar wished to probe through the remains of the Arab village on the eastern part of the mound.

In addition to the sheer size of the excavation, the remains at Ein Shams are also important because they reflect Arab rural culture before the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the country. The remains are devoid of later imports and industries, such as cast iron, cement, and European ceramics.

Modern Period (19th–20th centuries)

Following its abandonment by the early 19th century, Beth Shemesh became a seasonal agricultural settlement. During the early 20th century, the main activity at the site, aside from seasonal agricultural activity, involved foreign archaeological expeditions, some of whose excavators repurposed the abandoned (though still intact and maintained) Abu-Mizar Weli complex. Our expedition located their pottery dumps, as well as canned food, cosmetic and medicine bottles, canisters, and more. Additionally, they restored at least one of the water cisterns within the Weli’s courtyard.

Concluding Notes

The salvage excavation at Tel Beth Shemesh (East) is one of the largest archaeological excavations in Israeli history. In recent years, several such excavations have taken place around the country (e.g., En ’Esur, Moẓa, and Yavneh). Modern archaeology has tended to refrain from this type of wide and deep excavation. Although popular in the past, this excavation style became gradually less common over the course of the 20th century. The reason is clear: It is almost impossible to maintain adequate data resolution while excavating gigantic areas of hundreds (if not thousands) of squares and managing hundreds of laborers with various levels of expertise.

As such, the use of modern scientific methods in archaeology has led to ever-shrinking excavation areas in most archaeological expeditions, which now focus mainly on extracting the most information out of every bit of excavated space. This direction, of course, is correct if one accepts the concept of antiquities as a depleting resource and that archaeology is, in essence, “controlled destruction.”

Salvage excavations are different by nature. These take place in areas doomed to destruction. Without excavating the complete, threatened area, it would be entirely lost. Here, government agencies decide what can be sacrificed and what must be saved—though with the understanding that massive salvage excavations may preserve less than they hope. The goal of such agencies should be to find, with developers, creative solutions that limit the scope of antiquities destruction, rather than trying to salvage as much as possible through massive excavation areas.

Another issue arises from the integration of “old archaeology” scales of excavation with “new archaeology” approaches to collection and documentation. That is to say that the sheer volume of information gathered now requires modern processing, cataloging, storage, and analysis, all of which adds unprecedented challenges to the ever-growing publication “debt” of Israeli archaeology.

There is, however, a major advantage to these massive excavations—a large scope of exposure. Since the “golden age” of archaeology in the Holy Land during the 1920s and 30s (and, to a lesser degree, the excavations at Masada and Hazor by Yigael Yadin), no major site in Israel has been “stripped” to expose entire occupational layers and horizons. Such large exposures permit analysis of settlement planning, borders and boundaries, and non-elite domestic areas. Our excavation at Tel Beth Shemesh allowed for the nearly full exposure of five main settlement plans spanning more than three millennia. Our finds will provide topics of research for years to come and numerous publications, including several M.A. and Ph.D. theses.

A few months into the excavation of the site, the community of modern Beit Shemesh awakened. In a rare example of public outcry, they lobbied, demonstrated, and petitioned to save the site from development, advocating for the digging of an underground roadway beneath the mound, rather than cutting through it. They did so until the road plans were changed, in the form of a compromise: The IAA renegotiated the width of the planned road development from 230 feet to 82 feet, thus decreasing the scale of destruction by 65 percent. Although this is a remarkable achievement, a careful consideration of the known information from the preliminary probes at the site could have also revised the original scale from the outset.

Massive salvage excavations may sometimes be necessary in a densely populated and antiquities-rich country such as Israel, when no feasible planning alternatives can be found. It is our duty to produce a swift, high-quality excavation report, if we hope to even the “pros” with the “cons” of such enterprises.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the numerous individuals who made this excavation possible, such as my partners in the management of this excavation, Dr. Aharon Tavger and Yoram Haimi, and the archaeologists of the Jerusalem Region of the IAA, particularly Dr. Amit Shadman (District Archaeologist), for his guidance, assistance, and supervision. I extend my gratitude to the municipality of Beit Shemesh led by mayor Dr. Aliza Bloch, who visited on several occasions and supported both the excavation and the efforts to limit the destruction, and the community of Beit Shemesh for their genuine love of heritage, courage, and strength to take action. I also thank the staff of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, including its head, Professor Oded Lipschits, and the many scholars who visited, consulted, and advised the expeditions. Lastly, I am grateful to Dr. Alon Shavit, CEO of the Israeli Institute of Archaeology, who provided the scientific and logistic experience, as well as advice, on how to tackle and succeed in such a great project.

—

About the Author

Boaz Gross, a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology at Tel Aviv University, is Vice President of the Israeli Institute of Archaeology and Director of the salvage excavations at Tel Beth Shemesh. He also serves as Field Director of the Masada Expedition.

—

Notes

[i] Among the senior staff of the excavation are O. Tsuf (Chief Registrar and Ceramic Specialist), Y. Condo and L. Torbatti (Administration), N. Rozenfeld and R. Ushki (Cataloging and Registration), N. Ben-Melech, N. Goldin-Meir, A. Hodson, G. Mavronanos, H. Maynard, A. Tavger, L. Torbatti, and R. Ushki (Area Supervision). Primary specialists collaborating with the expedition include E. Ayalon (Agricultural Installations), D. Raviv (Second Temple Period), L. Namdar (Archaeozoology), A. Wrathall (Iron Age II), Y. Farhi (Numismatics), I. Taxel (Ottoman Period pottery), and D. Resenberg (Stone Objects). I also wish to thank A. Wrathall who helped prepare and edit this paper for publication.

[ii] D. Raviv will publish a thorough analysis of the Second Temple Period settlement at Tel Beth Shemesh. The faunal remains were analyzed by L. Namdar and L. Sapir-Hen and will be published in the final report.

[iii] I wish to thank specialists H. Ben David, H. Geva, G. Stiebel, S. Veksler-Bdolah, O. Peleg-Barkat, and B. Zissu, who are among the many scholars who visited the site and provided the expedition with invaluable information, parallels, and professional opinions regarding the nature of the building. Special credit must go to Yeshua (Yeshu) Dray who was the first to suggest this interpretation of the building during a visit to the dig site. The building complex is part the MA thesis research of A. Hodson, a student of the Tel Aviv University Ancient Israel International MA program, under the supervision of Dr. Guy Stiebel.

[iv] Of the scholars who visited the site, Benjamin Arubas was the most adamant that the building should, in fact, be dated to the Byzantine period, rather than to the Early Roman, mainly due to the “double” drafted margins on some blocks in the upper courses of the building. His suggestion has held merit, as major parts of the building are indeed Byzantine.

[v] A comprehensive study of the pottery kilns will be executed by O. Tsuf and published as part of the excavation report.

[vi] On behalf of the Israeli Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, and the IAA, Nathan Ben-Ari excavated the Weli of Abu-Mizar in 2013. In 2016, it was relocated to an eastern location in preparation for the road expansion. During the excavation and dismantling of its foundations, we discovered that many of its walls were originally built in the Early Islamic period.

[vii] See Duncan Mackenzie, Excavations at Ain Shems (Beth-Shemesh), The Palestine Exploration Fund Annual I (London, 1911), pp. 41–94; Charles Wilson, Picturesque Palestine (1881). The building itself was mostly excavated during the 2017 excavation of the IAA, led by Eli Hadad and Nathan Ben-Ari, who described it as a “monumental arched building,” but did not identify it as the Weli of Abu-Ghazalah.

[viii] Roy Marom (Ph.D. candidate at the University of Haifa) suggests that the abandonment was part of the Qays and Yaman rivalry. Marom will conduct a thorough historical synthesis of the Mamluk and Ottoman phases at Tel Beth Shemesh.

Byzantine Tombstone Discovered in Negev

Jonathan Laden — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 07:42:33 +0000

Byzantine Period Tombstone. Photo: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists generally do quite a bit of planning, choosing dig sites, and working meticulously in the hopes of making a meaningful discovery. Most advances emerge from this process. But every so often, there is a lucky find. The Byzantine tombstone, announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority on January 6, 2021, was one of the latter.

A worker preparing nature paths in the Nizzana nature park found a stone and put it at the head of the trail. Nizzana Educational Village Director, David Palmach, saw the stone and noticed that it was inscribed in ancient Greek. It is a flat, round stone, approximately 10 inches in diameter. The inscription has been translated by Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It reads: “Blessed Maria, who lived an immaculate life” and indicates she died on February 9th. The tombstone was dated to the late sixth or early seventh century C.E.

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As Tali Erickson-Gini of IAA explains, “Nizzana acted as a center for the villages and settlements in the vicinity. Among other things, it had a military fortress as well as churches, a monastery, and a road station that served Christian pilgrims traveling to Santa Katarina, which believers regarded as the site of Mount Sinai.” Santa Katarina is about 50 miles away from Nizzana.

Archaeologists are confident that the tombstone will help advance understanding of the burial grounds around Nizzana. It may even be an aid to finding the cemeteries’ borders, which could lead to figuring out the boundaries of the settlement itself.

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Where Is Mount Sinai?: The Case for Har Karkom and the Case for Saudi Arabia

Sacred Stones in the Desert

Understanding the Nabateans