Abstract
Salvage excavations at the site exposed a pillared house, characteristic of Iron Age I settlements in the Central Hill Country. The finds indicate that the ground floor of the building was used for storage, food processing and other daily activities and the residential space was probably on the second floor. A round oil press was unearthed in the western part of the building. It is a simple, domestic installation, typical of Iron Age I. Two bell-shaped pits, hollowed in the bedrock, were apparently used to store agricultural products. Seven cisterns recorded at the site probably belonged to the settlement and should be dated to Iron Age I. The silos excavated at the site are of a type considered to be hallmarks of Iron Age I sites. The discovery of a hitherto unknown eleventh-century BCE settlement at Kh. Za‘kuka adds another dimension to distribution patterns of rural settlement in the Jerusalem area during Iron Age I and to patterns of settlement in the Central Hill Country.
Keywords
four-room house, dry farming, stone tools, sedentary population, pottery
Recommended Citation
Eisenberg, Emanuel
(2012)
"Khirbat Za‘kuka: An Iron Age I Site between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (pp. 1*–20*),"
'Atiqot: Vol. 71, Article 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70967/2948-040X.1554
Available at:
https://publications.iaa.org.il/atiqot/vol71/iss1/1
Included in
Agriculture Commons, Biblical Studies Commons, History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons