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Abstract

Within the settlement of Giv‘ot Bar, north of Be’er Sheva‘, two excavation seasons were conducted, revealing a monastery (Area A) and a farmhouse (Area B) dated to the Byzantine period. The monastery (33 ׳ 38 m) comprised a central building, service rooms, a winepress and an open courtyard. The central building was entered from the south through the courtyard. The opening, which was blocked by a rounded stone, led to the refectory (dining room; R5), the ceiling of which was supported by four pillars that in-turn supported arches. The roof of the refectory was made of tiles. Beneath the refectory floor was a grave with a cross engraved on its tombstone, an unusual phenomenon. The monastery’s chapel comprised three parts: the diaconicon (R4), a back room used as a service room for the church servants; the chapel hall (R1), which was paved with a mosaic floor bearing a Greek inscription; and a stone-paved platform, with two parallel tombs and a mosaic-paved apse (R3). Adjacent to the eastern wall of the refectory was a staircase that led to a second story and below it, a doorway that led to the monastery kitchen (R7); an adjacent small room (R14) was apparently used as a pantry. In the kitchen, two tables were found adjacent to the walls and several niches in the walls were used as cupboards. A winepress was built in the northeastern corner of the courtyard, comprising a treading floor (R6) and a collecting vat to its south. In the center of the courtyard, which was not excavated, was a depression, which seems to indicate the existence of a cistern, and several wall segments. The finds within the monastery included pottery, glass and stone vessels, metal artifacts and bones, all dating to the sixth–seventh centuries CE. The farm included initially a two-room watchtower and later, more rooms were added to its west and southeast. The finds within the farm were scarce and included a few pottery vessels dating from the sixth–seventh centuries CE.

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