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Abstract

In 2022, a salvage excavation conducted south of the city of Rahat, prior to the establishment of a new neighborhood, uncovered remains dating from the Byzantine (fifth–seventh centuries CE) and Early Islamic (eighth–ninth centuries CE) periods. Several farmhouses dating to the late Byzantine period were uncovered, including a nearby church. At the end of the Byzantine period, the farmhouses were abandoned, the area of the church was reduced, and a winepress was built within it, until it too was finally abandoned. At the beginning of the Umayyad period, the area was resettled: agricultural estates were built and inhabited by an Arabic-speaking population, who probably prayed in nearby open-air mosques, and near them stood a magnificent mansion. It seems that at the end of the Umayyad period, the mansion was abandoned, and the area was settled by residents with less means. A short time later, the permanent settlement in the Rahat area ceased to exist until it was resettled in the twentieth century. In this paper, we survey the settlements and social changes that took place in the Rahat area between the fifth and the ninth centuries CE, considering the processes that took place in the northern Negev with the transition from Christianity to Islam at the end of the Byzantine period and the beginning of the Early Islamic period.

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