Bene Deror (A-9120)

Amihai Tamir, Israel Antiquities AuthorityFollow

Permit/License Number

A-9120

Excavation Report

In October 2021, a salvage excavation was carried out in Moshav Bene Deror (Permit No. A-9120; map ref. 190872–80/685218–28; Fig. 1), prior to construction. The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority was directed by A. Tamir, with the assistance of Y. Amrani and Z. Lotan (administration), J. Marcus (preliminary inspection), I. Jonish (field photography), T. Harpak (pottery consultation), Y. Gorin-Rosen (glass), C. Hersch (glass drawing), Y. Weingarten (stone vessels), Y. Tepper (scientific guidance), A. ‘Azab from the IAA Central District, and workers of the IAA.

At the outset of the excavation, accumulated earth mixed with construction refuse was removed with mechanical equipment, and four excavation squares were opened (Figs. 2–4). Fragmentary remains of a wall and a layer of stones dated to the fourth–fifth centuries CE were uncovered. A previous excavation, carried out c. 300 m north of the present excavation, uncovered a Roman-period winepress (Tamir 2023 [Fig. 1: A-8892]).

A fragmentary segment of an east–west oriented wall, built of large kurkar and limestones (W203; length 1.6 m, width 0.6 m, preserved height 0.3 m; Fig. 5), was exposed in the southeastern part of the area, extant for a single course and probably damaged by modern building activity. Two cesspits (L204, L205) associated with a house that occupied the area prior to the excavation, were found west and northwest of the wall. A layer of large and small kurkar and limestones (L207) was uncovered about 6.5 m north of W203, about 1 m lower than the wall’s course (Fig. 6). A row of small fieldstones (length c. 1.5 m, width 0.1 m) extended along the southeastern part of this stone layer. Many pottery sherds dating to the Roman and Byzantine period, the third to fourth centuries CE, were retrieved (most not illustrated). Three fragments of a basalt footed mortar bowl (Fig. 7:1–3) and a basalt millstone fragment (Fig. 7:4) were incorporated in the stone layer. The footed grinding bowl had a slightly concave working surface and its underside was not smoothed. Additional basalt vessel fragments were scattered on and around the stone layer. No pottery sherds that could date the stone layer were retrieved in probes dug below it.

A single rim fragment of a glass bottle (Fig. 8; Basket 2004) was found in the northeastern corner (L202), next to Layer 207. The bottle was manufactured of light greenish glass containing many bubbles and covered with silver weathering and sandy encrustation. The funnel rim was rounded in fire and decorated with fine trails of the same hue as the vessel, wound horizontally below it. Bottles with funnel rims and cylindrical necks decorated with fine trails first appear in the Late Roman–Early Byzantine period, and were common in the Byzantine period, similar bottles found in many excavations, as, for example, at Ḥorbat Roẓeẓ next to Shuni Springs (Winter 2010:150–152, Fig. 3:4–6, with additional parallels). These widely distributed bottles were manufactured in local workshops, and the horizontally-wound trails were sometimes of darker hue than the vessel. Two complete Byzantine-period bottles, one with trails the same hue as the vessel, the other of darker hue, were found in Tel Barukh cemetery (Jackson-Tal 2015:61, 66–69, Figs. 1.54:1; 1.55:1; Pl. 11:1, with further references).

References

Jackson-Tal R.E. 2015. The Khirbet al-‘Aura/Tel Barukh Cemetery: Glass Vessels. In O. Tal and I. Taxel eds. Samaritan Cemeteries and Tombs in the Central Coastal Plain: Archaeology and History of the Samaritan Settlement outside Samaria (ca. 300–700) (Ägypten und Altes Testament 82). Münster. Pp. 57–107.

Tamir A. 2023. Bene Deror. HA–ESI 135. https://doi.org/10.69704/jhaesi.116.2004.26368

Winter T. 2010. The Byzantine-Period Glass Vessels from Ḥorbat Roẓeẓ. ‘Atiqot 62:145–155. https://doi.org/10.70967/2948-040X.1505