Ramat Yishay (A-9224)

Yoav Lerer, Israel Antiquities AuthorityFollow

Permit/License Number

A-9224

Excavation Report

In February 2022, a trial excavation was conducted in Ramat Yishay (Permit No. A-9224; map ref. 216170–206/734495–533; Fig. 1), prior to a house extension. The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was directed by Y. Lerer, with the assistance of Y. Yaakobi (administration), E. Dalali-Amos (surveying and drafting), A. Sánchez-Streger (photogrammetry), A. Shapiro (location map), E. Stern (pottery) and H. Tahan-Rosen (pottery drawing), B. Hanna (consultation), and workers from Kafr Manda.

The settlement of Ramat Yishay is built on a soft limestone hill overlooking the northwestern end of the Jezreel Valley, southeast of Naḥal Bet Leḥem. Excavations carried out in recent years have exposed Intermediate Bronze Age burial caves and settlement remains from the Roman period until recent periods (Hanna 2014, with further references; Mokary 2021).

A single excavation square was opened (25 sq m; Figs. 2, 3) and a modern earth fill layer (depth 1.5 m) was removed. Two walls (W106, W107), built of roughly worked stones, and a stone-paved floor (L104, L105) from the Mamluk period were uncovered. Wall 106 (length 1.8 m, width 0.4 m) was oriented east–west, and W107 (length 1.2 m, width 0.4 m) was oriented north–south, forming a corner, not adjoining as stones missing. Floor 105 (1.2 × 2.8 m) abutted W106 on both sides. Mamluk-period bowl sherds (Fig. 4), and a few unidentifiable worn glass vessel fragments (not illustrated) were retrieved on Floor 104.