<< Other Photo Pages >> Beer Sheva north - Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel
Submitted by motist on Thursday, 04 April 2019 Page Views: 852
Multi-periodSite Name: Beer Sheva northCountry: Israel
NOTE: This site is 2.148 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Beer Sheva
Latitude: 31.277215N Longitude: 34.792573E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel
2,000-year-old Jewish settlement uncovered in Beer Sheva
Excavations reveal, among other things, sherd of rare oil lamp depicting menorah, one of the earliest depictions of menorah discovered.
For the first time, the remains of a Jewish settlement of the Second Temple period have been discovered in Beer Sheva. The archaeological excavation carried out to facilitate a new neighborhood near the northern entrance to Beer Sheba has revealed evidence of Jewish day-to-day life there, including part of an oil lamp decorated with a nine-branched menorah – one of the earliest yet discovered by researchers – as well as limestone vessels used by Jews for reasons of ritual purity, a watchtower and more. The site, dated from the 1st century CE until the Bar-Kokhba Revolt in 135 CE, also appears to contain underground hidden passageways used by the Jewish rebels.
According to the excavators, Dr. Peter Fabian of the Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and Dr. Daniel Varga of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "Remains of the settlement cover an area of c. 2 dunams and include several structures and installations, such as the foundations of a large watchtower, baking facilities, ancient trash pits and an underground system that was probably used as a Jewish ritual bath (mikveh). Signs of a conflagration discovered in some of the structures evince a crisis that the settlement experienced, probably that of the First Jewish Revolt in c. 70 CE.”
The site is located along the southern border of the ancient kingdom of Judah next to a road that led from Tel Beer Sheva to the southern coastal plain. The site’s strategic value along the road was probably the reason for the construction of a 10 x 10 m. watchtower, the foundations of which were uncovered in the excavation. The remains of a staircase would have led upwards to the two upper levels that are no longer extant. During the Late Roman period, the stones of the tower were used to construct other nearby buildings.
The special finds uncovered in the excavation included a sherd of an oil lamp of a type known as a Jewish “Southern lamp”. There was great excitement when the sherd was cleaned and its decoration revealed: a nine-branched menorah. According to Dr. Fabian and
Dr. Varga, “This is probably one of the earliest artistic depictions of a nine-branched menorah yet discovered.” It is interesting to note that of the few lamps found depicting a menorah, these are never seven-branched. This was in accordance with a ruling in the Babylonian Talmud stating that only the menorah in the Temple could have seven branches and thus lamps used in domestic contexts commonly had eight to eleven branches.
Dozens of bronze coins discovered at the site belong to the period of Roman provincial rule. Some were minted in Ashqelon and others were minted in cities from throughout the Roman Empire. Aruts 7
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