<< Other Photo Pages >> Shoket Junction - Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel
Submitted by motist on Thursday, 01 September 2016 Page Views: 4029
Multi-periodSite Name: Shoket JunctionCountry: Israel Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Beer Sheva Nearest Village: Abu Sbeit
Latitude: 31.307180N Longitude: 34.901875E
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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External Links:
Excavations reveal 6,000-year-old city, and Roman-era frescoes.
In a project involving local young people in southern Israel, archaeologists have uncovered an ancient underground network of homes and storage spaces linked by tunnels. Also rare frescoes of animals, plants and people have been found at the site in northern Israel.
The recently uncovered cluster of underground structures beneath the Shoket junction date back about 6,000 years The Israel Antiquities Authority is set to complete its dig near the roadway ahead of plans to build a new junction on the site as part of the Trans-Israel Highway project.
During the dig, archaeologists found ancient homes built along the Hebron Stream, surrounded by a vast network of underground spaces dug into the soil. Some of the spaces are lined with large stones and others are connected by underground tunnels.
The IAA said the underground cavities, which maintain relatively cool temperatures despite the hot climate in the Negev Desert, were used for storage and production during the Chalcolithic period. The spaces may have also been used as living quarters.
Hundreds of clay vessels found at the site provide evidence of the extensive human activity that took place inside the underground spaces. Among the clay artifacts found were storage jars, churns, decorated tableware, spindles and loom weights for creating textiles. Stone tools for grinding grains were also found, along with sickles, axes, knives and grain seeds.
The excavation was led by Dr. Ron Beeri, Vladik Lifshitz, Alex Fraiberg, Moran Belila and Ilanit Azoulay, who worked together with more than 100 youths from southern Israel as part of an IAA project to bring young people closer to their cultural heritage and encourage them to take proper care of Israel's antiquities. Young people from Beersheba, Lehavim, Meitar and Arad, among other places, participated in the dig.
Beeri said of the finds: "During this period, we see the early use of irrigation ditches to direct water from the rivers to the fields. The towns, which sit along the Hebron Stream and the Beersheba River, [were built] directly on the banks of the river at an incredible density. In the excavation, we found a large amount of grain seeds, and my guess is that the residents took advantage of the river floods to divert water for irrigation."
Source: Israel Hayom
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