Syon 2017 Horbat Qoshet

Khirbat et-Tira (Bareqet) In March 2015, a salvage excavation was conducted at Moshav Bareqet, which is located within the boundaries of the site of Khirbat et-Tira (Permit No. A-7366; map ref. 194810/658240; Fig. 1), after ancient remains were damaged. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by Moshav Bareqet, was directed by G. Itach, with the assistance of Y. Amrani (administration), M. Kahan and R. Mishayev (surveying and drafting), A. Fadida (field photography), A. Dagot and C. Ben-Ari (GPS), M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing), H. Torgë (pottery reading), N. Zak (plans), R. Zuckerman-Cooper (archaeozoology), A. Gorzalczany (consultation) and A. 'Azab (IAA Central District archaeologist). Khirbat et-Tira was documented in the survey of the Map of Lod (Gophna and Beit-Arieh 1997:24, Site 19). Remains from the Early Bronze Age, and from the Iron Age II to the Byzantine period were identified. Archaeological excavations were conducted in and around the site, and remains from the Hellenistic, Byzantine and Mamluk periods were discovered, including architectural remains, burial caves, lime kilns, cisterns and winepresses (Masarwa 2012 (http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/Report_Detail_Eng.aspx? id=2091&mag_id=119), and see references cited therein).

This is an excavation report on the site of Horvat 'Avot in Upper Galilee Israel. That part of the site excavated yielded primarily Iron I remains, but also produced limited evidence of human activity in the Early Bronze, Middle Bronze and Persian periods. The site has architecture and a significant corpus of well-preserved Iron I pottery that is compared and contrasted with contemporary sites in the region.

A-7464; map ref. 189870/659660), prior to construction. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by the Matzlawi Company, Ltd., was directed by G. Itach, with the assistance of Y. Amrani (administration), A. Hajian (surveying and drafting), A. Dagot and C. Ben-Ari (GPS), M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing), N. Zak (plans), Y. Vardi (flint tools), M. Smilansky (flint drawing), R. Zuckerman-Cooper of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa (archaeozoology), A. Gorzalczany (scientific consultation) and A. 'Azab (IAA Central District archaeologist).

In December 2018, a salvage excavation was carried out in Yehud, south of Road 461 (Permit No. A-8391; map ref. 189380-400/659300-20), following damage to antiquities during infrastructure work for a sewage line. The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by the Mei Ono Water Corporation, was directed by G. Itach, with the assistance of Y. Amrani and E. Bachar (administration), A. Peretz (photography), V. Essman and M. Kahan (surveying and drafting), A. Dagot (GPS), Y. Agmon (graphics), M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing), I. Milevski (stone tools), M. Oron (flint items), T. Shadiel (archaeozoology), E.C.M. van den Brink (scientific consultant) and P. Gendelman (adviser), as well as A. 'Azab and D. Ben-Ami.

, a trial excavation was conducted near Ben Gurion Airport (Permit No. A-7758; map ref. 188023/655884). The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was directed by G. Itach, with the assistance of Y. Amrani and E. Bachar (administration), M. Kahan (surveying and drafting), Y. Agmon and D. Shahar (photography and assistance with the excavation), M. Landau (Israel Airports Authority), V. Eshed and Y. Nagar (physical anthropology), O. Barzilay (flint), A. Dagot and H. Ben-Ari (GPS), N. Zak (plans), A. Gorzalczany, P. Gendelman and E.C.M. van den Brink (scientific consultation), A. ʽAzab (Central District Archaeologist) and D. Ben-Ami (Central Region Archaeologist).

This essay assesses changes in settlement archaeology in the " heart " of the province of Judah (Yehud) under Achaemenid and Ptolemaic rule. Using the results of archaeological excavations and surveys, we will try to reconstruct settlement changes between the end of the Per-sian period and the Hasmonean period (fourth to mid-second centuries b.c.e.), with a focus on the contribution of the fourth century to the process. Judah and especially Jerusalem, owing to their role in biblical literature and their religious impact on Western civilizations, have long been important in archaeological research. However, the research directed at the region's first-millennium b.c.e. history was mostly fo-cused on the periods that preceded and succeeded the one under dis-cussion—that is, it was mostly focused on the First Temple period and the latter part of the Second Temple period—times when the country was a small but independent political entity. In the last few years, there has been growing interest in the settlement archaeology of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian (Achaemenid) periods. The early Helle-nistic period, however, has largely been ignored, partly because of the methodological problems that we will discuss below and partly because of its intermediate nature as a transitional period between the domination of the region by Eastern and Western powers. The available data seem at first glance to be sufficient to tackle the problem at hand. However, they are actually quite problematic. In many of the large-scale excavations carried out in archaeological sites in Judah, the strata pertaining to the late Persian and early Hellenistic (Ptolemaic and Seleucid) periods were meager; some revealed few architectural remains with unclear building plans or pits (silos, refuse, etc.), while others yielded pottery at best, which was in some cases not classified by strata and did not represent proper occupation layers.