Qatzrin—Reconstructing Village Life in Talmudic Times

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Before 1967, the Golan Heights was, archaeologically speaking, terra incognita. Since then, surveys and excavations have revealed a rich Jewish life there during the third through eighth centuries C.E.,^a what may be regarded as the talmudic and early medieval periods in Jewish history.^b

For nine years I (Ann Killebrew) have been directing excavations in the talmudic-period village of Qatzrin¹ (pronounced kats-REEN).² Ancient Qatzrin is one of approximately 30 Jewish villages in the central Golan. Its synagogue is the best preserved in the region.”^c

The goals of this project were to excavate the synagogue and to recreate its ancient setting as the central focus of Jewish daily life in the village.

As we excavated the stone walls and floors of the complex and fascinating Byzantine village houses, I realized that in their excavated state they would be incomprehensible to the general public. As we continued digging, I became increasingly concerned with how we could best present the excavated remains not just to scholars, but to lay people. The answer was to recreate the atmosphere of a traditional Jewish house by reconstructing one of the excavated household units to its second story and to restore the interior as well.

In deciding precisely how to reconstruct the building, we used not only the archaeological information from 046our own site, but parallels from other sites as well.³ For example, no building at Qatzrin was preserved to the second story, but in other archaeological sites, especially in southern Syria and elsewhere in the Golan, Byzantine structures still stand to the second story, so we used them as models.

A second source of guidance was Jewish literature from this period, particularly rabbinic literature. In the sidebar “Entry into Rabbinic Literature,” we briefly describe each of the works that we cite in this article and explain some of the terms used in describing this literature.

While the late antique Jewish literature is a gold mine of information, it is extremely difficult for anyone not expertly trained in its special literary conventions to mine and place it in historical context. I therefore decided to team up with a historian of Judaism during late antiquity, Steven Fine, also of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who is the co-author of this article.

Together we have combined archaeological and literary resources in this article to illustrate the Talmudic Village of Qatzrin. In the discussion that follows, we have used rabbinic sources broadly to illustrate how those Jews who followed the rabbis lived in the land of Israel during the period from the second to the eighth centuries C.E. Methodologically, this was somewhat problematic, because the Jews of Qatzrin were not scholars but villagers and farmers. In addition, our literary sources seldom mention the Golan Heights. Nevertheless, the conservatism of traditional culture in this part of the world, and the close correspondence between the literature and the archaeological record, gave us some assurance that we were as close to being historically accurate as possible.

One final source that has proved helpful is ethnographic surveys of Druze^d villages in the Golan Heights. These studies (by Ann Killebrew) lend support to the archaeological and literary evidence. Even before these ethnographic studies, other research had demonstrated a close relationship between dwelling houses in the Roman and Byzantine periods and traditional Arab housing in the land of Israel.⁴

From the archaeological evidence, we know that the Qatzrin synagogue was constructed during the fourth century C.E. It was enlarged in the early sixth century C.E. and remained in use until the mid-eighth century, 100 years after the Arab conquest of the region. The famous earthquake of 747, along with deteriorating economic and political conditions, was probably responsible for the final desertion of ancient Qatzrin in the mid-eighth century C.E.

To the east of the synagogue, sections of three domestic structures were excavated. Unlike the synagogue, where three main architectural phases may be discerned, the village houses developed architecturally according to the individual needs of each family. Excavation of a domestic section of a site can be quite challenging archaeologically. Each house, and often each room, has its own architectural development, creating a separate stratigraphic sequence for each household unit.

During the Byzantine period,⁵ houses included as many as 15 rooms. These dwellings, or, more accurately, family compounds, housed several generations of an extended family. Each family compound, or insula, consisted of interconnected nuclear family units.

The typical nuclear family unit focused on a large room called a traqlin in rabbinic literature; in Greek it’s triklinion and in Latin, triclinium, a kind of dining room. The traqlin, in effect, served as a multipurpose, or family, room. The main floor also usually included storage rooms and an unroofed courtyard. On the upper floor was the sleeping loft. The interior design of the house sets the context for a homiletical midrash that tells us that man can be in only one place at one time, but the divine presence is everywhere (Midrash Psalms 24:5):

“R.^e Phineas said: When a king of flesh and blood is in the bedroom he is not in the traqlin; when he is in the traqlin, he is not in the bedroom; but the Holy One, Blessed be He, fills the [worlds] above and below, as it is written: ‘His Glory is upon the earth and the heavens’ [Psalm 148:13] and it is written: ‘For I fill heaven and earth [declares the Lord]’” [Jeremiah 23:14].

As already noted, our study of the archaeological remains indicated that household units were added on to the main house according to the needs of the family. This is paralleled in the literary sources, which suggest that on the occasion of a son’s marriage the patriarch of the house would add on a new unit. The Mishnah (Baba Bathra 6:4) describes such a scenario:

“He who sells land to his fellow to build him a house: Similarly, one who receives [land] from his fellow to build a wedding house [for his son and his new bride] or a widow house [for his daughter who has become a widow], builds [a room] four by six cubits [approximately 6 feet by 9 feet]. So says Rabbi Aqiva.”

In the Babylonian Talmud the addition of a “wedding house” for one’s son is considered an occasion for great joy (Taanit 14b, Megilla 5b).

After several generations of additions, the result was a large family complex of numerous connected household units, such as we found at Qatzrin.

Another common household plan included a large central courtyard surrounded by rooms on three sides. It was probably this architectural form that the rabbis of the Mishnah referred to as a “Tyrian” courtyard. One such courtyard was excavated at Qatzrin and was the location of the large, recently discovered, coin hoard (see the sidebar “Coin Hoard Found at Qatzrin on Last Day of Dig”).

Archaeologists always try to understand the architectural development of the structures they excavate. Several methods are helpful: Small test probes below 047floor levels can provide useful material for dating the construction of the floor. Architectural analyses of masonry techniques and styles can also unravel a tangled architectural history. We used both of these techniques in studying the household units at Qatzrin. In general, the earlier masonry style at the site consisted of rounded boulders constructed in courses with small chips filling in the spaces between the boulders. Later builders used roughly worked, rectangular blocks placed in courses. All buildings at the site were constructed of black basalt stone, the raw material most abundantly available in this region. Interestingly enough, the different types of stone carving known in late antique Palestine set the context for a homiletical midrash, “The Fathers According to R. Nathan, Recension A” (chapter 28):

“Rabbi Elezar son of Shammua says: There are three types of scholars [which may be equated with three types of dressed stones]: the faced ashlar, the cornerstone, and the mosaic tessera.

“The faced ashlar: he is the disciple who has studied only midrash [Biblical exegesis]. When a scholar comes to him and asks him about midrash he answers him. That is a faced ashlar, for it is finished on only one side.

“The cornerstone: he is the disciple who has studied only midrash and halakhah Jewish law]. When a scholar comes to him and asks him about midrash he answers him; about halakhah, he answers him. That is a two-faced cornerstone, for it is finished on only two sides.

“The [mosaic] tessera: he is the disciple who has studied midrash, halakhah, aggadah [lore] and tosefta [additional legal traditions]. When a scholar comes to him and asks him about midrash he answers him. That is a faced ashlar, for it is finished on only one side. When a scholar comes to him and asks him about midrash he answers him; about halakhah, he answers him; about tosefta, he answers him; about aggadah, he answers him. And that is the [mosaic] tessera, for it is finished on all four sides.”

Roofs of buildings are rarely discovered in excavations. How can we determine which spaces were roofed 048and which were not? Floors often indicate the function of the space, and after several seasons we noticed that spaces such as courtyards and streets were unpaved, while areas that were most likely indoor areas were floored with basalt paving stones.⁶ On that basis, the household unit in our outdoor museum was reconstructed.

After completing the reconstruction of the building itself, including the second story, we turned to the next challenge: the design of the interior, complete with furnishings and personal possessions.

Replicas of ceramic and metal artifacts found during the course of excavation were crafted for exhibition. However, items that were made of perishable materials (such as wood, reeds or fibers) do not generally survive except in very hot, dry climates such as the Judean desert, the Negev or Sinai. At Qatzrin, the climate is moist, so only a small percentage of the original household possessions—ceramic, glass and metal objects—were preserved in the archaeological record.

Accordingly, we reconstructed perishable household items with the help of finds from other sites where they have been preserved. For example, organic household objects have been found in caves near ancient Jericho dating to the Second Temple period (first century B.C.E.-first century C.E.). Other finds of this nature have been recovered from caves in the Judean desert, where arid climatic conditions allowed for their 049preservation. Second, valuable information can also be found in depictions on ancient mosaics and wall paintings dating to the Roman and Byzantine periods, the subjects of which sometimes include scenes from daily life. Third, ancient Roman, Byzantine and Jewish literatures contain a wealth of information regarding household possessions. Lastly, ethnographic research of village life in general, and in the Golan region specifically, has been incorporated into this reconstruction. In reconstructing these artifacts, we were careful to use natural materials local to the Golan and surrounding regions.

We call our reconstructed household unit the House of Rabbi Abun. It was named after him because an 050inscribed tombstone bearing the name of Rabbi Abun was found in secondary use in the ancient village. The title “rabbi” does not necessarily mean that Abun was a member of the rabbinic class. “Rabbi” (my master) was a popular title of respect and was specifically applied to scholars who produced the Mishnah, the Talmuds and Midrash.⁷

The House of Rabbi Abun has recently accreted a bit of folklore of its own. In August 1988, one of the residents of modern Qatzrin, Yoshua Ohana, reported having seen an apparition of Rabbi Abun one evening at dusk. According to Mr. Ohana, Rabbi Abun was hovering above the trees near the site of ancient Qatzrin. Word of Mr. Ohana’s vision spread rapidly and was soon reported in the press. Much to Mr. Ohana’s bewilderment, his fellow residents, as well as Jewish and Christian visitors from Israel and abroad, sought him out to obtain his blessing.

At the entrance to Rabbi Abun’s house, two outdoor ovens have been reconstructed. Each is protected by walls and is covered by a roof constructed out of reed and mud-plaster. Two types of ovens were excavated at the site. The most common oven was cylindrical in shape and was sunk below the living surface. Fuel, most likely dung cakes, was burned at the base of the oven until the oven’s sides were hot and most of the fuel was exhausted. Flat bread could then be baked by applying it to the interior sides of the oven. The second type of oven was domed with an opening at the top and often a second opening on the side. The Mishnah (Pesahim 3:4) describes communal baking of the unleavened bread called matzah, eaten by Jews during the festival of Passover. The procedure to bake matzah was very similar to that used in baking ordinary leavened bread:

“Rabban^f Gamaliel says: Three women knead together, and bake together in turn. The sages [proposing a different procedure] say: Three women work the dough: one kneads, one shapes [the dough] and one bakes. Rabbi Aqiva says: Not all women, and not all wood [for the fire], and not all ovens are equal[ly good for the task of baking].”

The House of Rabbi Abun is entered through a doorway constructed of ashlars (rectangular, worked stones). The outer entrances of dwellings were usually built of these especially well-hewn stones. The door itself is made of local cypress wood; its design is based on contemporaneous stone doors of burial tombs in the Galilee and Golan.

The Mishnaic rabbis discussed the legal responsibilities of a landlord to his tenant in regard to a door (Mishnah Baba Metzia 8:7):

“He who rents a house to his fellow: The landlord 051must provide a door, a bolt lock, a key and anything else that is made by a craftsman. But anything that is not made by a craftsman, the tenant must make.”

Keys and locks are well known from late antiquity. They have been found in burial caves at Herodian Jericho, as well as at Beth She’arim and Meiron in the Galilee.

The first room inside Rabbi Abun’s house is an indoor kitchen (see the sidebar “Reconstructing the Kitchen”), perhaps of the sort called a megerion in the Palestinian Talmud (Bezah 5:7, 63b). The Talmuds are written in Hebrew and Aramaic, which incorporate numerous Greek loan words such as megerion, meaning “kitchen.” The high number of Greek loan words used in ancient Jewish literature to identify household items, architectural features and many other objects reflects the significance of the Greek language and culture in Jewish Palestine.

Inside the kitchen, we reconstructed a domed oven discovered during excavation. It may have been used for heating and as a cooking oven during inclement weather, when cooking outdoors was difficult. We reconstructed a mudbrick chimney above this oven to allow the smoke to escape. In regions like the Golan, where stone is plentiful, mudbricks were used only for secondary interior construction. In the valleys and the coastal plain, where stone is scarce, mudbrick was used for primary walls as well. The choice of building materials at different locations was based on regional availability and preference. In the words of the Mishnah:

“Where it is customary to build using natural stone, or dressed stone, half-bricks, or [whole] bricks, so they should. Everything follows local usage” (Baba Bathra 1:1).

Next to the oven in the kitchen, we placed implements used by women in cooking. These include grinding tools, cooking pots and a large jar for water. A stack of cooking pots, of assorted sizes, stands to the left of the kitchen oven. This stacking procedure is mentioned in the Tosefta (Ohalot 10:2):

A pillar of cooking pots… is stacked inside the house [rising] from floor to [ceiling] beams, the bottom of one [pot resting] on the mouth [of the pot below], and the bottom of the next pot on the mouth of [the pot below it.]

Foods from this period are displayed in period baskets. In a poem discovered in the Cairo Genizah, R. Elezar son of R. Qallir (a synagogue poet who lived sometime during the sixth to eighth centuries C.E.) lists 36 foodstuffs common in Palestine during this period. This poem was recited in synagogues on the first day of Passover, when the spring rains subside in the land of Israel and reliance on the moisture of morning dew begins, as the spring produce starts to ripen.

“I will lead you—You who look into my dwelling place when it is like clear heat [in the sunlight and like the cloud of dew in the heat of the harvest].

“Dew of rest—Blossom forth those whose song is pleasant [Israel].

“Bless and make bountiful sesame seeds, and mustard and cumin and fennel.”⁸

These and other Palestinian agricultural products mentioned by the poet—lentils, wheat, barley, millet, coriander, Egyptian beans (ful), white beans, onions, turnips and garlic—are all exhibited in the kitchen of our talmudic-period house.

Several kinds of fuel were used for the fire. The most common was animal dung. Another was the remains of olives after pressing. In our indoor kitchen oven, we had excavated carbonized olive pits, indicating that this was the fuel used in this oven. So, in our 052reconstruction, the straw baskets next to the oven contain olive remnants after pressing.

After leaving the indoor kitchen, visitors are invited to relax on the benches and mats inside the large multipurpose room, the traqlin. Benches often provided the seating in private houses, so we have reconstructed them here. In the Tosefta (Baba Kamma 2:9), we find an interesting (and humorous) bit of legal discussion:

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“Five [people] sat on a bench, and it broke. All of them are liable to pay [compensation to the owner]. If it broke [solely] because of the last one, the last one must pay compensation [on behalf of] all of them.”

The traqlin was where the family received guests, ate meals and performed household tasks. It was the center of most household activities as well as festivities.

In the corner of the traqlin, opposite the entrance, we placed a wooden table with reproductions of typical table ware on it. This includes plates from Cyprus, from the western coast of Asia Minor and from North Africa—which were imported items possessed by the average villager of this period. Large, locally manufactured bowls called kraters were probably used as serving dishes. Small hand-made clay cups were probably used for drinking.

Above the table, wooden planks are suspended from ropes. They provided storage space for perishable foods.

Lamps and lanterns that burned olive oil and other oils supplied the lighting. Mishnah Shabbat 2:1–2 describes the types of oils that were appropriate for the Sabbath lamps. This discussion gives the divergent opinions of early rabbinic authorities (Shabbat 2:2):

“R. Ishmael says: Lighting is not done with tar, out of respect for the Sabbath. But the Sages permit all varieties of oil: sesame-oil, nut-oil, radish-oil, fish oil, colocynth-oil, tar, naphtha. R. Tarfon says: Lighting is done only with olive oil.”

Replicas of lamps filled with olive oil demonstrate how a traditional house of the period was lighted.

All traditional households required considerable storage space, because tools, as well as provisions for both the family and its livestock, had to be stored for long periods of time. At the western end of the traqlin, low walls separate two small spaces from the large multipurpose room. We have interpreted these spaces as storage space. An enclosed area like this would be suitable for large storage vessels of the sort that may have contained olive oil, wine or grain. Midrash Exodus Rabbah (25:1) describes a storage space:

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“Resh Laqish said: A mortal man makes for himself a storeroom and places within it assorted liquids, each variety segregated… ”

A second, and much larger, storage space is located on the other side of what we call a window wall. This window wall separates the traqlin from a storage room. Window walls are common architectural features of this period in the Golan, as well as in the adjacent basaltic regions of present-day southern Syria and northern Jordan. A window wall consists of an interior wall with a series of windows and an entrance that allows passage from the larger room to the smaller room. The window wall provides support for the ceiling and second story above the storage room. At the same time, it allows light and ventilation from the larger room into the smaller space. The window wall may also have provided space for shelves, thus serving as a kind of closet.⁹ The ceiling of the smaller room has been reconstructed with basalt beams placed on basalt corbels—all found at the site. We have put agricultural tools—including a plow, a yoke, a thresher, a winnowing fork and various other work implements—in this storage room.

Above the storage room, we posited a loft, now reconstructed. This loft was almost certainly reached by a wooden ladder. The residents probably used the loft as a sleeping space. In it we have placed a bed made of wood and rope. The bed was an 055essential item in any house. The Tosefta (Ketubot 6:8) teaches that helping an orphan set up his household, which includes a bed, is the responsibility of his community:

“An orphan who wishes to marry—they rent him house, and offer him a bed, and afterwards a wife…”

The last architectural element of the traditional house was the courtyard, where most of the women’s daily activities—washing, food preparation and cooking—took place. The Mishnah (Ketubot 5:5) describes women’s work:

“These are the tasks that a woman does for her husband: grinding [grain], washing [clothes], cooking, and suckling her child; preparing his bed and making wool.”

Here the Mishnah lists only a woman’s most essential tasks. In a locale where certain work was not customarily performed by a woman, a wife could not be compelled to do it. For example, R. Judah (second century C.E.) notes that a husband may not compel his wife to prepare linen, because this “causes her mouth to smell badly and makes her lips stiff” (Tosefta Ketubot 5:4).

Edibles were sometimes grown in the courtyard. The Mishnah (Ma’aserot 3:9) mentions grape vines, pomegranates, melon and figs.

In this same tractate, the Mishnah discusses whether foods grown in courtyards must be tithed. In the course of the discussion (Ma’aserot 3:5), different types of courtyards are discussed. Each rabbi suggests a different standard in his attempt to identify a courtyard that requires tithing:

“[In] what types of courtyards [must the edible plants that grow there] be tithed?

“R. Ishmael says: A Tyrian courtyard, in which tools are stored.

“R. Aqiva says: Every type where one [resident] opens [the gate] and another locks [it].

“R. Nehemiah says: Every type in which a person is not embarrassed to eat.

“R. Jose says: Every type into which one might enter and no one says to him ‘What do you want?’ is exempt.

“R. Judah says: Two courtyards, one within the other: the inside [courtyard] must [tithe], the outside [one] is exempt.”

We have restored two ovens in their original locations in the courtyard. Grinding implements, necessary for baking bread and preparing food, have been placed next to these ovens. Water is stored inside large clay containers placed in the courtyard. The Mishnah (Baba Metzia 3:5) also suggests that domesticated animals, including chickens, were kept in ancient courtyards.

The flat roofs of the houses were used in ways similar to the courtyards (Mishnah Eruvin 10:3, P.T. Eruvin 25c). During summer afternoons and evenings, family members often sat on the roof or ate their meals there. The Torah (the five books of Moses) was also studied on the rooftops—at least theoretically.

From the courtyard of the House of Rabbi Abun, we exit to the village path. As we have seen, rabbinic literature provides its own “code” for Jewish villages, designed to maintain harmonious social relations. In regard to a path or alley, the Tosefta (Baba Metzia 11:16) tells us:

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“Those who live on [the same] alley may prevent a tailor, a tanner or any other type of craftsman from dwelling among them, but one may not force his neighbor [not to take up these trades]. Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel (about 150 C.E.) [expressing a different view] says: They may force him [not to take up these trades].”

At ancient Qatzrin, archaeology and the Talmud become tangible, as the workings of a Jewish village of the Byzantine period come alive.

Before 1967, the Golan Heights was, archaeologically speaking, terra incognita. Since then, surveys and excavations have revealed a rich Jewish life there during the third through eighth centuries C.E.,a what may be regarded as the talmudic and early medieval periods in Jewish history.b For nine years I (Ann Killebrew) have been directing excavations in the talmudic-period village of Qatzrin1 (pronounced kats-REEN).2 Ancient Qatzrin is one of approximately 30 Jewish villages in the central Golan. Its synagogue is the best preserved in the region.”c The goals of this project were to excavate the synagogue and to recreate its ancient […]