Ḥermeshit, Ḥorvat
THE SITE
EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATIONS
The site was first described in the British Survey of Western Palestine as a ruin with burial troughs, pits, and structural remains. Between 1978 and 1985, the site was surveyed several times during the Israel Survey conducted by R. Gophna and I. Beit-Arieh. From 1988 to 1997, a detailed survey and excavations were conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and funded by Neot Kedumim—The Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel—on whose land the site is located. The excavations were initiated by Z. Greenhut (1988–1990) and subsequently directed by M. Yron-Lubin. From 1997 to 1998, the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out extensive preservation and reconstruction of the site.
EXCAVATION AND SURVEY RESULTS
The residential compounds, agricultural installations, and other installations at the site are typical of farming communities in the Shephelah and western Samaria. These include cisterns, wine and oil presses, terraces, ritual baths, lime kilns, tombs, roads, and quarries. Most of the archaeological remains are located on the northern slope of the hill, but some have been found on the other sides of the hilltop; they cover a c. 36-a. area. Survey and excavation results indicate settlement at the site during the Late Hellenistic (Hasmonean), Early Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic periods.
AREA B. Area B yielded remains from the Early Roman to the Umayyad periods.
Stratum V (The Early Roman Period). An alley running southwest to northeast separates two residential complexes. The western complex includes six rooms, underground cellars, and a drainage channel covered with stone slabs. The eastern complex has a central courtyard paved with stone slabs, an underground ritual bath on the courtyard’s western side, two cisterns, and seven rooms arranged around the courtyard on the south, east, and north; the complex extends south and east beyond the excavated area. The original plans of the Early Roman phase buildings were preserved through the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, their floors having been raised and other minor changes carried out.
Stratum IV (The Early Roman Period). A number of repairs and architectural changes were made in this stratum, following the hewing of an underground hiding complex. The entrances to the cellars utilized in the stratum V complex were blocked and the cellars were expanded into broad underground halls. The ritual bath of stratum V went out of use.
The hiding complexes from this stratum are dated to the Second Jewish Revolt. They consist of halls with connecting tunnels, blind tunnels, storage pits, and ventilation holes. This network is similar in plan to others found at the site.
Strata III and II (The Byzantine Period). The residential areas were renovated in the Byzantine period. Some units were expanded and a central structure, probably a hostel, was built. The alley and the courtyard floor were raised. The southern cistern remained in use. Three arches were fitted in a hall abutting the courtyard from the south, dividing the hall into three units. In stratum II, a public courtyard paved with large stones was built to the south of the residential structure. The hiding complexes were converted into a storage compound sometime in the Byzantine period.
Stratum I (The Umayyad Period). The courtyard became a dump for construction debris removed from the buildings, which were subdivided and utilized as dwellings or workshops.
AREA A. Remains of domestic dwellings in the southern and western part of area A consist of plastered installations in strata V and IV. These were put out of use when an oil press and the western residential units were constructed during the Byzantine period. In the Early Islamic period, rooms were repaired and subdivided, and some were utilized as garbage dumps.
THE CHAPEL. On the northeastern slope is a rectangular structure oriented north–south and with two entrances, one on each side of its southwestern corner. The structure has two rooms paved in white mosaic. In the mosaic of the southern room, opposite the western entrance, a Latin cross is depicted in alternating white and red tesserae. Below the arms of the cross appear the letters
WINEPRESSES. Fourteen winepresses have thus far been found at
Winepress 49a has a square (4.5 by 4.5 m) treading floor covered with a white mosaic patterned in five concentric peripheral bands. A square indentation to hold the screw mechanism in place is hewn in the center of the treading floor. Originally there were four raised auxiliary mosaic floors to the sides of the treading floor; one of these was preserved, and only partially. Liquids on these floors were drained onto the treading floor by means of tiny holes in rock-hewn, apse-like recesses paved in white mosaic. To the east of the treading floor was a plastered surface with two hewn collecting vats, connected by a hewn hole. The smaller vat was used to collect juice only during pressing by the screw mechanism; juice entered the vat via an upper gutter and an underground lead pipe. Both vats have a depression at the bottom for the settling of residue. Only the floor of the large vat was paved in white mosaic. Fired bricks uncovered during the excavation of the winepress may indicate that it was surrounded by walls and possibly even roofed. The form of the winepress and the pottery found therein indicate a Byzantine period date. It seems to have been abandoned at the beginning of the Early Islamic period.
OIL PRESSES. Three oil presses (press no. 2, one in area A, and one in area G) were found at the site, all of the press-beam-screw type, with a pair of stone blocks serving as screw bases, an arrangement typical of this region. All three were constructed during the late Byzantine period and remained operational during the Early Islamic period.
Oil press no. 2 was divided into four or five rooms, the main one being the northeastern, a roofed space with the crushing installation on its western side and the oil extraction installation on its lower, eastern side. The beam-and-screw method, common during the Byzantine period, was utilized; both screw bases were lined up along a single axis, the smaller (screw base) weight closer to the pressing surface. A unique feature common to the oil presses at this site are holes in the walls of the rooms in which the extraction installation was located; these may have anchored rods supporting perpendicular wooden planks used to stabilize and adjust the pile of baskets used in the process.
The entrance to the oil press, from the south, led into a roofed chamber paved with mosaics and stone slabs and containing a reservoir, a round basin that apparently served as a pressing installation, and a feeding trough. Between the entrance chamber and the extraction room was an elongated room, the southern part of which was paved in white mosaic and may have been used for storage. Another two chambers were discovered in the northern part of the building. Feeding and drinking troughs found in these chambers probably indicate use as a stable. Under the western chamber was a system of earlier underground burrows, perhaps used to collect urine from the animals kept there after the construction of the stable.
The oil press in area G is situated on the hilltop at the southern edge of the site. It consisted of a crushing installation, a pressing unit with two screw weights, an extraction installation, and a collecting vat. A basilica abuts the oil press to the east. Only partially excavated, it is a rectangular structure oriented east–west. Its nave is separated from the southern aisle by a row of columns; the northern aisle has not yet been exposed. The floor of the nave is paved in a multi-colored mosaic with geometrical and floral designs.
The oil press in area A is located in the western part of the large residential and industrial complex uncovered in that area. The installation consisted of a crushing installation, an extraction unit with a beam press (of which two stone blocks that served as screw bases remained), a collecting pit, and a storage installation.
AGRICULTURAL TERRACES AND OTHER REMAINS. Agricultural terraces on the northern slope, in area B, were excavated. These terraces appear to have been constructed during the Byzantine period (strata III–II) and filled with soil taken from the banks of
A ritual bath (locus 64) discovered on the slope of the northeastern hill dates to the Second Temple period. The rock-hewn installation consisted of steps leading down through an arched entranceway to a stepped underground pool. A collecting vat belonging to a winepress that went out of use when the ritual bath was constructed was used as an entrance to the bath. The entire installation was covered with several layers of plaster, the bottommost layer consisting of gray plaster with small bits of limestone gravel, a material commonly associated with Second Temple period ritual baths. Associated pottery is dated from the second century BCE to the first century CE.
During the survey, three complexes of loculi (kokhim) from the end of the Second Temple period were found, as well as 23 tombs—either trough burials or underground burial chambers with arcosolia—typical of the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. In two places the burial troughs were arranged in groups of four and five. Found on the northeastern side of the site was a hewn underground complex consisting of an entranceway with steps, a corridor, an anteroom or courtyard, and an underground chamber. Apparently the complex was never completed or used.
On the northern part of the hill a hewn rectangular installation was found, with seven narrow steps (0.15 m wide) running the installation’s entire width. A channel leads to the installation’s southeastern corner. Its walls are plastered and at its bottom is a hewn rectangular depression. It has been proposed that the installation was used for textile processing.
The survey revealed 40 bell-shaped cisterns, concentrated mainly at the center of the site and dating to every period of its occupation; and 7 Islamic period lime kilns. Two agricultural roads were found at the site, one of which incorporated a series of rock-hewn steps. In addition, quarries and cupmarks typical of agricultural settlement activity were also found.
SUMMARY
The finds uncovered during the survey and excavation at
During the Second Temple period
Among the remnants from the Byzantine period site, the inhabitants of which were Christian, are a rectangular chapel, a hostel, a basilica, three oil presses, winepresses, tombs, and agricultural terraces. During the first phase of this period, the village was organized on the basis of private plots, judging by the fact that the installations were spread out on all sides of the hill. Later in the period, the settlement’s economic structure changed; the simple winepresses were replaced by complex ones. During this phase the village became an estate with a hostel, a chapel, and a basilica.
In the Early Islamic period the population was Muslim. The village was reduced in size and architectural changes were made to pre-existing structures. Lime kilns were built and the oil presses remained in operation.
ZVI GREENHUT, MICHAL YRON-LUBIN
THE SITE
EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATIONS
The site was first described in the British Survey of Western Palestine as a ruin with burial troughs, pits, and structural remains. Between 1978 and 1985, the site was surveyed several times during the Israel Survey conducted by R. Gophna and I. Beit-Arieh. From 1988 to 1997, a detailed survey and excavations were conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and funded by Neot Kedumim—The Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel—on whose land the site is located. The excavations were initiated by Z. Greenhut (1988–1990) and subsequently directed by M. Yron-Lubin. From 1997 to 1998, the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out extensive preservation and reconstruction of the site.