The archaeological site of Naḥal Ḥaggit is set on a hill in the Manasseh Highlands between Naḥal Ḥaggit and Naḥal Tut/Daliya (Wadi Milik), 4 km northwest of Bat Shelomo. It commands a good view over the Zikhron Ya‘aqov–Jokneam road, a secondary interregional route between the coast and the Jezreel Valley; the major route is through Naḥal ‘Iron (Wadi ‘Ara) to the south. The site was originally discovered by Y. Olami as part of the Archaeological Survey of Israel (Map of Daliya). Excavations were conducted by J. Seligman of the Israel Antiquities Authority in 1993, prior to the construction of a power station. Approximately 1.4 a. of the 2-a. site were excavated.
Three strata were distinguished at Naḥal Ḥaggit. The first (stratum I) consisted of only ceramics, coins, the bottom part of a refuse pit, some mikvehs, and a few dismantled walls. It probably dates from the first century BCE until the mid-second century CE (perhaps up to the end of the Second Jewish Revolt in 135 ce). The major occupation is that of stratum II. Ceramics and abundant coins date this stratum from the late second century until the end of the third century or beginning of the fourth century CE. After a long period of abandonment, the final period of settlement is reflected in stratum III, dated to the Middle Ages, from the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries CE.
The site appears to have been occupied by Jews, or possibly Samaritans, during its early stages, as indicated by the presence of many mikvehs. It was one of the many rural settlements founded in the hinterland of the pagan cities of Caesarea and Dor following the conquest of the region by the Hasmoneans. Many settlements, including Naḥal Ḥaggit, were abandoned as a result of the First or Second Jewish Revolt, while other settlements, such as Sumaqa to the north, continued to exist and even prosper. As a consequence of the Second Jewish Revolt, the area south of Naḥal Daliya was redefined as Provincia Palaestina. It is during this period of Pax Romana that Naḥal Ḥaggit was reoccupied, possibly by veterans. In the third century CE, the border moved slightly to the north of Dor, with the area including Naḥal Ḥaggit falling under the control of Caesarea. The dominance of Caesarea coins in the numismatic assemblage from the site strengthens this understanding of the division of territorial control. The region became part of Palaestina Prima during the reign of Diocletian, towards the final abandonment of the site. A possible reason for its relinquishment could be a collapse of its economic/agricultural feasibility due to its peripheral location. Surveys conducted in the Carmel have shown that the population of this region was limited in size from the end of the Byzantine period through the Middle Ages. Naḥal Ḥaggit remained empty until the Crusader or Mameluke periods, when it was reoccupied as a small village or hamlet of unknown name. The site was soon abandoned, as indicated by the finds in the excavation.
EXCAVATION RESULTS
THE EARLY ROMAN PERIOD (STRATUM I). Few remains of the Early Roman period survived. Most of the site had undergone a complete architectural transformation during stratum II; the initial indication that there had been an earlier period came in the form of pottery and coins. Later uncovered were a number of hewn installations that were out of character with the stratum II finds. Also unearthed were a number of walls most probably dismantled for the construction of the stratum II settlement. The wall segments together form a rectangular enclosure measuring 23 by 17 m, with a stepped, plastered pool hewn in the bedrock in its center. Three additional stepped pools cut into bedrock were found in the northwestern section of the site, though not all were plastered. These pools were used as mikvehs, a clear ethnic indicator identifying the population of the site during stratum I as Jewish or Samaritan. It was a farm settlement in this period. The pottery and numismatic evidence points to abandonment in the early second century, following the Second Jewish Revolt, which ended in 135 CE.
THE ROMAN PERIOD (STRATUM II). Stratum II is the main stratum at the site. It consists of a huge, well-planned complex with a clear functional division of space. The complex is a square enclosure (89 by 89 m) surrounded by a 1-m-wide wall, entered from the south through a single gate with a huge stone threshold, facing Naḥal Tut. A postern was found at the northeastern corner of the enclosure. On the inside are two rows of interconnecting rooms constructed along much of the outer wall of the complex. Within the rooms were milling installations, baths, and large quantities of finds, especially pottery. The central courtyard contained at least four groups of buildings, sub-divided into individual houses. These dwellings typically consisted of three or more rooms facing a small courtyard and a cooking area containing one or two tabuns. Some of the houses have plastered hip-baths cut into the bedrock. The only internal water source was a single large cistern located at the center of the site, while the natural water sources closest to the site were springs a short distance from the hill, one of them protected by a small watchtower. The walls of the site were built of crude fieldstone, though the doorways between the rooms were usually constructed from soft limestone jambs, often with bolt holes.
Set in the northern part of the central area of the site was an olive-oil press consisting of a single crushing basin and two pressing units, each using a different pressing method. The first was based on the lever-and-weights method, including a rock-cut pressing surface and a weight pit; a single weight was found in secondary use in a wall of stratum III. The second press was of the direct-screw type, the earliest of its kind found to date. It consisted of a pressing bed connected to a lateral vat, with dovetail holes cut into the bedrock for fixing wooden side beams on either flank. In the immediate area of the presses were three round plastered pits suggested to have been used to separate the oil from the lees. Found in the pits were large broken amphorae shown by petrographic analysis to be of Spanish origin.
The substantial outer wall, the squared and ordered architecture, the rows of rooms along the interior of the walls, and the gate area facing the road in Naḥal Tut led to the initial supposition that the site was military in nature. Analysis of the plans of castella of the limes of Provincia Arabia show a remarkable degree of similarity with the architecture of Naḥal Ḥaggit, as do a number of other castella sites with no outer towers, though their dating is generally later. It is recalled, however, that two olive-oil presses were discovered in the center of the site; around them were houses grouped around courtyards. The finds—millstones, grinding stones, agricultural tools—were also purely agricultural in nature. Possible military artifacts were limited to two arrowheads, but these could also serve for hunting. Given these findings, the site should be understood as having been a rural farmstead with meticulously ordered architecture, which reflects centralized planning or control. Parallels to farm buildings of this plan are absent from the archaeological record of the Land of Israel, but fall into the pattern of complex farmhouses found elsewhere in the Roman Empire, especially in Tripolitania. The similarity to military architecture, however, is perhaps not a coincidence. It is known that Roman veterans settled in areas evacuated by the Jews following the defeat of Bar Kokhba. It is possible that Naḥal Ḥaggit was given to a veteran in the second century CE as a farm in the hinterland of Caesarea and a new complex was constructed according to a familiar plan—that of the castellum. Fortified villas, a direct descendent of the castrum, are known from several sites in the Roman Empire.
The Roman period farmstead at Naḥal Ḥaggit was in use for a limited period. The numismatic finds date exclusively to the third century CE. The ceramics represent a local assemblage of the Roman period with many types manufactured both before and after the dates given by the numismatic evidence, but all falling into the same general timeframe. Other finds, such as glass, confirm this dating. Abandonment of a site of this size after roughly a century of occupation may indicate that the marginal agricultural niche it occupied was insufficient to maintain it. The site remained uninhabited until the early Middle Ages.
THE MAMELUKE PERIOD (STRATUM III). The resettlement of the site in the Mameluke period ignored the spatial organization that had characterized the earlier occupations. A series of rooms with no apparent plan were clustered together in the southeastern quarter of the site. The new residents utilized the earlier remains as a source of building stones. Although space was abundant, the houses or rooms were built closely together, presumably to provide some measure of protection from bandits. Remains of the stratum were clearly visible on the surface prior to excavation, as the ground was strewn with the debris of the collapsed walls. The meager finds consisted of local pottery and a few coins dated to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE, always mixed with material from the earlier Roman loci. The site was occupied as a small hamlet for a short period only and was subsequently abandoned, never to be resettled.
The cemetery of stratum III, located to the west of the houses, was cut into the remains of stratum II, causing it heavy disturbance. The graves were almost all single tombs dug into the ground on an east–west axis. The inhumed were always laid on their right side, feet to the east, head to the west, and face to the south, indicative of Muslim burial practice. The legs were laid one upon the other. Forty-three graves were discovered in all, with no associated small finds or ceramics.
JON SELIGMAN
Y. Olami, Daliya Map (31): 15–22 (The Archaeological Survey of Israel), Jerusalem 1981; J. Seligman, ESI 16 (1997), 61–63.
INTRODUCTION
The archaeological site of Naḥal Ḥaggit is set on a hill in the Manasseh Highlands between Naḥal Ḥaggit and Naḥal Tut/Daliya (Wadi Milik), 4 km northwest of Bat Shelomo. It commands a good view over the Zikhron Ya‘aqov–Jokneam road, a secondary interregional route between the coast and the Jezreel Valley; the major route is through Naḥal ‘Iron (Wadi ‘Ara) to the south. The site was originally discovered by Y. Olami as part of the Archaeological Survey of Israel (Map of Daliya). Excavations were conducted by J. Seligman of the Israel Antiquities Authority in 1993, prior to the construction of a power station. Approximately 1.4 a. of the 2-a. site were excavated.
Three strata were distinguished at Naḥal Ḥaggit. The first (stratum I) consisted of only ceramics, coins, the bottom part of a refuse pit, some mikvehs, and a few dismantled walls. It probably dates from the first century BCE until the mid-second century CE (perhaps up to the end of the Second Jewish Revolt in 135 ce). The major occupation is that of stratum II. Ceramics and abundant coins date this stratum from the late second century until the end of the third century or beginning of the fourth century CE. After a long period of abandonment, the final period of settlement is reflected in stratum III, dated to the Middle Ages, from the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries CE.
