Raqit, Ḥorvat
INTRODUCTION
In 1873, the site was visited by the Survey of Western Palestine and described as a stone heap, the earliest mention of the site. L. Oliphant (1883–1884) was the first to describe visible remains on the ground, noting buildings and agricultural installations. He also provided a partial description of Marinus’ tomb and its short Greek inscription. E. G. von Mülinen included Raqit on the map of his survey of Mount Carmel (1907), mentioning the remaining ruins and Marinus’ tomb with its Greek inscription. In the 1970s, the site was surveyed by Y. Olami as part of the Archaeological Survey of Israel. In the survey report, Olami and A. Kloner state that pottery vessels from the Roman and Byzantine periods were found at the site. In 1981–1983, Raqit was surveyed anew by H. Lahav and M. Parkash as part of a nature and scenery survey of Mount Carmel. The site was reexamined during the 1980s by H. P. Kuhnen during a study on the Mount Carmel area, in which he incorporated the results of previous surveys as well.
In 1996–2002, archaeological excavations were conducted at the site by S. Dar, assisted by Y. Ben-Ephraim, under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University and the Mount Carmel National Park.
EXCAVATION RESULTS
The excavated structures include residential areas, workshops, a synagogue, warehouses, an olive-oil press, and an open water reservoir. Surveyed remains include two winepresses, a stone quarry, and two burial caves located on the margins of the site.
THE SYNAGOGUE. A synagogue measuring 10.3 by 7.0 m was found in the southwestern part of the estate (area 16). It appears to have been incorporated into an earlier building complex in the second half of the third or beginning of the fourth century CE. It constitutes an interesting example of a public building constructed in a small rural settlement originally founded in the Late Roman period as an estate belonging to a wealthy family.
The synagogue was accessed from the north via a corridor. An entrance bearing a lintel with carved decorations opened onto a space flanking the hall, equipped with a cistern. Entry to the hall is through a doorway in its western wall. The floor of the synagogue hall is paved in a polychrome mosaic carpet within a double guilloche frame. At the center of the carpet is a medallion containing a Greek inscription, reading: “God, help. One is the only God.” The remainder of the mosaic is occupied by a pattern of diamonds inhabited by single stars. The dominant colors are white, reddish-brown, and black; there is also some gray and yellow. The inscription, which faces south, adopts a formula common among Jews and Samaritans during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods.
Two rows of benches line the walls of the hall. They are covered in thick, light-colored plaster. The benches could seat some 80 people. The ceiling and flat roof were upheld by four piers that supported two arches spanning the width of the hall; the bases of the piers and the capitals were found. The decorated lintel could be reconstructed based on fragments of it unearthed in the vicinity of the entrance. It was divided into five registers, from left to right, of a menorah, a rosette, a niche with a conch and auxiliary objects, a menorah or palm leaf-like ten-branched object, and another niche with a conch. Assuming that the decoration was symmetrical, another rosette with a menorah can be reconstructed to the right. While the composition is rare, the imagery on the lintel is representative of Jewish and Samaritan synagogue ornament in the Land of Israel during the Roman and Byzantine periods.
The synagogue hall and a part of the building complex were later paved with stone slabs, with no damage rendered to the mosaic floor or the inscription at its center. This was carried out in the mid-fifth century CE, when Raqit experienced periods of destruction and abandonment, perhaps a result of persecution and discriminatory legislation against the Jewish and Samaritan communities by the Byzantine authorities. In the first quarter of the sixth century CE, settlement at Raqit was renewed. Evidence for activity at the time was found inside the synagogue complex, though the compound was no longer utilized for prayer.
OLIVE-OIL PRESSES. An olive-oil press is located on the eastern part of the estate (area 30). The total area of the press, including storage areas and courtyards, has been estimated at 300 to 350 sq m. Finds include three lever-and-weight-type olive-oil presses, a stone crushing basin 1.55 m in diameter and 0.38 m high, and two fragmented crushing stones between 0.95 and 1.10 m in diameter. Some of the crushing stone fragments were later used as spolia. Each pressing unit had a pressing vat, an anchoring niche for the press beam, and two T-type stone weights. The total capacity of the vats was 350–370 liters. The beams would have been 4–6 m long and the stone weights weighed between 500 and 700 kg each.
The olive-oil press was in use from the third to the mid-fifth century CE. The building was restored at the beginning of the sixth century CE, although it is doubtful that it was used as a press at that point. The finds include sherds, glass fragments, cattle bones used as shovels, grinding and milling stones, many nails, and a mason’s or stonecutter’s iron axe. In addition, remnants of crushed olive pits were found, as was charred wood (Olea europaea and Cupressus sempervirens). Eight coins were retrieved, five from the fourth and fifth centuries CE, and three from the sixth and seventh centuries CE. The latter three were found on the upper restored level of the press building.
At a distance of 150 m to the northeast of the estate complex is a rock-cut olive-oil press consisting of a hewn basin (1.80 m in diameter), a pressing surface, and a collecting vat. The installation, which appears to antedate the press on the estate, was damaged at an early stage by quarrying activities.
STOREROOMS AND WORKSHOPS. An area of storerooms and workshops (area 11; 15 by 9 m) was excavated on the western side of the estate. At least four rooms with secondary internal divisions may be discerned. One storeroom was entirely cleared; it measures 5.80 by 3.85 m and has 0.70-m-wide walls constructed of two faces of dressed stones with a fill of fieldstone, thick enough to support an upper story. In the storeroom were found sherds belonging to hundreds of storage jars and cooking vessels, dozens of oil lamps, fragments of glass vessels and lumps of raw glass, stone vessels, and bones of cattle, sheep, goats, a mountain gazelle, and a domestic chicken. Also found were 148 coins, some dating from the fourth century CE but most from the first half of the fifth century CE. In addition, one Persian silver coin was found (fourth century BCE), as well as a Tyrian coin (first or second century
The storerooms seem to have been used for the keeping of a large number of storage jars full of agricultural produce, both for local consumption and sale. Evidence for glass recycling and production, as well as the forging of iron tools, was also found in the area of the storerooms. They were in use from the second or third century CE until the mid-fifth century CE, from which point they remained derelict until the second half of the fifth century to the first quarter of the sixth century CE. They were then rebuilt and used until the site was abandoned in the first half of the seventh century CE.
Three workshops were excavated. A workshop in area 1 measures c. 13.5 by 8.0 m and lies adjacent to the northwestern retaining wall of the estate. Some of its walls were constructed with unusually large stones, c. 1 by 1 m. Four squares (20 by 20 cm with an average depth of 10 cm) were cut into the bedrock under the building. The finds include white industrial tesserae, sherds, and glass fragments. The nature and function of the installation have not been ascertained. In the upper strata, a thick (40-cm-deep) layer of charcoal dust was found, perhaps the remnants of a charcoal production installation.
Another workshop is located in the northwestern corner of the estate (area 5). There, the base of a screw press was found inside a 7.5-by-7.5-m unroofed structure. The diameter of the base is 1.95 m and its height is 0.70 m. In the center of the stone is a mortise for fixing the wooden press. The base was placed on bedrock leveled with the aid of fieldstones and chalk. Two layers of paving were found, evidence that the installation remained in use over a prolonged period. The finds include a few sherds and glass fragments from the fourth and fifth centuries CE, a large number of tesserae, and a coin from the reign of Constantine I (308–337
BURIAL CAVES. Two burial caves were partially examined. One is Marinus’ tomb (area 50), located to the east of the estate. This burial cave was already known to the site’s surveyors in the nineteenth century due to its short Greek inscription in a tabula ansata referring to the tomb. Inside the cave are four loculi and two troughs. A corridor hewn in bedrock led to a façade decorated with rosettes. At the corridor’s end, in a ditch outside the cave, the remains of 42–43 individuals were found, including 14 men, 13 women, 11 children and infants, and other unidentifiable remains. The second cave, the Cave of the Burial Stone, is located to the southwest of the estate (area 53). A near-complete sealing stone was found in the vicinity of the destroyed entrance to the cave, which had later been used by shepherds. Inside the cave, seven or eight loculi could be discerned, and one trough. The remains of two men, two women, two children, and one unidentifiable individual were found in the cave. The physical-anthropological examination of the human remains in both caves indicates that the interred belonged to an extended family. They seem to have been in good health and well nourished. The adults are estimated to have been 40–50 years old at death.
OTHER REMAINS. One residential area is located in the northern part of the estate (areas 22, 23). It consists of a block of houses, 38.5 by 10 m, aligned on an east–west axis. Walls are 90 cm wide, their inner and outer faces constructed of well-dressed stone with a fill of fieldstones. Some doorways were found in situ. Three residential units (areas 18
A reservoir for the collection of rainwater was found to the east of the estate. Its dimensions are 19 by 19 m, its depth currently c. 3 m. (Oliphant states that when he visited the site in 1883–1884 the reservoir was 7 m deep.) Test trenches dug into the reservoir revealed 0.50–0.60-m-wide stone walls and remains of plaster. The estimated capacity was 1,000 cu m. It could have been used to water the animals on the estate and for a variety of other purposes.
Other remains surveyed include two rock-cut winepresses, 600 and 700 m to the southeast of the estate; they are simple, containing treading floors and collection vats. The overall capacity of both presses was 5,600 liters. A stone quarry, 20 by 15 m, was encountered at a distance of 200 m from the estate.
THE FINDS. The excavations at
Glass vessels include tableware and small bottles for cosmetics, dating from the end of the Roman and the beginning of the Byzantine periods. Lumps of raw glass were also retrieved, as were other objects connected to the manufacture of glass, from which it may be concluded that glass was recycled and produced at Raqit.
Some 70 stone items were found. Of particular interest are crushing and grinding vessels made of hard limestone and basalt. Olynthus and Pompeian millstones were found, as well as steatite spindle whorls and perforated limestone weights.
Over 180 metal objects made of iron, bronze, and lead were also discovered. Iron slag was also discovered, proof that local ironsmiths produced iron tools for the estate. A significant proportion of the metal items consists of nails of all sizes, knife blades, and other hardware needed for farming. Of particular interest are lead wine jar stoppers, which were used for controlling the fermentation process, lead sinkers used in fishing nets, and an iron stonecutter’s hammer.
A total of 383 coins were found in the various excavated areas. The most common issues are from the fourth–fifth centuries CE, consisting of 71 percent of the numismatic corpus; coins of the third–fourth centuries CE are 65 percent; those of the sixth–seventh centuries BCE, 24 percent. Solitary coins from as early as the fourth century BCE and as late as the seventeenth century CE were also found.
A study of the archaeozoological remains has shown cattle bones to have been more numerous than sheep and goat bones, an indication of the high economic status of the estate owners. Fish from the Mediterranean Sea and local deer remains were also present at the site, as were chicken and dog bones. Regarding the archaeobotanical remains, there is evidence for the cultivation of grapes, olives, and figs at the site. Remnants of wild trees, including Pistacia palaestina, Ceratonia siliqua, Crataegus aronia and Cupressus sempervirens, were found. Crop plans attested to include wheat, barley, legumes, and vetch (for animal fodder).
SUMMARY
The Raqit estate belonged to a wealthy Jewish or Samaritan family. It was first inhabited during the second century CE and remained in use until the first half of the seventh century CE. Its main period of occupation was during the third–fifth centuries CE. No evidence for habitation during the Early Islamic period has been found, however during the Crusader and Mameluke periods there was a limited presence at Raqit. At this point it may have no longer functioned as an estate, but as a small village.
SHIMON DAR
INTRODUCTION
In 1873, the site was visited by the Survey of Western Palestine and described as a stone heap, the earliest mention of the site. L. Oliphant (1883–1884) was the first to describe visible remains on the ground, noting buildings and agricultural installations. He also provided a partial description of Marinus’ tomb and its short Greek inscription. E. G. von Mülinen included Raqit on the map of his survey of Mount Carmel (1907), mentioning the remaining ruins and Marinus’ tomb with its Greek inscription. In the 1970s, the site was surveyed by Y. Olami as part of the Archaeological Survey of Israel. In the survey report, Olami and A. Kloner state that pottery vessels from the Roman and Byzantine periods were found at the site. In 1981–1983, Raqit was surveyed anew by H. Lahav and M. Parkash as part of a nature and scenery survey of Mount Carmel. The site was reexamined during the 1980s by H. P. Kuhnen during a study on the Mount Carmel area, in which he incorporated the results of previous surveys as well.