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A slice of life. This cutaway view of the reconstructed house at Qatzrin, dubbed the House of Rabbi Abun, invites us to enter a typical Jewish house of the talmudic period (third-eighth centuries C.E.). Reconstructed with the help of archaeological, ethnographic and literary evidence, the house stands on a slope that rises to the right, so that open courtyards lie on the same level as the second story of the house. The walls and floors, built of local basalt stones, would have been plastered with mud throughout the interior in ancient times. The side door, today used as an exit by tourists, formerly led into a continuation (unexcavated) of the family compound, or insula. Such compounds sometimes contained as many as 15 rooms.