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Shlomi Amami

SMALL VESTIGES OF DEEP HISTORY. Because Nebi Samwil’s archaeology was so thoroughly disturbed by Crusader quarrying and building, small artifacts scattered across the site, like these two jar handles, helped Magen reconstruct the pre-Crusader history of Nebi Samwil. The handle is from a Persian-period storage jar (539–332 B.C.E.) impressed with the Aramaic word “Yehud,” which was the Persian name for the administrative province of Judah. The Umayyad-period jar handle (661–750 C.E.) is inscribed in Arabic “the Monastery of Samuel,” a clear indication that the Byzantine monastery continued to exist well after the Arab conquest.