The Shoham Bypass Site
The Site
and its Investigation
The
site was discovered while preparing the area
for paving Highway 444, which bypasses the
city of Shoham from the east (map ref. – 1455/1556),
and was exposed in a salvage excavation conducted
by the Antiquities Authority during 1995-1996.
The Excavation
Results
Stratum VII – the
end of the Iron Age and the Persian
period.
A meager settlement of
which a few sections of walls have survived
on the southwestern side of the site. These
remains are insufficient in reconstructing
the plan and scope of the settlement. A ceramic
figurine of a woman and a few pottery sherds
from these periods were found in the lower
levels of fill throughout the site.
Stratum VII – the Hellenistic
period, the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
In the northern part of
the site three fortified buildings were exposed
that were constructed along a north south
axis. Building No. 1 is the most luxurious
of them. The outer face of its thick walls
is built with header-stretchers utilizing
large ashlar stones with drafted margins
and prominent bosses, reflecting the best
of the Hellenistic building tradition. Building
No. 2 measures 15 x 15 m and is also built
of large ashlars, but without drafted margins.
In the southern part of
the site a farmstead extending across an
area of c. 2.5 dunams was exposed and included
buildings, agricultural installations and
water cisterns. This was probably a fortified
farmstead of the type known from the northern
part of the Judean Shephelah in the Hellenistic
period, prior to the time of Hasmonean rule.
Stratum VI – the Hasmonean
period.
In the northern part of
the site a well-fortified citadel (c. 48
x 60 m) enclosed by a casemate wall was exposed.
The walls range between 1.0-1.6 m in thickness
and the outer and inner walls of the casemates
are c. 5 m apart. Many stones with coarsely
drafted margins were plundered from the farmstead
buildings of Stratum VI and were incorporated
in the construction of the casemate walls.
The citadel’s main opening was probably
in the center of the western wall, from which
extended a narrow street that opened onto
the main courtyard of the citadel. A drainage
channel is located below the street level.
Another opening that was reached by way of
a staircase was located in the middle of
the southern wall.
The casemate rooms were
used for storage. Numerous underground complexes
and water cisterns were exposed inside the
citadel. The finds included many coins dating
to the Hasmonean dynasty.
Stratum V – the
1st century CE until
the Bar
Kokhba Revolt
The
Hasmonean walls were renovated in the Herodian
period and many residential structures were
added both inside and outside the walls.
Two Roman-type bathhouses were incorporated
inside the casemate walls, one next to the
northern wall and the other next to the middle
of the eastern wall. Four ritual baths (miqve)
of different types were constructed and hewn
in the area of the fortified residential
quarters and near the agricultural installations
that were built in the southern part of the
site during this period. Southwest of the
citadel a small and unique miqve was built
that was preserved in its entirety, including
its stopper and drain, and south of it another
miqve was completely exposed that was installed
inside a cave.
A fortified structure built
of large ashlar stones that was probably
a tower was discovered next to the southeastern
corner of the citadel and further to the
southeast an oil press was exposed. The press’ crushing
unit and pressing installation, which was
operated by means of a beam and stone weights,
were preserved. A cave was discovered near
the oil press and in it were different installations
that were used for storing jars.
The small finds include
numerous pottery and glass vessels and a
few metal objects that are characteristic
of the Herodian period. The preparations
that were made prior to the Bar Kokhba uprising
are clearly visible in this stratum: water
cisterns and storage caves were adapted for
use as refuge complexes and numerous subterranean
silos were also hewn in order to store food.
Southern lamps, which are characteristic
of the period of the Bar Kokhba uprising,
were found in the refuge complexes. The bones
of more than 20 individuals were discovered
in one of the refuge complexes; half of them
belonged to women and children under the
age of 15.
The site was abandoned following
the revolt and during the 3rd and 4th centuries
CE there was only a meager presence there.
Stratum IV – the Byzantine and Umayyad periods
By
the end of the 5th century CE a large settlement
(perhaps a monastery) was built on the site,
on top of the ruins of the Hasmonean citadel
and the Roman period settlement. The new
settlement extended to the east and west,
beyond the boundaries of the earlier site.
The eastern end of a large building that
was excavated by Alexander Onn and Hagit
Torgë was exposed southwest of the citadel.
(That structure will not be described in
this article).
In the southeast of the
site a basilica church was constructed that
included a narthex and atrium. The nave and
northern aisle of the church were paved with
colored mosaics. The church has a single
exterior apse in the front of which was built
a bema demarcated by a marble chancel screen.
Two or three steps led from the nave to the
bema. Ancillary rooms were built north of
the basilica. A marble reliquary cover was
discovered in the church and in the atrium
was a fragment of a marble basin bearing
the inscription: ?tte? s?te??a? which means “for
the sake of His salvation…” and
several fragments of small marble columns
decorated with a mensa sacra or ambo. A complete
bronze incense burner was discovered on the
steps ascending from the atrium to the narthex.
A crypt was excavated below
the paving stones, in the middle of the atrium;
this is the only crypt to have been discovered
in the country beneath the atrium of the
church. Six tall steps lead to a low opening
accessing a rock-cut and plastered room measuring
3 x 3 m. The room includes an area for standing
flanked on three sides by hewn arcosolia.
Also discovered in the crypt were more than
one hundred skeletons that were placed one
atop the other in primary burial; the upper
part of the pile of skeletons was burnt.
Funerary offerings that include ceramic lamps,
three glass bottles, a glass thimble and
metal objects that date to the beginning
of the 7th century CE were discovered amongst
the skeletons.
The church continued to
be used in the Umayyad period, at which time
its plan was modified and it was enlarged.
At the beginning of the period the two rooms
situated north of the basilica’s northern
aisle were joined to create a chapel with
a square shaped apse. A stylized cross is
depicted in the mosaic that decorated the
chapel’s bema. Another smaller cross
is depicted in the mosaic below the mensa
sacra.
The economy of the settlement
was based on agriculture and on farm related
labor. A winepress and three oil presses
were exposed. The oil press that was located
west of the Hasmonean citadel was preserved
almost in its entirety. It includes a crushing
installation and two pressing units that
were operated by means of a screw. The two
screw weights are in excess of one meter
in diameter and stand c. 1.4 m high. Just
to the east of the oil press an elongated
hall paved with a coarse white mosaic that
was probably used for storing jars of oil
was exposed. Two plastered collecting vats
were installed in the floor of the hall.
The oil press also continued
to exist in the Abbasid period (Stratum III).
The small finds recovered
in this stratum include a body fragment of
a ceramic vessel bearing a rare stamped impression
of a winged angel grasping a cross in its
hand. Also discovered were two hoards of
gold coins that were buried inside small
ceramic juglets below the pavement in the
northwestern room at the site. It seems that
the Christian residents of the site were
apprehensive because of the Arab conquest,
since most of the coins are those of the
emperor Heraclius – the last Byzantine
emperor to rule the country prior to the
Muslim invasion.
Stratum III – the Abbasid period
The
settlement continued to exist and even flourished
during the Abbasid period; however, numerous
changes were made. Niches, courtyards and
streets were blocked off and new buildings
were constructed along the fringes of the
settlement. The residential buildings of
this stratum were covered with domes borne
atop four interior pillars. At some point
in the Abbasid period the chapel’s
mensa sacra was removed and in its place
a baptismal font was built. It seems that
the church ceased to be used only at the
end of the period, when it was destroyed
by a fire.
The settlement was abandoned
in the 10th century CE.
Stratum II – the
11th century CE
A meager occupation existed
mainly in the center of the site. Openings
and passages were sealed and walls were built
on top of the collapse; tabun were built
on the tops of walls. Lime kilns in which
limestone and marble were burnt were also
built along the edge of the site. It seems
that the residents of this stratum were Muslim
based on the Arabic inscriptions that were
discovered on lamps and pottery and based
on the absence of pig bones from the assemblage
of animal bones of the period.
This stratum ceased to exist
in the 12th century CE.
Stratum I – the
surface level
The surface level stratum
was damaged in the beginning of the 1960’s
when earthmoving works were carried out at
the site by the Jewish National Fund. The
mechanical equipment destroyed the upper
part of the site and damaged the mosaics,
walls and floors.
Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry |