During September 2005 a salvage excavation was conducted in a number of areas southeast of Tel Hāy College, north of Qiryat Shemona (Permit No. A-4598*; map ref. NIG 25445–55/79295–315; OIG 20445–55/29295–315; Fig. 1), in preparation for an additional campus. The excavation, carried out on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and sponsored by the college, was directed by H. Smithline (photography), with the assistance of T. Grayev (area supervision), V. Essman and V. Pirsky (surveying), E. Belashov (drafting), L. Porath (pottery restoration) and H. Tahan (find drawing).
The proposed development area covers portions of two registered antiquities sites, Ras el-Biyad and Tel Barom (North). The area had been surveyed in 2002 (
HA-ESI 118) and the main feature was Ras el-Biyad, a small tell with remains dating from the Neolithic through the Early Bronze IA periods. Probe trenches dug by mechanical equipment in 2003 revealed ancient remains only in a very limited area of the site. The results of the survey and the probe trenches prompted the current excavation.
The designated excavation area is a strip of land (length c. 270 m; Fig. 2) that is bordered on the north by the approach road to the Tel Hāy Industrial Park; the Qiryat Shemona–Metulla road lies to the west. The area consists of three separate topographical features. The prehistoric and proto-historic tell of Ras el-Biyad is in the northeast and the highest point of the site. From this northern extremity, the basalt-strewn surface slopes down to the south, at first steeply, and forms a narrow limestone bedrock-based plateau with a shallow soil cover. The southern extremity is delineated by a sudden drop of the plateau, after which it attains the northern slope of Tel Barom nearly 1 km south of Ras el-Biyad. To the west, the plateau slopes steeply toward the third topographical feature, which is a limestone escarpment that was utilized for hewing burial chambers, quarries and various types of installations. The steep eastern slope is beyond the proposed development area.
Three excavation areas were opened: Area A, at the foot of the western slope of Ras el-Biyad; Area B, 50 m south of Area A, at the foot of the southwestern slope and Area C entailed the southern slope, the plateau and a section of the western escarpment.
Areas A and B
Four contiguous squares and one additional square, 30 m farther north were opened in Area A; five adjacent squares were laid out in Area B. Only one half of each square was excavated. The position of each square on the slope determined the thickness (0.3–0.7 m) of an archaeologically sterile soil layer that covered the soft limestone bedrock. The excavation of the ten squares revealed neither ancient activity nor any relevant antiquities. The absence of ancient finds was significant for assessing the development and functioning of the ancient settlements on Ras el-Biyad. At no period did any of the settlements expanded from the strategically positioned tell down the western slope.
An area (2.5 × 5.0 m) was excavated toward the bottom of Ras el-Biyad’s southern slope. The removal of a shallow soil cover revealed a south-sloping, apparently intentionally smoothed hard bedrock surface. No other human activity was discernible and only a few small and worn potsherds, datable to the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Mamluk periods, were uncovered.
Locus 502 (Figs. 3–5). On the northern edge of the plateau, c. 35 m south of L501, was a small exposed outcropping of soft limestone bedrock that exhibited evidence of hewing. Eventually, a rectangular swath of worked limestone (11.5 × 12.3 m) was cleared. Three forms of bedrock utilization were discerned, namely cupmarks, quarries and shafts. In the center of the area, a step slightly higher than the surrounding hewn rock surface and probably at the level of the original bedrock surface displayed two cupmarks (diam. 0.08 and 0.13 m respectively, depth 0.13 m). Immediately east of the cupmarks was an area that served as a quarry (c. 3 × 4 m). A smaller quarrying area was north of the cupmarks. Partial negatives of hewn stones, severance channels and a single stone whose removal was incomplete were visible. Three shafts, L502D (1.10 × 2.55 m), L502E (0.65x1.78 m) and L511 (0.90 × 2.08 m) were joined by a single small cist burial (L502B) and a single burial (L502A). Only one of the shafts (L511) was partially excavated, although the excavation was suspended upon reaching a blockage of large basalt stones. The northernmost burial, L502A (0.80 × 1.45 m) was found sealed with three large stone slabs. It is not clear whether it served as a cist grave or as a shaft leading into a burial chamber. The small cist, L502B (0.47 × 0.90; Fig. 6), was equipped with a ledge (width 0.08 m) for cover emplacement.
No datable material could be associated with the shafts or the burials that were not excavated. It appears that the burials postdated the quarry as the small cist was hewn into the quarried section of the outcropping. Similar shafts and cists are commonly found in the Roman and Byzantine Periods.
Locus 503 (Figs. 7, 8). A partially exposed bedrock area (5.2 × 9.0 m), c. 30 m southwest of L501 was cleared. Portion of a step quarry whose hewn steps were 0.35–0.45 m high was exposed. In the midst of the quarry, whose exact dimensions and shape were not determined, was a burial chamber shaft (1.03 × 1.65 m) whose excavation yielded no diagnostic finds and was suspended at a depth of 0.6 m, upon reaching a basalt-stone fill.
Locus 504 (Fig. 9). A rectangular hewn area (2.45 × 4.00 m) was excavated 20 m southeast of L503. It is 1.2 m high in the east and only 0.53 m high in the west, due to the sloping topography. Three hewn flanks created a small, partially closed space whose northern half contained numerous basalt boulders in disarray and its southern half was vacant. Very few ceramic fragments, dating from the Roman through the Mamluk periods, were found scattered in the space and none was relevant to the dating of the hewing or its function.
Locus 505 (Figs. 10, 11). Another quarry with a burial chamber shaft was exposed 10 m south of L504. The cleared irregularly shaped area (c. 5 × 8 m) proved to be of poor quality, with many cracks and fissures; hence, only a small portion of it was quarried for building stones.
The burial chamber shaft (1.1 × 2.0 m) was in the east of the outcropping. A pile of earth immediately to the west of the shaft was apparently removed from the tomb during illicit digging. The pile contained a poorly preserved northern oil lamp (Fig. 12). The mold-made, egg-shaped lamp has a channel running from the unadorned discus to the wick hole. Its surface is decorated with few incised strokes and circles in relief. The base is decorated with an impressed branch pattern, probably of an olive tree. A nearly identical lamp, dated to the Byzantine period, was recovered from the previous excavations at Tel Barom (‘Atiqot 55: Fig. 15:11). It is reasonable to assume that the lamp points to a period of activity in the tomb.
A partially completed circular hewn installation (diam. 1.4 m; Fig. 13) was revealed 0.7 m south of the shaft.
Locus 506. An area (2 × 2 m), c. 40 m southwest of L502, on the western edge of the plateau, was excavated. A layer of soil (depth 0.5 m) covered bedrock. A junction of the soft plateau limestone with the hard escarpment bedrock was revealed and only 25 small and worn Roman and Byzantine body potsherds were found.
Locus 507. An area (2 × 2 m), c. 35 m east of L506, was excavated on the plateau. The flaking soft limestone bedrock was overlaid with a thin layer of soil (depth 0.3 m) that contained ten small, worn Roman and Byzantine potsherds.
Locus 508 (Fig. 14). A roughly rectangular-shaped area (4 × 11 m), utilized as a quarry, was in the southwestern corner of the plateau, before it descended to the south and c. 80 m south of L505. This was the only quarry of those excavated where a few measurable negatives of cut stones were visible; two stones in the north attained a size of 0.75 × 1.10 m. A burial tomb shaft (0.7 × 1.9 m), which was not excavated, occupied the northwestern corner of the outcropping. Only fourteen worn potsherds dating to the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods were found throughout L508.
An additional shaft was recorded in the thick brush immediately to the west of the L508 shaft.
Locus 509 (Figs. 15, 16). Locus 509, located 30 m southeast of L508, is a nearly rectangular area (4 × 8 m), which was cleared of a shallow, fine earth accumulation that overlaid a small simple winepress. It was subsequently used for quarrying, which destroyed much of its treading floor. A small channel led from the treading floor to a rounded collecting vat (L510; upper diam. 1.12 m, lower diam. 0.7 m, depth 1.3 m), which was not damaged by the quarrying and its walls tapered down toward the bottom.
Distributed over bedrock west of the collecting vat were seven cupmarks that ranged in depth (0.03–0.17 m) and in diameter (0.14–0.32 m). A single shallow cupmark (width 0.2 m) was on the northern edge of the quarried area and should be associated with the earlier winepress phase.
No datable finds could be associated with any of L509 elements.
To the south of L508 and the eastern extremity of L509 was an accumulation of at least nine shafts in a very limited area covered with brush; several lie beyond the bounds of the development area.
Additional features in the area, recorded but not excavated, were all shafts, except for one quarry. These are tabulated below to enable a better, albeit partial, picture of the extent of the burial ground north of Tel Barom.
LOCUS |
TYPE |
LOCATION |
COMMENTS |
701 |
Qarry |
10 m north of L508 |
Adjoining shaft? |
702 |
Shaft |
6 m south of L508 |
|
703 |
Shaft |
6 m south of L702 |
|
704 |
Shaft |
15 m south of L703 |
|
705 |
Shaft |
10 m northeast of L704 |
|
706A |
Shaft |
8 m northwest of L509 |
706A and 706B are adjoining shafts. |
706B |
Shaft |
8 m northwest of L509 |
|
707 |
Shaft |
5 m north of L509 |
|
708 |
Shaft |
2 m west of L707 |
|
709 |
Shaft |
8 m south of L703 |
|
710 |
Shaft |
10 m south of L503 |
|
711 |
Shaft |
14 m east of L501 |
On upper southern slope of Ras el-Biyad where indications of many shafts are visible |
712 |
Shaft |
35 m northeast of L501 |
|
No connection to the prehistoric and proto-historic site of Ras el-Biyad could be established down the western or southern slope of Ras el-Biyad. If any expansion of the site occurred during these periods, it was either to the north or to the east. However, later activity, probably during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, is apparent, especially along the escarpment on the western edge of the plateau, as well as in the utilization of sporadic bedrock outcroppings. This activity is manifested mostly in the numerous unexcavated shafts that undoubtedly led to burial chambers found spread along the escarpment and in small opportunistic quarries that occupied the same geological niche.
The shafts were part of an extensive burial ground that extended northwest to at least the grounds of the present Tel Hāy College campus and the Tel Hāy Museum. Several excavations had previously been conducted on the college grounds, in burial caves that dated from the second to the fourth centuries CE (HA 63-64:7; HA 67-68:74; ‘Atiqot 10:165–167 [Hebrew]). This dating appears to be appropriate for dating the unexcavated shafts and tombs as well, as attested to by the northern lamp retrieved from L505. The investigated 270 m long area appears to have served as a multi-functional hinterland of Tel Barom, c. 1 km to the south of Ras el-Biyad. Only meager remains from the Roman period were uncovered at Tel Barom, but the Byzantine period was apparently a time of growth and expansion (‘Atiqot 55:58*).
The shafts appear to have been hewn after the quarrying was terminated in all of the relevant loci. The quarrying was done on a limited scale and in specific areas of outcroppings. Along these lines, it seems that the winepress was the earliest element in the area, as it was destroyed by quarrying. The small winepress hints at a household wine production rather than a large-scale commercial distribution.