Parts of a Byzantine cemetery were exposed on Balfour Street in Be’er Sheva‘.The cemetery is part of a strap of cemeteries that encircled the city from the northwest, west and southwest in the Byzantine period.The city itself was identified in excavations directed by D. Varga and V. Nikolsky-Carmel in the area of what is today the central bus station (HA-ESI 125) and in an excavation by S. Talis in the Be’er Sheva‘ public transportation compound (Permit No. A-6350). 
 
Tombs from the Byzantine period were identified in archaeological excavations, in trial trenches and in antiquities inspections in the center of Be’er Sheva‘. The geographical distribution of the tombs and their concentrations are presented in Table 1 and in a map (Fig. 2).  
 
Table 1. Tombs from the Byzantine period in the city of Be’er Sheva‘
Map location
Number of tombs
Location in the city of Be’er Sheva‘
Reference
1
27
Balfour Street
Antiquities inspection
2
21
The Be’er Sheva‘ Civic Center
ESI 19:90*
3
30
The courthouse
HA-ESI 109:90*
4
3
Ben-Zvi Street
HA-ESI 109: 91*
5
10
Hadassah Street
HA-ESI 109:91*
6
8
College of Technology
HA-ESI 113:128*
7
5
Henrietta Szold Street
HA-ESI 113:128*
8
1
Weizmann Street
HA-ESI 113:128*
9
1
New Railroad Station
HA-ESI 113:129*
10
14
Derekh Hevron
HA-ESI 113:129*
11
5
Rambam and Ha-‘Azma’ut Streets
12
13
Migdelei Qeren
13
13
Shazar Boulevard
14
7
Lot 16 on Rambam Street
Trial trench
 
The burial regions indicate the presumed boundaries of the city in the Byzantine period and their distribution might point to more than one settlement locality in the region. The aforementioned excavations show that the clusters of tombs are evidence of family burial plots and larger cemeteries that surrounded the living area in the city of Be’er Sheva‘ during the Byzantine period.