During January 2002 a salvage excavation was conducted at the corner of Herzl and King Saul Streets in Bet She’an, in the wake of installing an underground electric cable (Permit No. A-3560*; map ref. NIG 24718/71162; OIG 19718/21162; Fig. 1). The excavation, carried out on behalf of the Antiquities Authority and financed by the Electric Company, was directed by Y. Billig, with the assistance of A. Hajian (surveying), N. Zak (drafting), E. Altmark (metallurgical laboratory), N. Katsnelson (glass) and D. Syon (numismatics).
A square (4 × 5 m) was opened, revealing a section of the city wall from the Late Roman and Byzantine periods that crossed it from northeast to southwest (Figs. 2, 3). The northern part of the wall was preserved better than the southern part. The exterior face of the wall (thickness 2.9 m) was built of large ashlar stones (max. dimensions––width 0.87 m, depth 0.8 m, height 0.4 m) and the interior consisted of medium-sized fieldstones (width 0.65 m, depth 0.43 m, height 0.3 m); between the two faces was a core of small stones. Numerous stones chips mixed with blackish soil were found on top of the wall remains after its masonry stones had been robbed.
One course of the wall’s foundation was exposed on the west side. It consisted of fieldstones and pebbles (0.25 × 0.25 m) and protruded 0.3 m from the line of the wall’s exterior face.
On the exterior western side of the wall were numerous layers of travertine deposits, sloping down from the wall. A protruding ridge of travertine (thickness 0.1 m) that was stuck to the side of the stones survived where the ashlar stones of the exterior face had been robbed. Apparently, the neglect of Bet She’an’s water supply system to the city and the drainage out of it caused a flood in the area toward the end of the Byzantine period and prior to the Muslim conquest, when the wall formed a kind of dam in the southwest of the city. In the wake of the floods, travertine deposits became stratified at the base of the wall. The deposits and layers of alluvium that accumulated near the western side of the wall’s foundation (L3) contained a large quantity of potsherds from the Byzantine period and a few fragments from the Umayyad period, as well as fragments of glass vessels, shells and melanopsis mollusks.
A hoard of seven coins of the Emperor Justin II from the years 565–578 CE (below) was found on the stones near the northwestern corner of the square.
The fill above the foundations (L2) contained potsherds from the Byzantine and Umayyad periods, which probably belonged to the last occupation level that abutted the wall, prior to the destruction of the city by an earthquake in the year 749 CE.
On the eastern side of the wall, facing the city’s interior (L5) was a collapse of medium-sized fieldstones mixed with blackish soil that appears to have originated from the wall.
The course of the wall in the area was probably exposed in the nineteenth century and marked on the plan of the city prepared by the British survey (SWP II: map opp. P. 105). The exposure of the wall from this period made it possible to continue the discovery of the Byzantine wall course in the southern part of the city, which was practically unknown, unlike the northern part, which is well known (ESI 19:31*).
A Hoard of Byzantine Coins
Danny Syon
A hoard of seven coins was discovered at the foot of the city wall. An eighth coin that is illegible was found slightly to the south. All of the coins are in a poor state of preservation and badly corroded. The coins from the hoard date to the time of the emperor Justin II (565–578 CE). Only five of them are preserved well enough to be described (table below).
Coins in the denomination of a follis (40 nummi) of this emperor are very common throughout the Land of Israel and remained in use dozens of years after his death. Yet, based on the homogeneity of the hoard it can be assumed that it was buried during the emperor’s lifetime or a short time thereafter. The value of the hoard is not very great and therefore it is difficult to know if it was intentionally concealed or simply lost by its owner.
Date
|
Mint
|
Reference
|
Quantity
|
IAA No.
|
568-9
|
Antioch
|
MIB 2, No. 46a
|
1
|
102978
|
573/4
|
?
|
MIB 2, No. 43a
|
1
|
102975
|
576/7
|
Constantinople
|
MIB 2, No. 43a
|
1
|
102974
|
565-578
|
Antioch
|
MIB 2, No. 46a
|
1
|
102977
|
565-578
|
?
|
?
|
3
|
102976
|