The ancient aqueduct trapped water from the ‘En Ran spring at the top of the Yavne’el basalt ridge and transported them, for a distance of over 11 km, with a shallow gradient, all the way to the large municipal pool, popularly but inaccurately known as the Dona Gracia pool, which is located at the northern extent of the Roman town of Tiberias. The aqueduct crossed the area, which is now the Moshava Kinneret, from south to north and here the current excavation was undertaken. It was initiated due to the exposure of several basalt stones in the course of mechanical earthworks, which the local inspector, B. Hana thought to have belonged to the aqueduct. Two excavation squares (each 2.5 × 5.0 m), along the line of stones, were opened.

The limited remains of the water channel were exposed for a length of 13 m, including the 3 m balk between the squares (Figs. 1, 2). The channel was built of local basalt stone throughout. Only the base of its stone walls was preserved, directly overlying the extant foundation courses, as well as a small segment of the plastered channel floor. A section was cut through the channel in both squares, exposing the various layers of the channel infrastructure. It became evident that some variation existed in the makeup of the different channel segments. The components of the channel as visible in each of the sections are described from the base upward.

 

The bottom stone course in the southern square was of large elongated and roughly worked basalt stones (average size 0.50 × 0.75, height 0.4 m), laid in a widthwise row on top of the hizriya, which is the natural basalt gravel layer (Fig. 3). The earth around these stones was a fine, dense yellowish-colored hawwar sterile soil, which must have been brought here to provide a well-packed water absorbing base for the stones. Above these large stones were about three courses of medium-sized field stones (height c. 0.55 m), partially bordered on both sides by larger stones, which were certainly the base of the channel walls, although most of them were absent. Above the medium-sized stone layer was a single course of small rounded stones, rather like smoothed cobbles, bonded together with mortar (height c. 0.25 m). The smoothed rounded stones had a fairly equal size and were probably brought from a nearby stream bed. This was the top surviving layer of the channel (CH109; max. external width 1.5 m, internal width 0.8 m) in the southern square, as no remains of the channel floor itself, which must have directly overlain the small stone layer, survived. The earth fill on both sides of the channel contained several burnt patches that may have been the remains of the floor plaster, which was applied to the top of the stones.

 

A somewhat different picture of the channel (CH110) was revealed in the northern square, as was the state of its preservation. The large rectangular stones at the base of the channel were missing. Rather, a thicker but uneven layer of yellowish, densely packed hawwar soil (depth c. 0.5 m) without any large stones was evident, overlaid with a haphazard layer of medium-sized stones (Fig. 4). On either side of this layer were the larger base stones of the channel walls. The eastern wall (width 1.5 m) was rather well preserved, unlike the western wall, whose stones in the southern part were missing and in the northern part it extended into the balk, beyond the excavation limits. The plastered (thickness c. 4 mm) floor of the channel and its curved margins were preserved (internal width 0.6 m; Fig. 5). Based on these measurements the overall external width of the channel may have reached 3.6 m. A small segment of a lower plaster floor was observed in the section cut in the northern square. This seems to indicate two phases of construction and subsequent repairs of the channel.

The elevation of the plaster floor in the northern channel segment (CH110) was – 155.60 below sea level. Undoubtedly, a very slight slope from south to north was extant, but this could not be verified, since the plaster floor in the southern channel segment (CH109) was missing.

 

A rather small quantity of potsherds was recovered from the excavation, predominantly in the channel itself and some in the fill on either side of the channel. Most of the small potsherds were non-diagnostic but the fabric was visibly Kefar Hananya ware of the Roman period. The illustrated potsherds include bowls of Kefar Hananya Type 1D (Fig. 6:1–5), cooking pots of Kefar Hananya Type 4C (Fig. 6:6, 7) and a Shikhin type store jar (Fig. 6:8). These pottery types date to the late third century CE and point to the construction of the channel in the late third or early fourth century CE, namely during the Late Roman period, which was a time of significant development in Tiberias and it is very likely that the construction of the aqueduct was undertaken at that time.