During July 2009, a salvage excavation was conducted at Khirbat Lasan (Permit No. A-5686; map ref. 16128–35/60170–82; Fig. 1), prior to the construction of a school. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by the Sha‘ar Ha-Negev Regional Council, was directed by I. Peretz (field photography), with the assistance of Y. Lender (administration), V. Essman and M. Kipnis (surveying), T. Kornfeld (drafting) and I. Lidsky-Reznikov (drawing).
The site is located in a cultivated field, c. 0.5 km east of Sha‘ar Ha-Negev Junction, next to the regional school and within the precincts of the Khirbat Lasan cemetery (HA-ESI 114:118*).
Four squares were opened and eight tombs from the Late Roman–Byzantine periods were exposed, but not excavated; potsherds from these periods were collected
The tombs (T1–T8; 1.0–1.5 m below surface; Table 1; Fig. 2), oriented northwest–southeast, were dug in loess soil with numerous limestone concretions and covered with roughly or semi-hewn qirton and kurkar building stones (0.25–0.40 × 0.55–0.70 m). In addition to unlined pit graves, the likes of which had been previously exposed (HA-ESI 114), cist tombs lined with narrow stones (0.2 × 0.4 m), some of which were double tombs, were discovered. Fragments of pottery vessels, probably funerary offerings or left behind after ceremonial meals, were discovered above and near the tombs.
Table 1. The Tombs.
Tomb
|
Type
|
Dimensions (m)
|
Fig.
|
Accompanying Artifacts
|
1
|
Pit
|
0.55 × 1.30
|
|
|
2
|
Cist or pit, double
|
0.7 × 1.8
|
3
|
Cooking pot (L114; Fig. 4:5)
|
3
|
Cist
|
0.65 × 1.75
|
|
|
4
|
Pit
|
0.65 × 1.85
|
|
Gaza jar
|
5
|
Pit
|
0.65 × 1.85
|
|
Cooking pot, Gaza jars (L112; Fig. 4:9), fragments of Gaza jars between covering stones
|
6
|
Cist, double
|
1.7 × 2.0;
each cell: 0.65 × 1.3
|
5
|
Bowl rim, CRSW Form 1 (L115; Fig. 4:2); krater, Gaza jars of 2 types (L109; Fig. 4:4, 7; L113; Fig. 4:8, 10
|
7
|
Pit
|
0.65–0.75 × 1.85
|
|
|
8
|
Cist, double
|
Length c. 2; eastern cell: 0.7 × c. 1.5; western cell: length 1.9
|
|
Gaza jars, a few bowls and cooking pots (L111; Fig. 4:6)
|
A fragment of an Eastern Terra Sigillata bowl from the Roman period (Fig. 4:1) and a Late Roman C, Form B bowl (Fig. 4:3), dating to the Byzantine period, were found above the tombs (L101, L102) and not were not associated with them.