Ya’amun 2002 Report
This year a team of students excavated 12 tombs high on the slopes of Necropolis III located to the southwest of the Tell. Last year we excavated tombs located at the base of this hill and we thus moved our efforts up the slope. Unfortunately all of these tombs had been recently robbed. Our most unique find was a coin of Constantine I (circa 316 CE) which firmly dates these tombs to the Byzantine period and is our first secure evidence for the use of group tombs during the Christian era at Ya’amun. The poor quality of the workmanship in the soft rock suggests that these tombs were used by a lower economic group living at the site. The wealthier inhabitants used finely cut tombs constructed into the hard rock located lower down the hillside. This pattern has held true for all four necropolises excavated to date: high quality tombs low on the hillsides and poorer quality tombs higher up the slopes.
One team of three students opened two squares adjacent to the south wall of the previously excavated church. Here a pavement of flat stones separates the church wall from a secondary building. Two rooms with walls standing almost to two meters were exposed, each with a door opening onto the paved walkway. The original mosaic floors are preserved with each displaying a circular field for a decorative figure in the center of the room: a diamond pattern in one and two fish in the other. In both rooms, flat stones had been employed to complete the floor and protect the mosaic where it had been damaged along the edges. The base and initial stones of one archway was found in the west room and three bases and initial archway stones were found in the east room, all presumably to support the roof. These rooms were originally constructed over Iron Age structures of which a hearth area was excavated just to the south of the west room. The mosaic floors, contiguous walkway, and architecture all indicate that these rooms were contemporaneous with the church. This assumption is confirmed by two copper alloy coins found in association with the walls and dating to the sixth century and contemporaneous with the church mosaic floor dedication inscription. These rooms were subsequently and extensively modified and used during the Umayyad period. It is at this time that the mosaic floor was repaired by placing flat paving stones along the edges where the mosaic had been damaged. The reconstruction of some walls, indicated by different sized stones, suggests that the rooms had been in a state of great disrepair and had probably been abandoned prior to this reuse. Further modifications and reuse occurs during the Ayyubid-Mamluk period when new walls were built directly on top of the original mosaic floors. A stone hearth was constructed in the northeast corner of the west room and egg shells, animal bones and ash indicate that the room might have been used as a kitchen. The mosaic floor of the east room is extensively dented by the falling wall stones which were all found within their respective depressions in the floor. This suggests that the
Ayyubid-Mamluk use of these rooms was ended in extensive destruction of the building, possibly by an earthquake.
North of the church four squares were opened by a student team expanding the area where previous excavations had revealed rooms constructed on bedrock and dated to the Late Bronze period by sherds, a cylinder seal and scarab. The goal this season was to obtain the greatest areal extent rather than excavate down to bedrock where the wall foundations were situated. In the earliest occupation phase a courtyard with two entrances was constructed. Two large rooms whose full dimensions lie outside of the excavations border the courtyard. One of these rooms is bounded on the north and east by other corridors. The deepest levels produced Late Bronze sherds. During the next phase the area underwent extensive modifications. One of the large rooms was filled in and capped off forming a platform. Major walls were constructed on this platform and the area between was paved with stones and gravel. From this paved walkway a staircase of three steps leads down into the now sunken courtyard. To the south a trapezoid shaped room bounded on one side by a corridor was encountered, but its relationship to the other rooms is not yet clearly known, although it appears to be later in time. The following preliminary interpretation is offered. The courtyard complex built on bedrock dates to the Late Bronze Age occupation of the tell as this is at the same level and the walls are continuous with the firmly dated rooms excavated last season. Rooms to the south of the courtyard were subsequently filled, capped and paved leaving a sunken courtyard surrounded by rooms with higher floors. To the south additional rooms were constructed on this higher level and the inhabitants then disposed of their trash and debris in the courtyard and surrounding walkways. This trash consists of sherds; broken basalt grinding stones; the bones of large animals including goats, sheep and pigs; and many small objects such as broken iron blades and points were also included. Preliminary analysis of the sherds and objects within the trash layers tentatively place this last occupation into the Early Iron period, surely Iron II, but possibly Iron I.
Four squares were opened by a team of three students along the southwest margin of the tell for comparison to the area just discussed located exactly on the opposite margin of the tell. At the highest level there are two connected walls about 50cm thick that run for about two meters in each direction out of the excavation unit. Unfortunately only a single course of stones remains. Between these walls there is an occupation floor and a tabun (oven), with a fire pit in a lower level below. These walls and features appear to date to the Hellenistic and/or Late Roman periods. The second phase of structures is dominated by two massive stone walls approximately 1.6 meters thick and running four meters out from the corner where they meet. The walls stand about 0.8 meters high. Just above the foundation level of these walls and extending through all four squares are the remains of floors and two stone-lined storage pits. Preliminary analysis of the sherds and other objects date all of these features to the Iron II period. All of these remains are evidence for an extensive Iron Age building with massive walls and extensive storage facilities. Going deeper there are the remains of smaller earlier walls that had been covered by the mud-clay floor of the previously described structure. A few sherds suggest that this wall might date to the Iron I period, but the end of the season arrived before this level could be widely exposed. In the bottom of this one deep test came some sherds dated to the Late Bronze Age suggesting that in the future we may find extensive Bronze Age structures corresponding to the northeast tell margin. One test trench was excavated between these two areas in the center of the tell and here walls were encountered along with sherds dating to both Iron I and II. These results from both tell margins, the test trench in the center and the deepest sounding by the church all suggest that the entire tell surface should be covered with buildings dated to the Iron and Late Bronze Ages.
In conclusion, we had a very successful season meeting all of our goals except finding extensive skeletal remains. Although all of the excavated tombs were robbed, the coin and other artifacts provided our first solid date for this tomb type at Ya’amun. The rooms adjacent to the church added to our knowledge of the church complex and confirmed the order of reuse and reconstruction of the church buildings suggested last year in our excavation of the narthex. In particular the Umayyads reused the church and buildings for domestic purposes keeping the mosaic floors but rebuilding walls suggesting that the church had been abandoned. The Ayyubid-Mamluk reuse required extensive repair, but may not have been a full reconstruction of the building complex. This use ended with destruction of the building. Finding an extensive room, courtyard, and corridor complex dated to the Late Bronze Age corresponds with our previous discoveries of contemporaneous tombs. The younger walls dating to the Iron Age at both tell margins, under the church buildings and in the center of the tell present us with the prospect of being able to document the transition from the Late Bronze Age into the Iron Age at Tell Ya’amun.
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