A Late Byzantine Industrial Quarter and early Islamic-Period Finds at Horbat Be'er Shema'

Nine areas were excavated (Areas A-H, N). In the Byzantine period (fifth-early seventh centuries CE), the western perimeter of the site served as an industrial quarter containing a large winepress of the 'four-square' type, a building for storing jars and at least one structure with an underground cellar. A meager occupation occurred during the Early Islamic period (eighth-ninth centuries CE) in new areas of the site. The site was resettled after 1900 by Egyptian fellahin, who exploited the high water table for agricultural purposes; mud-brick structures had survived from this period. Most of the ceramic vessels from the excavation date to the Byzantine period and include a relatively large number of broken storage jars-mainly bag-shaped jars and Gaza wine jars. It is suggested that the storage jars were produced in a nearby kiln; this assumption is further supported by the presence of kiln wasters scattered over the surface of the site. The small finds from the Byzantine period include fragments of glass vessels, a bronze spatula, iron nails, a seashell and a bone-shaped object carved from stone. From the Islamic period were found glazed pottery bowls, a decorated piece of a marble vessel and a sherd from a large storage jar bearing the name Allah in Arabic, a cylindrical flask and two metal weights. The finds from the twentieth century comprise Black Gaza Ware and part of a wooden and metal antilliya box.