Horvat Sa’adon – Excavations in the Roman Tomb and Byzantine Church

Horvat Sa’adon is one of the last discovered Roman-Byzantine towns in the Negev Highlands to be investigated by archaeological excavation. Until recently, researchers assumed that the site was occupied solely in the Byzantine period (4^th–7^th centuries CE). However, the discovery of a Roman period hewn tomb identical in form to the Roman En-Nusra tomb at nearby Avdat (Oboda) has led to a re-evaluation of the town. Continued looting in the town’s Southwestern Church prompted a systematic excavation in 2016. This dig revealed the church’s establishment and elaborate decoration in the Middle Byzantine period (mid-5^th to mid-6th century CE), damage by a local earthquake in the mid-7^th century CE, its poor restoration in the Umayyad period (mid-7^th to mid-8^th century CE) and finally its abandonment and defacement in the post-Umayyad period.