The survey was carried out across four hills along the edge of the city and 52 sites were documented (Fig. 1; Table 1). The survey area borders on Tel Yoqne‘am, Tel Qira, Horbat Hanut Qira and Horbat Hermesh. Two sites within the current survey area had previously been surveyed (Y. Olami. 1981. Map of Dalia [31], Sites 44, 57). Yoqne‘am is located in the northern part of Ramot Menashe, near the joint between the Carmel ridge and the Izra’el Valley. Numerous springs flow forth from the ravines in the region and since the beginning of history, major trade routes have passed through it.
Table 1. The sites in the survey.
Site No.
|
Map reference
|
Finds
|
1
|
209262/727252
|
Concentration of flint items
|
2
|
209140/727299
|
Concentration of stones
|
3
|
209066/727359
|
Concentration of stones
|
4
|
209202/727222
|
Concentration of flint items
|
5
|
209486/727137
|
Stones and flint items
|
6
|
209332/727042
|
Wall
|
7
|
209355/726984
|
Stones and flint items
|
8
|
209374/727008
|
Stone heap (Site 57 in the Map of Dalia)
|
9
|
209401/726988
|
Stone heap (Site 57 in the Map of Dalia)
|
10
|
209392/726930
|
Stone heap (Site 57 in the Map of Dalia)
|
11
|
209418/726851
|
Stone heap (Site 57 in the Map of Dalia)
|
12
|
209245/726984
|
Quarry
|
13
|
209243/727030
|
Small rock-hewn winepress
|
14
|
209250/727030
|
Rock-hewn installation
|
15
|
209288/727018
|
Concentration of stones
|
16
|
209227/727036
|
Two Ta‘ankh-type winepresses, a hewn roll-stone and a row of cupmarks (Site 44 in the Map of Dalia)
|
17
|
209197/727039
|
Stone heap
|
18
|
209195/727087
|
Concentration of flint items
|
19
|
209227/727113
|
Hewn cave
|
20
|
209230/727107
|
Ancient game board—depressions hewn in the bedrock
|
21
|
209233/727106
|
Hewn shaft
|
22
|
209252/727076
|
Wall
|
23
|
209287/727071
|
Stone heap
|
24
|
209217/727130
|
Quarry and concentration of flint items
|
25
|
209026/727309
|
Round building (diam. 5 m) and a concentration of flint items nearby
|
26
|
209220/727118
|
Hewn cave
|
27
|
209600/727404
|
Curved wall
|
28
|
209395/727458
|
Concentration of flint items
|
29
|
209263/727511
|
Stone heap
|
30
|
209374/727519
|
Concentration of flint items
|
31
|
209600/727480
|
Wall and quarry
|
32
|
209578/727541
|
Wall
|
33
|
209574/727550
|
Stone heap
|
34
|
209627/727686
|
Stone heap
|
35
|
209907/727577
|
Stone heap
|
36
|
209911/727536
|
Stone heap
|
37
|
209890/727538
|
Stone heap
|
38
|
209863/727482
|
Stone heap
|
39
|
209842/727429
|
Stone heap
|
40
|
209827/727391
|
Concentration of flint items
|
41
|
209818/727383
|
Stone heap
|
42
|
209746/727405
|
Stone heap (length 15 m)
|
43
|
210037/728210
|
Quarry
|
44
|
210054/728213
|
Quarry
|
45
|
210295/728170
|
Quarry
|
46
|
210527/728301
|
Quarry
|
47
|
210770/728324
|
Quarry
|
48
|
210762/728365
|
Quarry and hewn cupmark
|
49
|
210551/728475
|
Quarry
|
50
|
209977/728220
|
Quarry
|
51
|
210488/728975
|
Hewn cave and quarry
|
52
|
210485/728987
|
Quarry
|
The Southern Part of the Survey Area. Twenty-six sites were documented on the southwestern hill of the survey area (1–26; Fig. 2). The following antiquities were documented on top of the hill and along the northwestern slope: the tops of walls (Fig. 3), an enclosure surrounded by a wide wall (width c. 2 m), a cave opening, an ancient game board including two rows of rock hewn depressions, a round building and several stone heaps. Potsherds mostly dating to the Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic periods were collected, as well as a single sherd from the Persian period. Walls delineating cultivation plots and farming terrace walls are visible on the hillsides. Large concentrations of flint debitage and flint artifacts were documented on the northern, western and eastern slopes of the hill. The flint items dated to different periods and noteworthy among them are a hand axe of the Lower Paleolithic period and an adze from the end of the Neolithic or the Chalcolithic periods. The flint artifacts included tools, such as broad flakes, some of which are retouched and date from the Middle Bronze Age until the Iron Age. On the western slope of the hill stone quarries were documented, as well as a round stone whose quarrying was incomplete. In addition, cupmarks and winepresses, including two Ta‘anakh type winepresses dating to the Middle Bronze Age (Fig. 4) were documented.
The Center of the Survey Area. Sixteen sites on a hill in the middle of the survey area were documented. Eight of the sites (27–34) are southwest of Horbat Hanut Qira, among them farming terrace walls, the tops of walls that are apparently ancient and built differently than the terrace walls, quarrying marks and concentrations of flint items. Potsherds that mostly dated to the Roman and Byzantine periods were collected on the surface. Eight sites (35–42) were documented south of Horbat Hanut Qira and these were mainly stone heaps, some of which are elongated, possibly because they were piled on top of lines of walls. Flint items and potsherds from the Roman and Byzantine periods were collected.
The Northern Part of the Survey Area. Eight sites (43–50) were documented on a hill and its slopes north of Tel Qiri, and building stone quarries were noted in all of them. Large parts of the surveyed area are covered with vegetation that made it difficult to locate ancient remains and it is likely there are other rock-cuttings in the vicinity that were not discerned. Two sites (51, 52) were documented at the top of a hill in the northernmost part of the area, south of Tel Yoqne‘am, including ashlars’ quarries (dimensions of stones 0.40 × 0.45 m) and a blocked cave opening.
Numerous concentrations of flint items, which point to knapping and quarrying sites of flint and stone, were documented on a hill in the south of the survey area. These sites date to the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, as well as to the Bronze and Iron Ages. Two Ta‘anakh-type winepresses that date to the Middle Bronze Age were documented in the survey; they were common to the Izra’el Valley and its surrounding regions. Presumably, these winepresses were connected to farmsteads that produced wine, marketed their product, and operated on behalf of a central authority. The location of the winepresses identified in the survey expands the range of distribution of these installations into the region near Tel Yoqne‘am, on the northwestern fringes of the Izra’el Valley. The ceramic artifacts gathered in the survey dated to the Persian, Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. The documented walls, installations, rock-cuttings and stone heaps are indicative of extensive agricultural activity in the region.