In November 2012, an excavation was conducted on the southwestern slope of Tel Yavne (Permit No. A-6647; map ref. 175883–6296/641175–503), prior to the construction of an amphitheater. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by the Yavne municipality, was directed by A. Feldstein, with the assistance of U. ‘Ad (area supervision), F. Volynsky (preparation of excavation area), Y. Amrani, E. Bachar and R. Abu Halaf (administration), V. Essman, Y. Shmidov and D. Porotzki (surveying and drafting), A. Dagot and C. Ben-Ari (GPS), S. Al-Amlah (metal detection), P. Gendelman (pottery reading), M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing), Y. Gorin-Rosen (glass), Y. Kupershmidt (metallurgical laboratory), and R. Kool (numismatics) and with the help of the inspectors of the IAA Tel Aviv district.
Tel Yavne covers an area of 150 dunams; it rises to an elevation of c. 60 m asl and up to 30 m above its surroundings. The tell, one of the largest and most important mounds in the southern coastal plain, is located near the Via Maris—the passage and commercial route that linked Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia in antiquity. The site was first settled in the Middle Bronze Age II and continued to be inhabited until the present. Most of the southwestern slope of the tell is covered with the remains of the village from the Ottoman period and British Mandate times. A minaret dating to the Mamluk period is situated near the top of the mound.
Excavations conducted on the upper part of the tell (License No. G-56/2005) and in its vicinity unearthed architectural remains, industrial installations, tombs and caves that are indicative of an intermittent habitation, beginning in the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BCE) to the Ottoman period (1516–1917 CE), as well as in the present (Feldstein and Shmueli 2011; Yannai 2012; Permit No. A-5612; for a listing of additional excavations in the region, as well as a discussion and a historical overview, see Taxel 2005).
Ten squares (Figs. 2, 3) were opened, yielding architectural remains from the Ottoman period and the modern era (Stratum I), the Early Islamic period (Stratum II) and the Late Byzantine period (Stratum III). Modern remains were removed with a backhoe prior to the excavation; nevertheless, structures dating from the Ottoman period to the 1960s were exposed near the surface. Due to the excavation’s limitations, the lower strata (II and III) were exposed in a small area. Neither bedrock nor virgin soil was exposed, although the excavation reached a depth of almost three meters in several places (L829, L836, L837).
Stratum III (sixth-seventh centuries CE). Remains belonging to this stratum were discovered only in Sqs H5–H7 (Fig. 4). The upper part of a jar (Fig. 5:4), dating to the sixth–seventh centuries CE, was found at the bottom of a pit (L826) exposed in the eastern part of the excavation area and ascribed to the Abbasid period – Stratum II. A wall consisting of a single row of fieldstones preserved to a height of one course (W64; Fig. 6) was also found. Judging by the jar from the bottom of the pit, jars recovered from a fill near the wall (L837; Fig. 5:6, 7) and a coin of Justin II (568–578 CE; IAA 139671) that was found in the vicinity of the wall, it seems that W64 was constructed at the end of the Byzantine period or the beginning of the Umayyad period.
Stratum II (seventh–ninth centuries CE). This layer was dated to the Early Islamic period. Its remains were exposed in four squares (D4, E8, H6–7). In the Sqs H6–7 was a wall (W63) whose foundation was 0.25 m higher than that of W64 of Stratum III (Figs. 3: Section 1–1; 4, 7). Wall 63, which was preserved two–three courses high, comprised of one face built of large, coarsely dressed stones and another face of small and medium-sized stones. The wall was abutted by a level (L833) of small and medium-sized fieldstones and tamped earth, on which a cooking pot (Fig. 5:5) dating to the seventh–eighth century CE was discovered. The level probably sealed W64. In the southern part of Sq H6 was another level (L838) of light-colored material (crushed chalk?) mixed with small stones and tamped earth that was 0.25 m higher than Level 833 and abutted W63 as well. A bowl discovered in the fill above the wall (Fig. 5:2) suggests that Level 838 was used in the seventh–eighth centuries CE. A concentration of fieldstones, possibly an installation, was discovered in the fill above Level 833 and below Level 838. A store jar dating to the Early Islamic period (L825; Fig. 4) was discovered in the northern part of Sq H6 at a similar elevation as Level 838. An Abbasid refuse/robber pit (L826), containing a glazed bowl (Fig. 5:1), was exposed in the eastern part of Sqs H6–7.
A wall (W43; Figs. 3: Section 2–2; 8, 9) was exposed at the bottom of Sq D4. It was preserved to a height of one course of stones and built in a similar manner as W63, with one face of large, coarsely dressed stones and another made of small and medium-sized stones. The wall was abutted from the north (L831) and south (L832) by levels of tamped earth and small stones. On A coin (800–835 CE; IAA 139670) found in Level 831 indicates that both the level and the wall were used until the Abbasid period.
A robber trench (L828, L836) of a wall aligned in an east–west direction and light-colored levels of lumps of mortar (L834, L841; Figs. 3: Sections 3–3, 4–4; 10, 11), probably floors that abutted the robbed wall on the south and north, were unearthed at the bottom of the western square (E8). A jar (Fig. 5:3)—the latest find recovered from the trench and the fill above the floors—suggests that the building was used during the seventh–eighth centuries CE.
Stratum I (Ottoman period and the modern era) comprised remains of buildings in which several construction phases could be discerned. Three rooms were revealed in Sqs E5–7; the middle room (L805; Figs: Section 3–3; 10, 12) was almost entirety exposed. The walls of the room, like the rest of the walls in this stratum, were built of various-sized fieldstones, and were occasionally treated on the inside with colored plaster. Four walls (W33, W40–W42) were exposed in the east; two phases were evident in W33 (Fig. 8). Installations, wall sections, drainage channels and floors made of concrete and colored tiles were discovered near the walls.
Two or three barrels, probably used as cesspits (not on the plan), were exposed in Sq E4. A concentration of stones that probably served as a cesspit was exposed in the upper part of Sq E8, west of the remains of Stratum II. South of the concentration were a wall (W81) and floor (L813) that abutted the wall.
In Sq H5–6, east and above the remains of Stratum II, were two walls (W65, W66) that formed a corner (Figs. 3: Section 1–1; 4); however, no abutting floors or habitation levels were discovered.
Pottery sherds from the Iron Age–Roman period and coins from the Hellenistic period (Seleucid, 150–125 BCE; IAA 139674), the Byzantine period (Constantine II, 630–640 CE; IAA 139675), the seventh century CE (Byzanto-Arabic 1, 647–670 CE; IAA 139669, 139676, 139677) and the Umayyad period (696–750 CE; IAA 139678) were discovered in fills without any architectural context.
The excavation on the southwestern slope of the tell yielded remains of a settlement dating to the Late Byzantine, the Early Islamic and the Ottoman periods, as well as modern-day remains. No remains or ceramic finds dating to the Middle Ages were found, although the historical sources and the remains at the top of the tell indicate that a large and important settlement did exist during that period.
Feldstein A. and Shmueli O. 2011. Tel Yavne. HA-ESI 123.
Taxel I. 2005. Yavne: History and Archaeology. In M. Fisher ed. Yavne, Yavne Yam and their Environs. Tel Aviv. Pp. 139–154 (Hebrew).
Yannai. E. 2012. A Byzantine Pottery Kiln Complex at Yavne. Qadmoniot 144:94–103 (Hebrew).