Modi‘in

Hagit Torgë
22/10/2015
Final Report
In August 2013, a salvage excavation was conducted in the South Kaizer neighborhood of Modi‘in (Permit No. A-6868; map ref. 200225–73/644712–34; Fig. 1), prior to the paving of a road. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, was directed by H. Torgë, with the assistance of Y. Amrani (administration), M. Kunin and A. Hajian (surveying and drafting), M. Haiman (GPS), A. Peretz (photography), M. Shuiskaya (pottery drawing) and Y. Nagar (physical anthropology).
A burial cave (1.45 × 4.35 m, depth 1.1 m; Figs. 2, 3) hewn in soft chalk bedrock was discovered. It had been damaged by mechanical equipment, and only its southern part was preserved. A vertical shaft (L101; diam. 0.75 m, depth 1.15 m) hewn in the hard nari bedrock led into the cave. Several body fragments of a jar were discovered in a depression (L104; diam. 1.3 m, depth 0.89 m) hewn in the nari floor of the cave. A pithos dating to the Middle Bronze Age IIB (Figs. 4:4, 5), which was placed on its side, was exposed on the cave's floor (L103). The cave was entirely filled with dark brown alluvium (L102), which contained fragments of three jars (Fig. 4:1–3) from the same period and a few bones. The latter consisted mainly of animal bones, with few poorly preserved human bones. The human bones included diaphysis fragments of long bones, of which a radius, an ulna and a metacarpal bone were identified. It seems that these bones are of an adult individual. The cave is dated to the Middle Bronze Age IIB on the basis of the ceramic finds. It consisted of the bones of at least one individual and funerary offerings. Similar caves from this period are usually found in a burial field, making it highly plausible that additional caves of this type will be discovered nearby.
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