Stratum IV The Abbasid Period (ninth–tenth centuries CE)
Five buildings (I–V) and architectural remains that cannot be attributed to a specific building were exposed. Two–three phases were identified in the buildings.
 
Area A
Building I. A courtyard was exposed and two phases were identified.
First Phase—the foundation courses of a wall (W155) built of coarsely dressed limestone and set on sand (L166) were exposed in the southeastern corner of the courtyard; a plaster floor (L157; Fig. 4: Section 1–1) abutted the wall from the north. Accumulations (L136, L150; Fig. 5) were excavated west of the wall. Remains of a plastered pool (L164) were exposed in the northern part of the courtyard. The pool’s northwestern (W138) and southwestern (W141) sides were uncovered and it continued to the northeast and southeast, beyond the limits of the excavation area. The sides of the pool (preserved height 0.4 m) and its bottom were built of bunches of debesh bonded in white cement and coated on the outside with impermeable plaster (Fig. 6). The pool was covered with fill (L129), in which a handle with a seal impression was found (see Handles with Arabic Inscriptions, below).
Second Phase—the plaster floor was no longer used; it was overlain with a thick layer of fill (0.7 m) and a plaster floor (L156; Fig. 4: Section 1–1) was placed above it. This floor abutted the northern side of W155’s robber trench that was also used in this phase.
Building II. Four rooms (A–D) were exposed and three phases were identified.
First Phase—Room C was bordered on the east by a robber trench (L133). A probe excavated in its western part revealed wall remains (W163), built of roughly hewn limestone and preserved four courses high, laid directly on the sand. A plaster floor (L159; Fig. 7) that abutted W163 was exposed in a trench which was excavated east of the wall. Room D was delimited on the south and east by robber trenches and a plaster floor (L153A; Fig. 4: Section 3–3) was excavated; the floor was laid on top of fill (L153B) that was excavated down to the level of natural sand. The floor continued in all directions beyond the limits of the excavation square, except for the northwestern corner where it was severed by a refuse pit from Stratum III. 
Second Phase—several changes were made to the building. Room A was enclosed on the west and south by robber trenches (L151) and a plaster floor (L134; Fig. 8), which continued to the east and north outside the area of the square, was exposed in it; the floor abutted the robber trenches in the west and south. Fills were excavated beneath the floor (L158). A plaster floor (L135) that continued outside the area of the square was exposed in Room B. It was apparently damaged in the east as a result of later robbing and in the north it abutted Robber Trench 151. A plastered stone basin was placed on top of the floor; about half of it was preserved and it is unclear what its use was (Fig. 9). Floor 153A in Room D was replaced by a new plaster floor (L123; Fig. 4: Section 3–3). This floor also continued in all directions beyond the area of the square, except for the northwestern corner where it was cut by a later refuse pit (Fig. 10).
Third Phase—Wall 163 in Room C was dismantled to the elevation of the foundation course. A plaster floor (L137), which survived in several parts, was laid above the wall’s foundation and above the fill (L159). The floor continued west and south beyond the limits of the excavation; it was damaged in the east by later illicit digs and in the north, it abutted Robber Trench 133. Floor 123 in Room D was replaced by a fine quality plaster floor (L116; Fig. 4:  Section 3–3) that was laid on top of a thin layer of fill. The floor continued north outside the area of the square, except for the northwestern corner where it was cut by a later refuse pit. The floor abutted a robber trench in the east and south. The bottom drum of a marble column and stone collapse were found on the floor (Fig. 11). An iron nail visible at the upper end of the drum was used to connect it to the next drum. In addition, a small section of a plastered installation was exposed in the middle of the area.
 
Area B
Building III. An inner courtyard was exposed and three phases were identified.
First Phase—a short wall (W71; Fig. 12) was exposed in the southern part of the courtyard;  one foundation course built of small fieldstones was preserved. The wall continued south beyond the area of the square.
Second Phase—the plan of the courtyard was significantly changed and most of its area was occupied by an installation that was partially excavated. A wall (W74) was exposed between the installation and the eastern border of the square. The lower part of W74 was cast in a layer of hard clay and its upper part was built of ashlars. The cast portion of the wall was not entirely revealed (exposed height c. 1 m; Fig. 4: Section 8–8). A wall of neatly dressed ashlars, preserved three courses high, was built on the cast wall. An arched opening (0.6 × 0.6 m; Fig. 13) was exposed in the center of the wall; it rested on thin ashlar slabs that were placed directly on top of the cast wall. The opening led to a barrel vault, aligned east–west (L574; Fig. 4: Section 8–8) and partially excavated. The installation was enclosed by walls in the north (W54) and south (W65) that were built similar to W74. The western wall was not exposed, but it was presumably constructed in a similar manner. A pilaster (W53) was built at the northern end of W74. A round stand (L573, not marked on plan; diam. 0.3 m, depth 0.3 m; Fig. 14) was revealed c. 0.5 m east of W74 and at the elevation of the arch’s base. An ashlar-built frame (W54–W56, W62; 1.5×1.5 m) was exposed above the vault, which was paved with a mosaic (L521; Fig. 4: Section 4–4) composed of white tesserae and several yellow tesserae. An opening that led through the vault, which was beneath the mosaic floor, to the installation below was exposed at the point where Walls 54 and 55 met in the southeastern corner. In the northern part of the opening was an in-situ horseshoe-shaped stone (Fig. 15); a stone that was standing opposite it was missing. Apparently, the opening served as a gutter that drained rainwater into the installation which probably functioned as a cistern. The water was drawn up through the arched opening. The circle of stones (L573) located next to the opening was probably used to stand in a water jar. A small settling pit (L579) was exposed in the southwestern corner of the mosaic floor and remains of a narrow channel that led to it were identified between Walls 55 and 56. The settling pit was lined with thin stone slabs set on their narrow sides and its bottom was missing. Its small dimensions indicate it was not intended to receive a large amount of liquid. A terra-cotta pipe that drained the mosaic floor to the east was incorporated between the stones in the middle of W54. Another section of this pipe was exposed on top of W74’s upper course. The mosaic floor covered half of the pipe (Fig. 16) and was placed at an incline so as to drain the liquid. Wall 74 was abutted from the south by another wall (W75), built of two adjacent rows of fieldstones and preserved a single foundation course high. The wall might have been part of a room that was south of the courtyard. Meager remains of a plaster floor that covered W71 of the first phase were exposed west of W75. Scant remains of two walls (W70) that apparently adjoined each other were exposed in the northeastern corner of the courtyard. Fill (L553) containing potsherds dating to the Abbasid period was excavated west of the walls.
Third Phase—Installation/Cistern 574 went out of use and was blocked with fill that contained numerous body fragments that were not worn. A wall (W52) was built east of W74, on fill that completely covered the arched opening; a foundation course of small fieldstones was preserved. Mosaic Floor 521 was covered with a layer of thin plaster that did not adjoin the surrounding walls and a gap of c. 10 cm remained between them. It seems that the surrounding walls were lined with stones or marble slabs that were placed directly on the mosaic floor. When the mosaic was coated with plaster, it abutted the slabs and when these were robbed, the aforementioned space remained.
 
Building IV. An inner courtyard and two rooms were exposed and three phases were identified.
First Phase—the inner courtyard was bounded on the north and east by robber trenches and it continued west beyond the excavation area. Part of a plastered pool (L567) was exposed in the southeastern corner. The western part of the pool was not preserved and it continued to the north outside the square area. The sides and bottom of the pool were built of batches of stones bonded in cement and coated with pink water-proof plaster. A foundation course of a wide stone wall (W68; width 0.65 m; Fig. 17) that probably delimited the courtyard from the south was excavated c. 0.7 m west of the pool; its eastern end was robbed and it continued west outside the area of the square. The wall and pool were built on top of pink clay (L561) that contained fragments of pottery and glass vessels (see glass report), dating to the Abbasid period. Three superposed floors were exposed in the northern part of the courtyard (Fig. 4: Section 7–7). The first was a partially exposed plaster floor (L578) that lay on the green clay. This floor was replaced by a new plaster floor (L577), which was overlain with another plaster floor (L576). The three floors were damaged on their southern side; they were cut by a later cesspit in the west and they abutted a robber trench in the east (L549; Fig. 18). A plaster floor (L548; Fig. 4: Section 5–5) set on top of soil fill (L551) was exposed in the western half of Room A. Its eastern part was missing and it continued south beyond the square limits. It abutted robber trenches in the north and in the west (L549; Fig. 19). Potsherds and glass vessels (see glass report) from the Umayyad and Abbasid periods were recovered from the excavation of the fill. No architectural remains from this phase were found in Room B.
Second Phase—changes were made to the northern part of the courtyard with the construction of a small cesspit (L543; inner diam. 1 m) built of small fieldstones. The southern part of the cesspit was missing. The cesspit cut the floors of the previous phase that were replaced by a new plaster floor (L575; Fig. 4: Section 7–7), which was partially preserved and abutted the cesspit from the east. The plaster floor of the previous phase in Room A was replaced by a new plaster floor (L544; Fig. 4: Section 5–5) that was laid on top of fill (L545). Its eastern part was missing and it continued south outside the area of the square. No remains of this phase were exposed in Room B.
Third Phase—Cesspit 543 went out of use and was blocked with fill. Subsequently, the habitation level (L518) was raised and a plaster floor (L515; Fig. 4: Section 7–7) was laid above it, covering most of the square’s area. Floor 544 in Room A was no longer used and replaced by a new plaster floor (L522; Fig. 4: Section 5–5) that was built on top of fill (L542). The floor’s state of preservation was similar to that of the previous floors and it abutted the same robber trenches. A later refuse pit that had cut the floor (Fig. 20) was exposed next to the southern section of the room. Scant remains of a plaster floor (L550), which was damaged by a later wall (W58) and a robber trench (L549), were excavated in the middle of Room B.
 
Building V. Part of the inner courtyard and a small part of one of the building’s rooms to its east were exposed. One phase that was similar to the first phase in the rest of the buildings was identified. The courtyard was delimited on the west and south by robber trenches and in the east by a wall (W67) built of medium-sized ashlars. A pilaster (0.5×0.5 m) was incorporated at the northern end of W67. Remains of a settling pit (L562) were exposed in the center of the courtyard. The bottom of the installation was built of ceramic tiles and a small part of its sides were preserved (Fig.4: Section 6–6). A terra-cotta pipe (L552), extending from the northwest, drained into the settling pit and a poorly preserved drainage channel (L563; Fig. 21) emerged from the pit’s southern side. An accumulation (L568) was excavated west of the settling pit and the drainage channel, and a plaster floor (L570) that abutted the settling pit on the west was exposed below it. Fills (L540, L555, L559) containing potsherds from the Abbasid period were excavated east and south of W67.
Meager building remains were exposed southeast of Area B, among them a short wall (W63) whose southern part was robbed and its robber trench was clearly apparent in the southern section of the square. One foundation course of the wall was preserved; it was built of small fieldstones that were placed on a green clayey layer (Fig. 22). A fragment of a zoomorphic vessel and glass vessels (see glass report) were retrieved from the accumulation (L517). Another accumulation (L528) was excavated to the south, overlaying scant remains of a drainage channel (L535; Fig. 23). Meager remains of a plaster floor (L531) were exposed close to the southwestern corner of the square. A handle stamped with a seal impression was found in the accumulation (L528; see Handles with Arabic Inscriptions, below).
 
Stratum III – The Fatimid Period (tenth–eleventh centuries CE)
Remains from this period were only exposed in Area B. Fill (L556) was excavated in the southeastern corner of the courtyard in Building III and below it were meager remains of a plaster floor. Another fill (L526) was excavated in the northern part of the courtyard. Potsherds and glass vessels (see the glass report) dating to the Fatimid period were collected from the fills, as well as from Robber Trench 549 in Building IV, indicating that the wall was plundered in this period. A foundation of crushed chalk and two ashlars were preserved of a stone wall (W51) that was built in the west of the area. The excavation of the fill on which the wall was built (L533) yielded potsherds, the latest of which dated to the Fatimid period (tenth–eleventh centuries CE).
 
Stratum II – The Mamluk Period (thirteenth–fifteenth century CE)
Meager building remains from the Mamluk period were exposed in the two excavation areas. It was apparent that most of the robber trenches are from this period. In both excavation areas, dark soil fill that extensively covered the architectural remains from the previous periods (average thickness 1.2 m), was excavated. Numerous potsherds from the Mamluk period were collected from the excavation of fills (L139, L503–L504, L566, L750). Particularly striking were the several intact bowls in Area A, some of which were discovered upside down (Fig. 24), as well as numerous rims, bases and body fragments of these bowls. Fragments of large handmade red burnished bowls were also found, including one complete bowl that had a layer of white plaster adhering to its base, indicating it was attached to the floor (L119).
 
Area A
Building I. Scant remains of a mosaic floor (L128; Fig. 4: Section 1–1) that was set on top of a thin plaster bedding were excavated in the northwestern corner of the courtyard. The floor was composed of small tesserae (1 × 1 cm), some of which were colored, and in the south it abutted the robber trench of W155. A foundation course of a wide wall (W127; Fig. 25) was excavated in the western part of the courtyard. The wall extended south beyond the area of the square and although its northern continuation was robbed, it was still possible to discern that Floor 128 had originally abutted it. Part of the wall was dismantled and the fill (L168) below it was excavated. This was apparently part of a building that utilized an earlier wall (W155), to which W127 was added. A tamped earth floor (L111) was excavated in the northwestern corner of the courtyard. A round cistern (L103; Fig. 26) that was preserved in its entirety and had a square opening was exposed in the northeast of the area. It was not excavated; yet, when development work was begun at the site, it was severed and its dimensions were ascertained (diam. and depth 4 m). Potsherds dating to the Mamluk period were collected from the accumulation around the cistern (L131). A refuse pit (L126) that cut through all of the floors of the Abbasid period was excavated in the northwestern corner of Room D in Building II.
 
Area B
A wall built of small fieldstones (W58) and preserved five courses high was exposed in the northern part of Room B in Building IV. The wall was built directly on top of an earlier plaster floor (L550; Fig. 27) and continued west beyond the limits of the excavation area.
 
Stratum I – The British Mandate era (1918–1948)
A surface paved with stream pebbles (L101; Fig. 28) and set on a layer of white cement was exposed at a depth of c. 0.6 m. The surface covered all of Area A, except for the western row of squares, and continued to the east, north and south beyond the excavation area. The surface sealed a thick fill that contained numerous potsherds and architectural remains from the Mamluk period, including Cistern 130. To reduce the amount of fill from penetrating into the cistern, a large ashlar was set in place, blocking the cistern’s opening, but not completely sealing it. Several porcelain cups and glass fragments (L501, L502, L527) from the modern era were found in a layer of soil below the pavement.
 
 
Pottery
The Abbasid period. Two Fine Byzantine Ware bowls (Fig. 29:1, 2), a yellow glazed bowl decorated with stripes (Fig. 29:3), cooking pots (Fig. 29:4, 5), a basin (Fig. 29:6), a glazed jug (Fig. 29:7), jugs (Fig. 29:8–12) and a jar (Fig. 29:13). In addition to these, lamps and lamp fragments (Fig. 30:1–6) were found, among them a lamp whose bottom was made in a mold (Fig. 30:5) and a square lamp (Fig. 30:6).
The Fatimid period. A Gold Luster bowl (Fig. 29:14), a green glazed jug decorated with incising (Fig. 29:15) and a jug (Fig. 29:16).
The Mamluk period. A light green glazed bowl (Fig. 31:1), a blue and turquoise painted frit bowl (Fig. 31:2), imported bowls from Italy: one is glazed a tannish-brown color (Figs. 31:3), a handmade krater burnished red on the inside (Fig. 31:4), a plain bowl (Fig. 31:5) and other bowls imported from other unidentified sites, among them a green glazed bowl (Fig. 31:6), a bowl decorated with incising, probably imported from Cyprus (Fig. 31:7), a bowl glazed yellow on the inside and decorated with brown stripes (Fig. 31:8) and a yellow glazed bowl decorated with brown stripes (Fig. 31:9). In addition, storage vessels and vessels used to serve liquids, including an amphoriskos (Fig. 32:1), two jars (Fig. 32:2, 3), two jugs (Fig. 32:4, 5) and a juglet (Fig. 32:6), were found.
Special Finds.
Two soapstone bowls that date to the Umayyad period (Fig. 33:1, 2), a ‘grenade’-like vessel from the Mamluk period (Fig. 34:1), fragments of zoomorphic vessels from the Umayyad period (Fig. 34:2–4) and two whetstones (Fig. 34:5, 6).
 
Five buildings were exposed in the excavation; they were built in the Abbasid period and in each, three construction phases were identified (eighth–tenth centuries CE). The buildings, not exposed in their entirety, were also used in the Fatimid period. It seems that after the Fatimid period the site was abandoned or destroyed for some unknown reason. In the Mamluk period, the remains of the earlier buildings served as a source for building stones and afterward were covered with a thick fill that contained many potsherds, the latest of which dated to the Mamluk period and included intact bowls. Several remains from the Mamluk period were exposed, including a cistern, but they do not connect to form any sort of plan. The fill and architectural remains in Area A were sealed by a surface paved with stream pebbles that is ascribed to the British Mandate era. Of the exposed buildings and installations, Installation 574, uncovered in Area B, is particularly interesting. As mentioned above, only a small part of the space covered by the vault was excavated. Nevertheless, an analysis of the data suggests this is a cistern whose bottom part was built of sides that were cast inside a layer of clay, on which ashlar walls were constructed. The cistern was covered by a square building that rested on a barrel vault and an arched opening was set in the eastern wall. A mosaic floor was placed on top of the vault. If the installation was indeed used as a cistern, it is different than all of the cisterns of the Early Islamic period that have been exposed to date in Ramla. Those installations were square or round and their sides were built of bundles of stones; they were covered with a vault or dome and had a square opening at the top.

Handles with Arabic Inscriptions
Nitzan Amitai-Preiss

Three handles that bear Arabic inscriptions were found. The three handles are of zir-type jars from the Abbasid period (Fig. 35:1–3).
 
1. A handle from L129. The impression is stamped on the upper part of the handle. The handle bears a three-line Arabic inscription that is meaning “from Dir Samuil”.
 
من دير
سمو
ئل

This is a seal impression that was made in a settlement called Dir Samuil (Nabi Samuil, north of Jerusalem) and the name of the settlement where the jar was manufactured is cited in the impression itself. Numerous jars, including stamped handles, were discovered in the eighth century CE pottery workshop that was exposed at the Nabi Samuil excavation site. Some of the handles are stamped with inscriptions and other have stamped patterns (Magen 2008: 332–334, Pls. 1–3 respectively). Four pottery kilns from the Umayyad period were discovered at Nabi Samuil (Magen 2008:331). Magen suggested that the large jars were manufactured at Dir Samuil and at other production centers. Another site that Magen mentions is Kefar Mor near Ramallah, where jars that contained oil were found in a storeroom that dated to the Umayyad period (Magen 2008:329–330). The oil- filled jars were usually exported by sea to Egypt and to Syria, which was the Umayyad center of government, through the ports of Tyre and Sidon (Magen 2008:335). Jar handles stamped with the settlement name Dir Samuil as a component of their inscription were found at Ramla (Sharon 2004:123), at Caesarea (Sharon 1999:290–293) and at other sites whose excavation results have not yet been published. The mold in which the handle from Ramla was cast is identical to the mold of the Nabi Samwil handle (Magen 2008:335, No. 2).
 
2. A jar handle from L531. The impression is located on the bottom part of the handle.
3. A jar handle from L528. The impression is located on the upper part of the handle.
The two handles bear a three-line inscription that means ‘from my best product’

من
بنك
عملي

An inscription identical to the one on Handles 2 and 3 is stamped on two jar handles; one was found in the area of a Muslim cemetery at Caesarea, north of the current city wall. The inscription is from the beginning of the second century AH (eighth century CE; Sharon 1999: 291–292). The second handle is from the excavations near Jerusalem’s northern city wall (Hamilton 1940:16, Fig. 11, Pl. XI: 20). The four impressions known to date—the two from this excavation in Ramla, the one from Jerusalem and that from Caesarea—were all made in the same format. On the basis of the information he possessed in 1999, Sharon suggested that the identical inscription on the handle found in Jerusalem and the handle from Caesarea might indicate the origin of the jars, whose handles bore this inscription ‘from my best product’—Dir Samuil. Petrographic analyses show there is a high probability that the origin of these four handles is indeed Nabi Samuel (see Cohen-Weinberger, below).
 
Petrographic Analysis of Three Early Islamic Impressed Jar Handles
Anat Cohen-Weinberger
 
The three stamped jar handles were made from the clay of the Lower Cenomanian Moza Formation. The non-plastic components consist of rhomboid-shaped dolomite crystals of the capping ‘Amminadav Formation. The analyzed jars were made somewhere in the Judean Mountains. An Early Islamic pottery workshop, such as the one known at Nabi Samuil (Magen 2008) can be the origin of theses handles, as well as other pottery workshops (Amitai-Preiss and Cohen-Weinberger, forthcoming).
 
The Glass Finds
Tamar Winter
 
The salvage excavation yielded some 160 very fragmentary glass finds, which display a rich typological variety and a wide chronological range. Among the finds are fragments of various bowls, beakers, jars, bottles, jugs, oil lamps, an inkwell, windowpanes and a bracelet. They are decorated in a variety of techniques, including applied trails, mold-blowing, tonging, incising and marvering (Table 1; Figs. 3640). The glass vessels date mostly from the Early Islamic period, one or two pieces date from the Mamluk period, and a few (from L501–L503, L527) are attributed to the modern era. Some of the vessels are commonplace, while others deserve special mention and are discussed below.
The bowls and beaker (Fig. 36) are characteristic of the eighthtenth centuries CE and similar specimens were discovered in other sites, for example at Bet She’an (Hadad 2005: Pp. 164–165, Pls. 25, 26).
Various vessels are characteristic of the eighthtenth centuries CE (Fig. 37). However, it is noteworthy that some of the specimens, e.g., Fig. 37:1, and pieces from L509 and L551, discussed below, are typical of the Umayyad period.
Several of the vessels, among them a bottle adorned with a wavy trail (Fig. 37:1), an elongated blue bottle (Fig. 37:3), and additional neck and body fragments of elongated blue bottles from L502, L517 and L556 (not illustrated), a blue vessel with incised, also known as scratched, decoration (Fig. 37:7), a small quadrangular-sectioned bottle (Fig. 37:8), and a beaker with cut decoration (Fig. 37:9), resemble examples retrieved from previous excavations at Ramla (Gorin-Rosen 2010:213–264, Pls. 10.1:19; 10.2:8, 12; 10.8:6; 10.10:7, 8; 10.5:4–6; 10.10:7–9, respectively).
The small handled bottle (Fig. 37:2) is a less-common variant, occasionally also bearing applied discs on the body, of bottles with a ridged neck, which were widespread during the Early Islamic period. Similar examples with a handle were excavated in an Abbasid–Fatimid context at Bet She’an (Hadad 2005:164–165, Pl. 38:762, 763).
The indented tube (Fig. 37:4) belonged to a small bottle, resembling an eighth-century CE example from a previous excavation at Ramla (Pollak 2007:128–129, Fig. 11:74).
The cylindrical stem on toes (Fig. 37:5) is an uncommon feature; it may have supported a vessel resembling a bottle with a ridged neck and a similar stem on toes, which has been discovered at Caesarea Maritima, in a context dated by the excavator from the second half of the eighth century CE (Pollak 2003: Fig. 2:28).
The blue vessel marvered with a white festoon pattern (Fig. 37:6) is typical of the eighth–ninth centuries CE (Carboni 2001:301, Cat. Nos. 78a, 78b).
The upper part of a vessel with an oval opening (Fig. 37:10) probably belongs to an inkwell. Glass inkwells were widespread in Islamic scriptoria and associated with a high social status; they are generally dated from the ninth–tenth centuries CE. Previous excavations at Ramla yielded an inkwell of a type different than the one in this assemblage (Gorin-Rosen 2010:253–254, Pl. 10.11:6, and see therein discussion and references to inkwells in museum collections).
Additional pieces characteristic of the eighth–tenth centuries CE, which have not been illustrated due to their small size, include a light greenish blue bowl adorned with a brown trail applied and fused-in on its rim (L551); a small, light greenish blue body fragment with an applied brown wavy trail (L509); and a body fragment adorned with a tonged decoration depicting three vertical columns of dots (L561). These three vessels resemble other glass specimens excavated at Ramla (Gorin-Rosen 2010:213–264, Pls. 10.1:1, 4, 10.2:1, 2, 10.8:4, 5, respectively).
The vessels characteristic of the tentheleventh centuries CE are depicted in Figs. 38 and 39. Several types, among them large plates with a wide out-splaying rim (Fig. 38:1−3), a large jar (Fig. 38:4), a bowl bottom (Fig. 38:5), a solid base (Fig. 38:6), and a large bottle (Fig. 39:1), resemble those recovered from the shipwreck at Serçe Limani, whose cargo is dated from the early eleventh century CE (Bass, Brill, Lledó and Matthews 2009: Figs. 6-1, 6-3, 6-4; 28-4; 41-4: BA413, BA419, BA434, BA441, and 41-5: BA505, BA507, BA517; Fig. 20-3: TT85, TT89).
The large plates (Fig. 38:1−3) are the first of their kind to be documented in Israel, and together with other glass vessels from Ramla, which have counterparts on the Serçe Limani shipwreck, they reinforce the understanding regarding the origin of the ship’s glass cargo in one or more of the glass production centers in Jund Filastin.
The bottle decorated with a trail wounded on its neck (Fig. 39:2) and the small jar (Fig. 39:3) are also characteristic of the period, as attested, for example, by finds discovered at Bet She’an (Haddad 2005: Pls. 13:250, 43:889–892 respectively).
The Mamluk period is represented by a purple bowl marvered with white trails (Fig. 40:1), which resembles a bowl excavated in a Mamluk-dated context on Ha-Palmah Street at Ramla (HA-ESI 121: Fig. 13:2). The bowl with the dotted mold-blown decoration (Fig. 40:2) has a white horizontal stripe, marvered or possibly painted, below its rim. The bowl seems to be characteristic of the Mamluk period, yet it may have appeared earlier in the ninth−eleventh centuries CE.
 
Table 1. The Glass Finds.
Fig.
No.
Locus
Basket
Description
 
36:1
543
2192
Small bowl with an out-curved rim (diam. 80 mm); colorless with greenish tinge
36:2
543
2192
Small bowl (height 30 mm) with a flaring rim (diam. ~90 mm), vertical walls and a concave bottom (diam. 80 mm); colorless with greenish tinge
36:3
519
2128
Small bowl (height 30 mm) with an out-curved rim (diam. ~80 mm), nearly vertical walls and probably a flat bottom (diam. 70 mm); light greenish blue
36:4
543
2192
Beaker with a rounded rim (diam. 60 mm) and a concave bottom (diam. 30 mm); colorless with bluish tinge  
37:1
524
2101
Bottle with an applied wavy trail surrounding its neck (diam. ~15 mm); brownish green
37:2
166
1185
Small, thick-walled bottle with a rounded rim (diam. 18 mm), horizontally-ridged neck and a tiny loop handle; light greenish blue
37:3
553
2259
Neck fragment of a thin-walled elongated bottle (rim missing); cobalt-blue  
37:4
524
2148
Lower part of an indented tube, cut-off at the bottom; light greenish blue
37:5
144
1121
Cylindrical stem (diam. ~10 mm) supported by toes, of which four are intact; bluish green 
37:6
536
2196
Body fragment of a vessel decorated with a white trail marvered and tooled into a wavy festoon pattern; blue 
37:7
166
1185
Small body fragment with incised/scratched geometric decoration; blue 
37:8
 
556
2229
Small, quadrangular-sectioned bottle of unevenly thick walls, with a flat rim (diam. 1617 mm), cylindrical neck and horizontal shoulders; colorless
37:9
 
512
2075
Small body fragment of a beaker with cut geometric decoration depicting a straight band, a curved band and a facet; colorless
37:10
129
1107
Inkwell with an oval opening (diam. 1828 mm); colorless
38:1
536
2229
Large plate with an out-splaying rim (diam. 260270 mm); light greenish blue
38:2
536
2156
Large plate with an out-splaying rim (diam. 280 mm); light greenish blue
38:3
536
2156
Large plate with an out-splaying rim (broken) and concave bottom (diam. ~240 mm); green 
38:4
143
1120
Large jar with an out-splaying rim (diam. 140 mm); colorless with greenish tinge  
38:5
536
2156
Bowl with a thick bottom (diam. 7580 mm); green 
38:6
119
1106
Solid base (diam. 40 mm); light olive green
39:1
536
2156
Bottle with a thickened rim (diam. 35 mm), cylindrical neck and concave bottom (diam. 60 mm); light greenish blue
39:2
 
543
2192
Bottle with an irregular rounded rim (diam. 2021 mm), and a thin-walled cylindrical neck with a thick trail wound around it; colorless with light purple streaks
39:3
537
2144
Small jar with an out-splaying rim (diam. 34 mm) and convex shoulders; colorless 
40:1
524
2101
Holemouth bowl (rim diam. 7080 mm) with white trails horizontally marvered around and below the rim; purple
40:2
119
1106
Thick-walled bowl with a rounded rim (diam. 140180 mm); a white horizontal stripe, marvered or possibly painted, below the rim; and a soft mold-blown dotted decoration on the curved wall; colorless with olive green tinge
 
 
 

  
 
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