In July 2017, an excavation was conducted in the Yattir Forest (Permit No. A-8047; map ref. 203503–657/582840–984; Fig. 1),prior to the construction of a waste-water purification plant. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and financed by the JNF, was directed by A. Rasiuk (field photography) and T. Abulafia (flint processing), with the assistance of Y. Alamor (administration), Y. Shmidov (surveying and drafting), E. Belashov (plans), I. Lidsky-Reznikov (pottery drawing) and M. Smilanski (flint drawing), as well as G. Seriy, S. Talis and Y. Abadi-Reiss (pottery reading).
The Yattir region is dotted with numerous archaeological sites, many of which were documented in the Map of Yattir survey (Baumgarten and Silberklang 2015). A preliminary survey of the excavation area, on the slopes of one of the spurs of the Har ‘Amasa ridge, identified two agricultural terraces which were not documented in the Yattir survey. The two agricultural terraces (W100, W103; Fig. 2) were cleaned and excavated. The terraces,
50 m apart, run parallel to each other along a north–south alignment, crossing a dry streambed (wadi). They were built of one row of large local limestones that were placed on top of each other without bonding material. They were founded on a bed of soil and small stones, which was placed on the bedrock.
Terrace wall 100 (34.6 m long) was preserved at its northern end to the height of a single course, but in its central part four courses were visible on the surface and two additional courses were identified in a probe excavated beside its east face (L102; Fig. 3).
Terrace wall 103 (47.8 m long; Fig. 4) was damaged at its northern end due to tree planting and the laying of an irrigation pipe. In its central part, five courses were preserved above the surface, and two more courses were identified in a probe excavated beside its east face (L104; Fig. 5); several of the courses in this part of the terrace wall were pushed out of place.
Pottery. Potsherds of various periods were collected from the alluvium on the west side of the W100 (L101), where they accumulation with earth and water that was swept down from higher up the hill, and from the cleaning of the top of W103 (L103). Although the diagnostic potsherds were few, they included vessels from the Chalcolithic, Iron Age II, Persian, Byzantine and Islamic periods. These included a jar with a low neck and a flaring rim from the Chalcolithic period (Fig. 6:1); an Iron Age II bowl with an everted ledge rim with two ridges below the rim on the exterior (Fig. 6:2); and jars with an outfolded rim from the Persian period (Fig. 6:3, 4). Additional vessels included a Fine Byzantine Ware jug made of brown-orange clay and characterized by a rather narrow and short neck, the upper part of which flares diagonally outward with a down-turned rim (Fig. 6:5), of a type known at sites from the late Byzantine and Early Islamic periods in southern Israel; a flask made of brown clay with a short neck that is swollen near the top (Fig. 6:6), which resembles flasks made of buff clay that were common in the Umayyad period and appeared less frequently in the Abbasid period; a bag-shaped jar with a barrel-shaped body and a molded neck and rim, of a type that is very common at sites in southern Israel from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods.
Flint Items. The flint findswere retrieved without demarcation of excavation squares from the surface between the agricultural terraces (L105) and from the alluvium beside the terrace walls (L101, L104). Most of the assemblage comprises tools and cores, suggesting that the sample is biased toward these items. It nevertheless includes various other debris items (Table 1). The raw materials are a high quality, finely-grained flint and a more coarse and striped flint that were probably obtained from flint outcrops further up the hill. The flint industry at the site is both blade and flake oriented, and the distribution by loci of the tool types, debitage and cores showed no significant differences. The diagnostic items date from the Chalcolithic period. Most of the items are abraded and broken and seem to have originated from a proto-historic site up the hill, yet to be identified.
Table 1. Frequency of flint items
Type
|
N
|
%
|
Primary items
|
12
|
11.4
|
Flakes
|
17
|
16.2
|
Blades
|
1
|
1.0
|
Core rejuvenations
|
1
|
1.0
|
Chunks
|
18
|
17.0
|
Chips
|
1
|
1.0
|
Total debitage
|
50
|
47.6
|
Tools
|
38
|
36.2
|
Cores
|
17
|
16.2
|
Total
|
105
|
100.0
|
Most of the tools are retouched, denticulated and notched items (Table 2; Figure 7:1, 2). The tools divide equally between flakes and blades, with no clear preference for either industry; most were ad hoc tools. There are eight retouched blades (Fig. 7:3, 4); one bears bifacial retouch and another was fashioned into a point. One of the scrapers is a transverse scraper made on a blade core (Fig. 7:5). One awl was shaped on the side of a broken blade that later broke at both ends (Fig. 7:6). Seventeen complete cores and one broken core were retrieved (Table 3); they comprise both flake cores and cores for the production of blades and bladelets (Fig. 7:7, 8). The most common type of core has a single striking platform and was used for the production of flakes. Most of the cores are made of gray or brown homogeneous raw material.
Table 2. Frequency of flint tools
Type
|
N
|
%
|
Scrapers
|
3
|
7.9
|
Awls
|
2
|
5.3
|
Notches
|
3
|
7.9
|
Denticulates
|
9
|
23.7
|
Retouched flakes
|
10
|
26.3
|
Retouched blades
|
8
|
21.1
|
Side scrapers
|
3
|
7.8
|
Total
|
38
|
100
|
Table 3. Breakdown of core types
Type
|
Total
|
%
|
Single striking platform
|
7
|
41.2
|
Two unidirectional striking platforms
|
2
|
11.8
|
Two parallel striking platforms
|
1
|
5.9
|
Two orthogonal striking platforms
|
2
|
11.8
|
Amorphous
|
4
|
23.5
|
Fragment
|
1
|
5.8
|
Total
|
17
|
100
|
The two agricultural terraces explored in the excavation were apparently part of a farming system employed by the local population to cultivate crops in an environment with rather low rainfall. The terrace walls stemmed the runoff water and ensured that the soil retained by them had sufficient moisture for farming. The small flint assemblage retrieved in the excavation was dispersed throughout the area as the result of alluvial processes occurring down the hillsides and in the wadi. It is clear from the abraded condition of the items that they were swept from their original site of deposition. This suggests that there is site on the nearby slopes that has not been identified in surveys of the region.
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