Archeological Survey of Mamluk Settlements between Beth Shemesh and Beth Govrin

The 2019 Hebrew University Mamluk Survey in the Shefela

 (IAA License: S-972/2019) – October and November 2019

 

Kate Raphael

 

In the mid-October Kate Raphael, project archeologist, ably assisted by two volunteers (see below), conducted a survey of thirteen sites in the low hills of the Judean Lowlands, known in Hebrew as Shfelat Yehuda.  These had been identified from earlier archeological work as possible rural settlements in the time of the Mamluk rule (1260-1516).  In most of these sites further evidence was found to strengthen the suggestion that indeed they were thriving settlements at least part of this period.  Of particular interest was Khirbat `Ayṭūn (near present-day Moshav Shekef), which had a large percentage of Mamluk pottery in comparison to any other site that Dr. Raphael had ever surveyed. This site has an interesting combination of caves with houses constructed above.  Several survey reports done in recent decades, hinted at site’s Mamluk identity, however the site has never been excavated and there are no plans of its houses, courtyards and alleyways and the subterranean caves and agricultural installations.

The abstract of forthcoming report on the survey:

In contrast to towns such as Jerusalem and Hebron with their religious shrines and cities that served as administrative centers such as Safed and Gaza, few villages are mentioned in contemporary Mamluk sources. Villages that appear in the sources are mentioned in passing and none are described in any detail. Inscriptions that serve as an important source of information are rarely found in village mosques or shaykh’s tombs (although there are occasional). Thus studying the rural regions of the Mamluk Sultanate is based mainly on archaeological surveys and excavations. The current research is a continuation of the survey conducted in the region east of Gaza. The area surveyed and examined stretches between Beth Shemesh and just south of Beth Guvrin with an adjacent area that climbs towards Jerusalem. As in the previous survey, the aim here was to try and get a better picture of the spatial distribution of Mamluk rural settlements, their size and location in relation to towns and cities, main junctions and the roads that crossed the region. We also examine the period of transition, i.e. the changes that occurred in the pattern of settlement between the Mamluk and the early Ottoman periods. This study is based on contemporary medieval sources, our own small scale survey that we conducted in October and November 2019, as well as previous surveys and excavations conducted in the past four decades by the Israel Antiquity Authority and numerous teams on behalf of local and foreign universities.  The results will be in chapter in the planned volume on Gaza and the surrounding countryside.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the field team, and all those who contributed to this survey. Without them it would have been impossible to carry out this work this work.  Besides myself, the survey team included: Aviv Gilboa (Tel Hai College) and Yochai Moheban (navigator and off road driver).  The pottery drawings were made by Ms. Mannie Goodman, and the map by Tamar Soffer and Reuven Soffer.