Itamar Taxel

The Byzantine-early Islamic transition on the Palestinian coastal plain: a re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence

The Muslim conquest of Palestine, which put a final end to the Byzantine hegemony on that part of the eastern Mediterranean, is considered in recent studies to have been a generally non-violent event, in which the negative impact on the continuity of local settlement was for the most part peripheral. While the first assumption may be true, the latter seems too optimistic, especially with regard to the Palestinian Mediterranean coastal plain. A re-evaluation of the archaeological and some historical evidence for the period between ca. 640 and 700, regarding a selection of urban and rural excavated coastal sites and survey maps, shows that the Muslim conquest had various short- and long-term impacts on every settlement, including economic, social and/or functional changes. Generally speaking, the archaeological evidence from the Palestinian coast (and especially the seashore belt) at the beginning of early Islamic times presents a pattern of decline, or abatement. This of course occurred gradually, and the ...

Egyptian Coarse Ware in Early Islamic Palestine: Between Commerce and Migration

This study offers a critical re-evaluation of chronological aspects and distribution patterns concerning two main types of Egyptian coarse ware (Red-Brown Ovoid Amphorae and Coarse Ware Basins) identified in Early Islamic assemblages (eighth to tenth centuries AD) in Palestine. While the distribution of Egyptian amphorae is explained in socio-economic terms as reflecting normal trade relations, the appearance of Egyptian coarse ware basins in a limited number of local assemblages may imply the actual presence of Egyptian migrants (merchants or soldiers).

Ceramic Evidence for Beekeeping in Palestine in the Mamluk and Ottoman Periods

Abstract This paper discusses the presence of a ceramic vessel type in archaeological assemblages of the Mamluk and Ottoman periods in Palestine, the function of which has not been elicited. Similar vessels are documented in the rural Arab agriculture of Palestine as beehives. The identification of their function adds another element to our understanding of the economy and material culture of these periods in Palestine.

Rural Settlement Processes in Central Palestine, ca. 640–800 c.e. : The Ramla-Yavneh Region as a Case Study

As a partial response to the paucity of synthetic studies that deal with the countryside of the Palestinian heartland during Early Islamic times, this article concentrates on rural settlement processes and rural—urban relationships in a specific part of central Palestine—the Ramla-Yavneh region—between ca. 640 and 800 C.E. Several excavated or systematically surveyed rural sites, located within the immediate hinterland of the regions urban and semi-urban centers, have been chosen as representative case studies. As demonstrated by the archaeological and historical data reassessed in this study, the settlement history of the rural and urban milieu in the Ramla-Yavneh region was by no means uniform, especially for the local, non-Muslim population which experienced significant changes. The rise of the administrative status of the area after the Muslim conquest and the consequent boost to its development, as well as the militarization of the seashore belt, the oppressive taxation of non-Muslims, the earthquake(s) of 747–749 C.E., and other human- and nature-induced events, both documented and undocumented, all played a role in shaping the lives of the regions population. Also, the settlement of Muslim newcomers, in addition to cases of migration and conversion of the local Christians, Samaritans, and Jews, brought about a gradual shift in the religious and ethnic identity of the regions population and landscape.

Resolving a historical earthquake date at Tel Yavneh (central Israel) using pollen seasonality

The identification of historical events by geological and archaeological evidence is often ambiguous and conflicting, undermining the enormous potential for sub-annual precision in dating. The ruin of one of the largest pottery factories in the Middle East during Byzantine times, recently excavated in Yavneh (central Israel), exemplifies this: aligned fallen walls and columns and a kiln that collapsed while still in operation, with dozens of ceramic storage jars in articulation. Archaeological dating, which limits the time of the collapse to the seventh century CE, cannot distinguish between two large documented earthquakes that occurred during this century. By using pollen grains trapped by the collapse, we were able to distinguish, for the first time, between the two candidate earthquakes: September 634 CE and early June 659 CE. The pollen was extracted from the dust captured on the floor of the kiln during the cooling process of the vessels. The dust was collected only from below in situ whole vessels, and based on our reconstruction had been accumulated for about several days (after the heating process ended and before the collapse). Since the palynological assemblages included spring-blooming plants (such as Olea europaea and Sarcopoterium spinosum) and no common regional autumn bloomers (e.g. Artemisia), it is proposed that the kiln went out of use due to the early June 659 CE earthquake. We also propose that the recovery of the Yavneh workshops was no longer economically worthwhile, maybe in part due to changes in economic and political conditions in the region following the Muslim conquest.

Luxury and common wares: socio-economic aspects of the distribution of glazed pottery in Early Islamic Palestine

Abstract In the following article the published and unpublished ceramics from 38 selected excavated sites (urban, rural and others) have been examined in order to reassess some socio-economic aspects related to the distribution patterns of glazed table wares in Early Islamic Palestine. The substantial differences between the types of glazed table wares used at different forms of settlement, argue that certain types should be considered luxuries, used by a relatively limited portion of the regions population, while other types were much more common and were therefore used by a wide range of socio-economic classes.

The Olive Oil Economy of Byzantine and Early Islamic Palestine: Some Critical Notes

A recent theory, which deals with various aspects of olive oil production in late antique Palestine, claims in favour of an Early Islamic date for the introduction of two of the most common local oil pressing techniques - the lever and screw and the direct screw press with grooved stone piers frame, and also diminishes the role of churches and monasteries in the Palestinian olive oil economy. The present article reassesses these and other related issues, and provides clear archaeological and historical evidence which shows that the discussed oil production methods were in use already in the Byzantine period, and that the contemporaneous Palestinian Church and many of the country’s agricultural monasteries were deeply involved in the olive oil economy.

AN UNCOMMON TYPE OF SMOKING IMPLEMENT FROM OTTOMAN PALESTINE

Abstract The presence of an uncommon and barely reported type of ceramic smoking implement found in Ottoman-period archaeological contexts in sites in Palestine is discussed. This implement, part of a large group of much more common Near Eastern smoking implements, expands our knowledge about the material culture and daily habits of the local population, and provides somewhat surprising evidence for the ethnic diversity of Palestine in the Ottoman period.

A Basmala-Inscribed Jug from Arsur’s Mamluk Destruction of ad 1265: The Religious Manifestation of a Christian-Used Table Vessel?

The encounters of Crusaders and Muslims in Frankish Palestine, as well as the Crusader-Mamluk transition at the twilight of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the second half of the 13th century, are seldom physically manifested by domestic and military remains or artifacts. This is also true for the harbor town of Arsur/ Arsuf; the long-lasting archaeological excavations carried out in its area yielded clear evidence for the fierce battle that occurred there between the Crusaders and the Mamluks in ad 1265. However, a single object retrieved from the remains of one of Arsur’s Crusaderperiod residences constitutes a rare exception. This is a simple, undecorated ceramic spouted jug that bears a charcoal-inscribed Arabic inscription of a famous Quranic phrase—the basmala—in addition to two intersecting pentagrams on the opposite side, drawn in the same manner. Given the jug’s Christian context, this puzzling find is open to more than one interpretation, which may shed light on the possible circumstances under which Franks and Muslims came into contact with each other in 13th-century Palestine. Arsur/Arsuf (also known as Apollonia) is located in the central coastal plain of Israel, between Jaffa and Caesarea, on a kurkar (fossilized dune sandstone) cliff. The site was settled almost continuously from about 500 bc to ad 1265.1 The history of the site’s occupation during the Crusader period is relatively well covered in the historical sources. Its last days and the Mamluk destruction are also well-attested in the archaeological record, as is evidence from twenty-five seasons of excavations carried out at the site, its installations in the sea, and its hinterland (Fig. 1).2

Late Antique Archaeology in the Holy Land: Evolution, Fieldwork Methods and Post-Excavation Analyses

AbstractThis article presents a first systematic review of the history of late antique archaeology in the Holy Land, namely modern-day Israel and the Palestinian Authority, from the British Mandatory period until the present. The various institutions involved in the development of this branch of archaeology here, and their main excavation projects will also be described, along with a synthesis of the evolution of fieldwork methods, post-fieldwork research directions and the publication forms for late antique remains. This review highlights, on the one hand, the inseparability of the nature of some of this archaeological research from certain ideological views, geo-political realities and socio-economic situations, and on the other hand, the independent development of local, especially Israeli, late antique archaeology. In recent years this has become both highly professional and technologically sophisticated.