Late Byzantine Remains Near Shiqmona: a Monastery, a Cemetery and a Winep Ress

‘Atiqot 63, 2010 LATE BYZANTINE REMAINS NEAR SHIQMONA: A MONASTERY, A CEMETERY AND A WINEP RESS RAZ KL ETTER INTRODUCTION 2006b:46–51). Although it was covered and fenced, the fence disappeared and, when studied Following plans to widen the Haifa–Tel Aviv fifty years later, Peleg (1988:25) reported that highway opposite Tel Shiqmona, a salvage “all the remains have since been destroyed”. excavation was carried out from December The present excavation proves not only that 1999 to February 2000 (map ref. NIG 196/747, most of the chapel survived, but that it was OIG 146/247).1 The excavation was carried out part of a much larger building (not entirely immediately east of the highway, in an area excavated), most probably a monastery. about 8 m wide and 300 m long, from Ha-Toren Together with the monasteries reported by Street in the north to Zarfat Road in the south Dothan (1954–1955) and ‘Ad (pers. comm.), (Fig. 1). The northern part of the excavated there is valid evidence of a concentration area is an exposed rock escarpment, while the of monasteries related to Shiqmona. This central and southern parts lie on the more gentle strengthens the view that Shiqmona was a western slope of the Carmel mountain, and city during the late Byzantine period and were covered by a municipal garden. This area not a village, as dozens of late Byzantine was part of the Shiqmona cemetery excavated monasteries were located in proximity to cities, by Elgavish (1994). such as Jerusalem, Bet She’an, and Bethlehem. The excavation revealed finds from the late While this phenomenon is noted here, it merits Byzantine period, including a monastery, a a separate study, such as those that have been large winepress, a dozen rock-hewn tombs prepared for desert monasteries by Hirschfeld (robbed), and two large buildings (see Fig. 1). (1992) and Dahari (2000). Late Byzantine-period remains had been Following the excavation, the architecture discovered near Tel Shiqmona (Elgavish 1968; was dismantled and the area was released for 1974; 1977; Dauphin 1998:665–667) and in development. salvage excavations between the tell and the Carmel Mountain (Hirschfeld 1998; 2006; THE MONASTERY (Fig. 1; Plans 1, 2) ‘Ad and Torge, forthcoming). Elgavish (1994) published a summary of his digs, but has not The Chapel yet published a final report of the Byzantine- The chapel was discovered in 1939 by N. period remains. Makhouly, a supervisor on behalf of the Our most important find was the re-discovery British Mandate Department of Antiquities of of a chapel with mosaic floors (Ovadiah and Palestine. Makhouly reported a large mosaic Ovadiah 1987:132, No. 221) that had been floor near the Haifa–Tel Aviv highway, which excavated in 1939–1940 by Makhouly on was threatened by damage due to exposure. behalf of the British Department of Antiquities It was excavated by Makhouly in 1940 and of Palestine (Makhouly 1944; cf. Kletter surrounded by a fence for protection. Makhouly 148 RAZ KL ETTER 196 325 196 400 375 196 350 196 196 300 T1 T2 747 750 T3 T4 T7 Cemetery T7B T5 T8 T6 Area D1 747 725 Monastery Haifa – Tel Aviv highway 747 Building B 700 Area D2 Building A 800 150 000 190 000 230 000 270 000 000 747 675 Sea of 760 Galilee 000 Haifa Shiqmona 720 000 747 Caesarea 650 Mediterranean 680 Sea 000 Tel Aviv Winepress 640 000 Jerusalem Dead Sea 747 0 20 0 40 625 T12 m km Fig. 1. Location map. identified the mosaic as part of a small chapel Piecemeal publication and references to the and published a short notice (Makhouly 1944). discovery followed. The mosaic floors were He left a written report with plans, photographs, published in a monograph on mosaic pavements and suggestions for restoration (today in the in Israel (Ovadiah and Ovadiah 1987:132, No. IAA archive, Mandatory File: Tell es-Samak). 221, Pls. CLVII–CLIX). The building was LATE BYZANTINE REMAINS NEAR SHIQMONA 149 W16 L203 W5 W25 L204 L217 Haifa – Tel Aviv highway W7 W27 L206 W8 0 2 m Plan 1. Makhouly’s plan of the chapel with our wall and loci numbers (IAA archive, Mandatory File: Tell es-Samak). discussed in the Corpus of Byzantine Churches of the chapel were visible when we began in the Holy Land (Ovadiah 1970:165, Site the excavation (Fig. 2), although most of the No. 165) and a schematic plan appeared in a building, including the mosaics, remained supplement to this work (Ovadiah and Gomez 20–30 cm beneath the surface. This history de Silva 1984:162, No. 49[165]). Makhouly demonstrates the temporary nature of final (1940; 1944) mentioned ribbed Byzantine reports, but as the architecture was dismantled pottery in association with the chapel, but none after the present excavation and the mosaics was published or kept (Peleg 1988:27, n. 5). were removed for restoration, this report Almost fifty years after the excavation, Peleg functions as the final publication of the chapel. (1988) published the site. Peleg (1988:25) It must be remembered, though, that the chapel believed that “all the remains have since been was part of a larger building, remains of which destroyed”; fortunately, however, this was not may still exist farther east, beyond the limits of the case. What happened was that the fence the excavation. disappeared and the mosaics and walls were The plan of the chapel was published by covered by a thin layer of earth. No remains Ovadiah and Gomez de Silva (1984:162; cf. 150 RAZ KL ETTER L200 10.67 10.82 W4 10.60 W6 10.00 L201 10.82 L208 L209 10.39 10.27 Area D1 9.50 W16 9.19 9.18 L217 L402 9.39 9.47 W40 9.18 L219 10.29 W25 9.58 W5 9.37 9.42 9.62 W44 L204 L203 L403 # W45 Coffin 10.02 W7 10.47 W9 W27 L206 10.18 9.96 10.02 W8 L207 9.80 L218 # 10.03 L226 10.12 # 10.26 W21 # 10.03 10.00 # L224 W20 W23 9.78 9.79 10.26 9.94 L225 # 9.91 10.06 W17 L228 9.91 W1 9.65 10.25 L212 0 4 9.97 m 10.32 Plan 2. The Byzantine monastery. LATE BYZANTINE REMAINS NEAR SHIQMONA 151 Fig. 2. The area of the chapel at the beginning of the excavation, looking north (entrance to T6 is in the background). Peleg 1988:26, Fig. 1) and is shown in Fig. 1 period fence that surrounded the mosaics with with two nearby buildings (A, B; see below). only rusted stumps remaining from the iron Makhouly’s plan is presented in Plan 1. Almost poles. The stones of the apse wall that separated all the chapel survived intact, except for the area Room 203 from Room 204 on the west were west of Walls 5 and 27 that was damaged either robbed before Makhouly’s excavation, but the by the widening of the Haifa–Tel Aviv highway wall could be discerned by the semicircular in the 1960s, or by erosion, as the area sits on contour of the western edge of the mosaic in the edge of the highway’s drainage trough. L203. A hard gray plaster floor was found in Parts of W5 and some other reported findings L203 and L204 (Fig. 5). The floor reached W5, were not found; perhaps they were removed which served as the base of a marble chancel by Makhouly or stolen soon after. Makhouly found by Makhouly together with one of the prepared plans for the reconstruction of the marble bases of a door in the center of W5. chapel, which are in the IAA Mandatory file. This base and the northern part of W5 are lost; He assumed the chapel was a small independent however, we found many marble fragments building, and therefore his reconstruction does in the chapel surroundings, some probably not entirely match the newly gathered data. originating from this chancel. The chapel (Plan 2) comprises a large room The mosaic in L206 was almost intact when with a mosaic floor (L206; c. 2.5 × 5.5 m; Fig. found in 1939, except for an area near its 3), and north of it is another room (L203) with southwestern corner (Ovadiah and Ovadiah remains of yet another mosaic (Fig. 4). We 1987: Pl. CLVII:2). Yet, by the time it was found the concrete bases of the Mandatory- excavated in 1999, some 15–20 percent of its 152 RAZ KL ETTER Fig. 3. The mosaic floor in the side aisle of the chapel (L206), looking south. Note the round concrete base of the Mandatory-period fence on W8 in upper part of photo. Fig. 4. Room L203 with mosaic in east, concrete floor in center, and W5 to west. area was lost. The causes of this deterioration motifs and left the most beautiful ones intact. are unclear, but it seems that it was damaged The reasons were probably vandalism or decay after it was exposed and before it was protected. during the short period of exposure. Only the It was not an act of professional antiquities covering of the mosaics by earth protected robbers as the parts that are missing cut across them from further decay. LATE BYZANTINE REMAINS NEAR SHIQMONA 153 Fig. 5. Excavation beneath (L217) the chapel floors, looking west, with the apse wall (W25) in the center and the base of W16 to the right. Fig. 6. The apse wall (W25), looking east, with W16 on the left.

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