2015 season

Ein Gedi – January 2015 season

Preliminary report

Dr. Gideon Hadas and Dr. Orit Peleg-Barkat

Directors of Ein Gedi Oasis Excavations

The delegation of the Ein Gedi Oasis Excavations had one more season in January 2015 at two sites. The excavation was under the auspices of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was enabled by contributions of individuals, funds and the Dead-Sea & Arava Science Center. Volunteers from abroad and Israel took part in the excavations; most of them devoted veterans of the former seasons, and also volunteers from the Ein Gedi Field School, the National Park and Mechinat Melah Ha-Aretz. The dig was directed by the authors, registration and camp by R. Sagie, surveying and drafting by D. Porotzki, and pottery by A. de-Vincenz.

We started at "Asspeset Pah", a site located north of the Byzantine village and approximately 100 m west of the Roman bath in the date palm grove.  The purpose of the excavation here was to locate and identify the public building built in Ein Gedi  from the 1st century BCE, from which many architectural elements were reused in the Roman Bath, the village houses and the synagogue.

In 2003, while uprooting a row of date palms in the area called "Aspesset Pah", three column drums were revealed, and only one was in situ. A test excavation in 2004 revealed that there was an irregular base under this drum, and an additional drum was exposed. Both were incorporated in a wide wall built of field stones. Therefore we deemed it worthwhile to search at this  place for the public building where these column drums were taken from, as well as the dozen Doric Order capitals that were found reused in the Roman Bath.

We exposed two additional walls in the excavations, at a distance of 2.5 m. from each side of the former wall. The ground between was composed of dark soil, typical of cultivated soil but with very few shards of pottery. While excavating by the former wall, close to the column base, we found out that there were not massive foundations to hold the columns, but a grey soil layer 10 cm deep. Therefore we decided not to continue the dig at this site. 

During excavation at this site, we found additional clues to the high level of the Dead Sea in historical times. In the southern section of the dig we revealed pebbled layers typical to sea shores and also pottery shards eroded by sea water, just as was found in a previous section of the Roman Bath. Near our excavation, in the rescue excavation at the temporary by-pass road to route 90 held by the IAA, sediment deposits from high sea levels were found.

The second area was "Halfi's son's house", a dwelling house in the Byzantine village of Ein Gedi north of the synagogue, where we worked in the former season but did not have time to reveal its eastern wall. Now it is clear that there are two rooms in the east side of the house and the entrance to its courtyard is via the northern wall. The rooms were filled with collapsed dry mud bricks and mud mortar, just as we found digging in the village's houses that we excavated in the past.

On the floor of the northern room four smashed storages jars made of clay were found and a large cooking pot was found buried under the floor in the northeast corner. Some large bronze coins were found scattered on the floor. Only one complete storage jar was found on the southern room's floor and an iron pot (?) was sunk in the floor.  Close to the entrance an iron rail attached with nails to a burnt piece of wood was found and also an additional few large iron nails.

A pairs of stoves made of clay and mud and a large juglet sealed with a white lime cork were found on the courtyard floor. A small test square was excavated through the floor where many large pieces of white lime plaster were found and an ancient wall, most probably of the Roman period. The same plaster pieces were found in another test square in the northern room. Roman period remains were found in the debris that filled the rooms, such as colored pieces of plaster, mosaic cubic stones, pieces of soft lime stone vessels and even pieces of Nabatean pottery.

Pottery and glass shards were collected during the excavation and a few hand stones, as well as burnt wood, mammal, fowl and fish bones and some shells. All will be transferred to experts for identification and written reports.

To summarize, "Halfi's son's house" is a large dwelling house of 177 sq m with five rooms and its entrance is from the "drainage channel alley" in the north. It seems that its northern room where many storage jars were found was used as a storage room and the southern room was used as a living room. In this 2015 season, our delegation completed revealing its third dwelling house in the Byzantine village of Ein Gedi.