Season 4

2006

The 4th  season of the Ein Gedi Oasis Excavations

The 4th season of the Ein Gedi Oasis Excavations was held later than usual and terminated on March 16,

2006. Volunteers from abroad and Israel took part. Donations from individuals and some other funds

made the excavations possible and may I express my gratitude to all contributors.

We concentrated on excavating the “Southern Building”, of which we revealed its northern wing with its

three rooms, from east to west, the “cellar” (?), the Key Room and the Jars Room. The latter rooms have

openings to the south, while the first has not. South of the northern wing, one or two architectural spaces

exist, probably entrance rooms or courtyards.    

Many storage jars and cooking pots were found in the Key Room and the Jars Room, but without any

cooking installations. In the “cellar” only shards were found. It seems that these rooms were used as living

rooms or storage rooms.

Here too the walls were built of sun dried mud bricks, laid on walls made of fieldstones and mud, 0.6-0.8 m

wide. Walls were also plastered with mud as well as floors and ceilings, except for two places where

remnants of white lime plaster were found.

The Key Room has two floors laid on pebbled sub-floors. In this section, the lime plaster level was

preserved until the base level of the lower pebbled sub floor. The lime plaster was spread upon a base of

mud plaster combined with ash.    

We started to reveal the eastern room of the Western Building. Here we exposed the habitation levels, with

two jars buried in the section we made last season. The western wall was found at a distance of 4.5 m

from the eastern wall, but the northern wall was not found as yet.

The lower floor of the Northern Building’s eastern courtyard was excavated until reaching the virgin soil

made of many white pebbles. Many shards, bones and bronze coins were revealed there, testifying to a

long period of habitation.

We continue excavating for the destruction level of the Tzukim Building. There we revealed the burnt level

of ruin, and above it were jar shards and a stone plate of dark brown Nubian sand stone.

Many clay vessels were found in the Southern Building, especially in the Jars Room and the Key Room. In

the Jars Room, justly named so, complete and smashed jars were found, and near them were also clay

funnels. Among the jars was a small cylinder jar of Qumran “Scroll Jar” type that was found with its cover, a

complete conical bowl. In the same room a complete cooking pot and a hemispheric soft lime stone bowl

were found, both upside down, giving us a perceptive view of the destruction of the site.

Cooking pots and a smashed storage jar were found in the next room, the Key Room.

Soft limestone vessels, “Measuring vessels”, were found in almost every locus. Most were shards, mainly

of mugs, but also of bowls and a few basins. Only two complete ones were found, the bowl mentioned

above and a mug in the Western Building. No shards were found in the Northern Building courtyard,

probably because these vessels appeared later, only in the 1st century CE.

Hard lime stone implements, hand stones used for grinding and crushing, were found also. These were

natural ovoid pebbles that fit into the hand and are identified by the very smooth side, the working side.

Nubian sand stones were also found. They are different in color and texture from the local stones and were

exported from the eastern side of the Dead Sea and used as sharpening stones, as was found in the third

season, or as plates used as a working plate or slate, as found in the Tzukim Building, measuring 30 x 50

cm.

A few basalt stones were found, also imported from afar, one as a part of a porous round three-legged

basalt basin, the others not of a known use.

Bronze is the most common metal that was found in the excavations, mostly in coins. We picked up about

100 coins this season, found mainly with a metal detector, and only few by the naked eye. Many were

found while sieving the dirt excavated from between the two floors of the Key Room. Some iron nails were

found, and also a few iron knife blades and one Roman key on the Key Room floor. Similar keys, also of

the people of Ein Gedi, were found in the Cave of Letters in Nahal Hever from Bar Kochba times. A few

pieces of lead were found scattered in various locations.

Glass shards were few, typical of the Roman Period, and the bottom of one small glass bottle was found.

Some small chunks of bitumen (asphalt) were found in every locus, some burnt or melted by the

destruction.

Organic materials found were wood charcoal, mostly of palm trees, also animal bones and some large

seashells.

In summary, in the fourth season, we revealed part of the Southern Building which now appears to differ

from those we uncovered beforehand. It seems that it is a larger building, more similar to the farmhouse

buildings that were excavated in Ein Bokek and Ein Fescha, in the Dead Sea region. The various remains

found in this building support this assumption.

The results of the fourth season strengthen the need to accomplish revealing the Southern Building, in

order to demonstrate a better understanding of the village of Ein Gedi, ruined at the end of the First Revolt

against the Romans which terminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Dr. Gideon Hadas

27/3/06