Way back in December 2019, before the Corona, I had a little time in Modi'in after a business meeting, before driving home, so I decided to visit two adjacent sites on the south west corner of the ever-spreading city of Modi'in. Starting just inside the outer road of the Buchman neighbourhood, I investigated the excavated and restored remains of an unknown Jewish village and synagogue at Horvat Umm el-'Umdan.
Umm el-'Umdan
Umm el-'Umdan was first surveyed in 1873–1874 by French archaeologist, Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, who described architectural remains that included a structure containing five pillars and a mosaic floor, which he identified (incorrectly) as a church. According to Clermont-Ganneau, the origin of the site’s name lay in the many columns that were visible on the surface. Conder and Kitchener, in the third volume (on Judaea) of their Survey of Western Palestine of 1882, mention only finding cisterns, foundations, and heaps of stones. In implicit reference to the Arabic name of the site, they specifically mention that "pillars were not observed".
The site was the subject of a salvage dig in 2001-2002, prior to the building of a road into the Buchman neighbourhood. The excavations focused on the southern part of the ruins and identified six main settlement periods. The excavators attributed the remains predominantly to a Jewish rural settlement dating from the Persian and early Hellenistic periods down to the Bar-Kokhba Revolt in the Roman period. A central lane, flanked by residential buildings, a mikve (ritual bath), a Second Temple period synagogue and a bathhouse were unearthed, with architectural remains and installations from the Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid periods, as well as pottery from the first century BCE–first century CE (Second Temple period).
Remains of buildings and agricultural installations from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods (sixth–tenth centuries) overlay the Jewish village, when the village also extended to the north of the site of the earlier Jewish village. The latest remains uncovered were graves from the Late Islamic period and a lime kiln that had been dug into some of the buildings, causing considerable damage. A useful visual timeline of the site against the historic periods is shown further on in this blog.
Three main development phases have been identified in the synagogue’s structure. The latest phase dated from the Herodian Period (Second Temple). A hall, about 8.5 x 11 metres surrounded on four sides by benches, with two rows of four columns running its length to supported the ceiling, this synagogue is similar to others from the same period, such as those at Kiryat Sefer, Herodium, Masada, Gamla and Migdal). A number of rooms and storerooms, excavated to the west of the synagogue, included a mikve, which shows signs of violent destruction. Fragments of a Roman bathhouse (as opposed to a mikve) at the eastern end of the central lane from the synagogue were also found.
It was found that this synagogue was preceded by a narrower hall, about 6.5 x 11 metres, built in the Hasmonean period (late second century or early first century BCE). This synagogue, which also had wide benches arranged along its walls, is the earliest yet known―only a handful of Second Temple period synagogues are known to have existed at the time the Temple in Jerusalem was still in use. The walls were decorated with colorful frescoes, as indicated by the many fragments of red, yellow and white plaster discovered above the floor of the hall. They frescoes were of the secco technique, where a dry layer of plaster is soaked with limewater and painted while wet., so that the colours do not penetrate the plaster but form a surface film, like any other paint. The plaster fragments were dated by their their style to the Hasmonean–Herodian periods (the first century BCE, prior to the year 15 BCE).
Underneath the Hasmonean synagogue was an Early Hellenistic hall from the Seleucid period (second century BCE), about 4 x 7 metres. The Hasmonean synagogue was built directly above the combined area of the Early Hellenistic hall and its peripheral corridor (see below), thus increasing the building's width. Although the function of the Early Hellenistic hall remains unknown, its plan suggests a public building. The construction of the two later synagogues directly over this public hall seems to have been dictated the general shape of the later synagogues.
Throughout the development of the building there was a large courtyard east of the structure, which always served as its forecourt, although in the earliest phase this was via a narrow corridor which led from the courtyard to an entrance in the western wall of the hall. In later periods however the entrance was direct through the synagogue's eastern wall.
Around 2013 it was decided, with the spread of Modi'in to the southwest, to protect and preserve the area of part of the village and its synagogue as a small archaeological park. To that end a further archaeological excavation was conducted, in the summer of that year, inside the hall of the synagogue, prior to the installation of columns designed to support a protective roof over it (pictured above). Thus four squares were excavated in the four corners of the synagogue’s hall, each a metre square, at the places where the protective roof supports would be erected. The dig exposed coins and pottery that confirmed further the designation of the Hasmonean and Herodian buildings' identification as synagogues.
Credit: The artists' impressions, timeline, wine jar seal, coins and aerial photos are from interpretive signs on site, the work of a number of organizations, including Modi'in Council, under the guidance of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Horvat Sher
Crossing the road from the synagogue, you begin to climb a low hill. Horvat Sher (Umm es-Sûr in Arabic) was first given a brief and uninformative mention in 1882 in the third volume (on Judaea) of Conder and Kitchener's Survey of Western Palestine. During the British mandate it was visited repeatedly in the 1930s by inspectors of the Palestine Antiquities Department―forerunner of the Israel Antiquities Authority―but the reports are not very informative today in identifying what was found. After Israel's independence, the site was visited by several archaeological surveyors, who reported various features including stone columns, walls and strange stone edifices of unknown function, but their reports (in the archives of the Israel Antiquities Authority) remain unpublished. Today, with the modern city of Modi'in to its east, Horvat Sher is part of an archaeological park, Givat Sher.
The main settlement area is to the west of the hill, bordering a small valley. The site is about two to three acres, with lots of stone heaps, terrace walls and at least three water cisterns. Well-dressed stones can be seen in some of the terrace walls, indicating residential use. Archaeological evidence reveals that the site was first settled during the Hellenistic (Hasmonean or Maccabean) period, during which time the village now known as Umm el-'Umdan, with its synagogue, existed on the eastern side of the hill.
Horvat Sher was later occupied at the end of the Byzantine period, and a stone lintel with two crosses carved into found on site probably belonged to a church, indicating a Christian community. In 2015-2016 a trial excavation conducted in the hills north of Horvat Sher uncovered a monastery, a farmhouse and a large public building occupied in the Byzantine period.
The last settlement at Horvat Sher was in the mediaeval period, when it must have been a small farmstead, probably occupied by Muslim peasants. Today the area is a semi-wild olive grove, thought to have been planted just prior to 1948 by peasants from the neighboring village of Salbit, now the site of kibbutz Sha’alabim.
But the fascinating part of the site are the ruins on the hilltop, to the east, with its nine rectangular stone-fenced enclosures and agricultural installations—including wine and oil presses, cisterns, terrace walls and threshing floors. The enclosures seem to represent land plots, although such an investment of labour is more typical of the Judaean and Samarian hills than the northern Shephelah hills. The enclosures are on average 150 x 50 metres, with one larger one 230 x 100 metres. Apart from one isolated enclosure to the west, they adjoin each other. As yet no evidence has surfaced enabling the dating of the enclosures and their associated features. The fact that the enclosures are unique in the area suggests that their explanation is not to be found in the usual agricultural and horticultural practices.
The enclosures contain unprecedented numbers (300) of stone heaps, stone huts, and burial caves, and orchard trees such figs, almonds and carobs.
The stone piles—of various shapes and size and all located inside the enclosures—are usually carefully constructed upon bedrock foundations. Some are round structures about two metres high, with the stones carefully laid without binding material. Others are irregularly shaped and may simply be piles cleared to provide agricultural ground. The size of the stones varies from small field stones up to large blocks.
Also inside the enclosures, four of the dry-stone heaps are especially well constructed with integral stairs, so that they are clearly watchtowers. None of the towers contains inner chambers so they cannot have been intended for shelter or storage. A single stone hut was found, preserved to the height of the door lintel, though I didn't find the hut when I visited.
Signs of rock cutting are everywhere, though it is not clear in every case today whether these are quarries for building material or hewn bases for installations. But some of the rock surfaces inside the enclosures were clearly cut as part of the process of laying out the plots, and others denote installations such as burial caves or winepresses, of which ten of the latter have been identified, both inside and outside the enclosures. Each installation comprises a rock-cut treading surface and a collecting vat.
One of the winepresses located on the northern slope (pictured below) seems to have had a more complex mechanism, with a stone tunnel cut in the collecting vat wall, leading to a second rock-cut surface but, unfortunately, that surface was cut again by later quarrying activities and its full plan and function cannot be deduced any longer. A cistern later carved next to the winepress re-used its collecting vat as a trough. One other cistern has been found within the enclosures, also with a stone trough beside it; six more cisterns were found in the settlement to the west of the enclosures, and six beside the road to the east, perhaps in connection also with Umm el-'Umdan.
Indeed the abundance of winepresses brings to mind the book of Yeshayahu (Isaiah): "I will now sing for my beloved the song of my beloved about his vineyard; my beloved had a vineyard in a fertile corner. And he fenced it in, and he cleared it of stones, and he planted it with the choicest vines, and he built a tower in its midst, and also a vat he hewed therein; and he hoped to produce grapes, but it produced wild berries." (Isaiah 5:1-2)
וַיְעַזְּקֵ֣הוּ וַיְסַקְּלֵ֗הוּ וַיִּטָּעֵ֙הוּ֙ שֹׂרֵ֔ק וַיִּ֚בֶן מִגְדָּל֙ בְּתוֹכ֔וֹ וְגַם־יֶ֖קֶב חָצֵ֣ב בּ֑וֹ וַיְקַ֛ו לַֽעֲשׂ֥וֹת עֲנָבִ֖ים וַיַּ֥עַשׂ בְּאֻשִֽׁים:
The proximity Horvat Sher to the new and fast-expanding town of Modi'in led to the initiation, in 2004, of a long-term archaeological project with dual aims: to conduct in-depth research into the history and archaeology of the site and to encourage community involvement in its study, development and preservation. The Horvat Sher project is sponsored by the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology of the Hebrew Union College, the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel and the Modi’in Municipality. Excavations are advertised widely and volunteers come from all age groups from Modi'in and around, from small children to teenagers, parents and grandparents.
It being winter at the time of my visit, a time of growth, greenery and flowers in Israel, there was much to be seen botanically too, both the orchard trees mentioned above, and wild plants. The following is a selection.
Top row, left to right: Terebinth (Turpentine tree) berries―אלת טרבינת―Pistacia terebinthus; Steven's Meadow Saffron―סתוונית היורה―Colchicum stevenii; Winter crocus―כרכום חורפי―Crocus hyemalis; and Jerusalem autumn crocus―סתוונית ירושלים―Colchicum hierosolymitanum.
Bottom: Virgin's Bower―זלזלת הקנוקנות―Clematis cirrhosa.
Credit: IAA refers to the Israel Antiquities Authority.
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