Last season 2016 – week 4

Fighting with buckets (Photo: K.S.)

Our last week of excavation is over, volunteers are returning to their homes and prepare for their upcoming studies at their universities, and the staff is enjoying some well-deserved rest after four exciting weeks full of archaeological finds and features.

While the last days of any excavation are always extremely busy, this time we had to face the additional challenge of also having the last season of excavations at Ein el-Jarba. Everything had to be finished on time, as the excavation phase is now officially over and in the coming days work will start on the publication phase of the project.

Standing stones? or just stones that stand? (Photo: K.S.)

Also archaeologically the last week was extremely exciting. We continued to expose Wadi Rabah architectural features and were able to retrieve several astonishing finds, both in situ and from sifting. In the last days, a feature resembling much later ‘Standing Stones’ was excavated and could be dated to the Wadi Rabah period based on the pottery found with it.

Also, a second fragmented Yarmukian figurine was found, together with numerous arrow-heads showing the site’s importance during the late Pottery Neolithic period of the late 7^th and early 6^th millennia BC. A well-preserved stone mortar was found in a pit that cut our Wadi Rabah architecture and belongs to the rare category of stone vessels from the site.

The mortar at the bottom of the pit (Photo: K.S.)

During our last week we also welcomed many visitors, both from the Antiquities Authority, other universities, and from our local Kibbutz Hazorea. Public lectures for the interested communities were given in Yoqne’am and Hazorea as part of our public outreach program and on our open day, we gave several tours to local interested visitors.

We are extremely thankful to all those who contributed to and helped with managing the five seasons of excavations, are now looking forward to the upcoming work on publishing the archaeological material and will keep you updated on all future news regarding Ein el-Jarba.