Mending the Mosaics of the Byzantine Church of Khirbet et-Tireh

Khirbet et-Tireh, located approximately 16 km northwest of Jerusalem, is a multi-period site with Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic remains. Although the site had long been neglected by archaeologists and begun to suer from urban expansion and looting, several seasons of excavation conducted by Al Quds University beginning in 2013 have unearthed an extraordinary range of monuments and features, including underground chambers from the Roman era, a Byzantine and early Islamic fortication system, two Byzantine churches, and more than 400 square meters of mosaic pavement

Khirbet el-Lauz Revisited: Lessons from the Renewed Destruction of a Vulnerable Heritage Site

I first became professionally involved with Khirbet el-Lauz in 2007, in response to a pattern of repeated destructive looting of the site stretching back decades. At that time, I conducted a thorough survey, carried out some limited excavations, engaged the local community on various levels, and then published two articles presenting my findings (Al-Houdaliah 2008, 2009). After a hiatus of nearly ten years, punctuated by occasional site visits by myself and others, the place has now been attacked and severely damaged once again. However disheartening this new devastation may be, out of it one must seek to derive new understandings—I have even engaged some of the looters face-to-face!—and also to find glimmers of hope for the future, all of which it is my purpose to share in this space

A clay bread stamp from Khirbet et-Tireh

The clay bread stamp presented here was found at in a monastic complex dating to the Late Byzantine-Early Islamic period at Khirbet et-Tireh, approximately 16 km northwest of Jerusalem. The stamp, which consists of a cross and other simple geometrics, is of fired clay and is notable both for its workmanship and for surviving almost completely intact. Based on the monastic context of the find, plus the stamp's relatively small size, it was probably used to decorate small individual loaves, perhaps as sacramental bread.We are grateful to my B.A. archaeology students for their tireless efforts over the course of the excavation season of 2014. Thanks are also extended to Feryal Nasser for her encouragement and financial assistance, which has made possible the publication of this study. Finally, I would like to thank Tom Powers for his constructive proofreading and comments on the draft of this work

The Byzantine Eastern Church of Khirbet et-Tireh

Khirbet et-Tireh was inhabited during the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, and was later used as agricultural land throughout the Ottoman-Turkish period and down to modern times. The ancient settlement has been determined to cover a total area of approximately 30,000 square meters. However, 75 percent of its historic fortified space has been destroyed over the past few decades by the construction of roads, a school, a gas station and several residential structures on its northern part. The surviving architectural remains at the Khirbet include a system of fortifications, a Byzantine monastery, two Byzantine-era churches, a rock-cut reservoir, a cistern, water channels, a rock-cut olive press, several burial caves, a street (or a wide pathway corridor), and several dry-stone terrace walls. The unearthed part of the eastern church complex measures 28.8 m long along its east-west axis and a maximum of 25.5 m wide in its north-south dimension. It follows a basilical plan and consists of five main parts: four south side rooms, an atrium, a narthex, a main hall, and three northeast side rooms. The entire area of the church was once paved with mosaic carpets consisting of geometric and figurative designs, with the richly colored tesserae encompassing various shades of white, black, grey, yellow, orange, pink, wine red, green and blue. Furthermore, remains of two plaster layers were uncovered on the interior faces of the majority of the walls of the church complex. After the final consolidation and conservation of the mosaic pavements of the church, as a protective measure we are covering the mosaics with a permeable, plastic-mesh geotextile, topped by a layer of sieved soil 0.25 m thick.We are grateful to Al-Quds University and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate for their generous financial assistance, which allowed for the further excavation and conservation of Khirbet et-Tireh over the summer of 2015, and to the Palestinian American Research Centre (PARC) for its financial assistance, which has made possible the publication of this research. I am indebted also to my B.A. archaeology students for their tireless efforts over the course of the excavation season. Thanks are also extended to Osama Hamdan, Raed Khalil, Rafat Khateeb, and Wisal Musa for their skilled, professional conservation of the unearthed mosaic pavements of the church. Finally, I would like to thank Tom Powers for his constructive proofreading and comments on the draft of this work

Vandalization of the tomb of Sheikh Shihab ed-Din

Sheikh Shihab ed-Din lived during the Ayyubid period (1187-1250 A.D.). When he died, followed by his two sons, the three of them were buried close to each other at a site known by Saffa residents as ed-Deir and/or Shihab ed-Din. The sacred place of the Sheikh, now recognized as an archaeological site, covers an area of about 1,700 square meters encompassing the shrine itself, a Late Islamic cemetery, a Byzantine wine-press, three cisterns, a Byzantine monastery, and remains of other ancient walls from different periods. The majority of the people of Saffa, along with and some residents of the larger Ramallah province, believe that the Sheikh enjoys a distinguished charisma from God. Therefore, until the mid-1980s the sacred place of Sheikh Shihab ed-Din was a center of attention for many people of Saffa and the surrounding villages, in order to gain the blessing of the Sheikh and obtain the benefits of his supernatural power. Despite this distinctive respect given to the personality of the Sheikh and his sacred place over the past centuries, in 2015 an as-yet unknown group vandalized the shrine and completely disrupted and destroyed the graves of the Sheikh and his two sons

The Attitudes of Palestinian Religious Scholars and Institutions toward the Looting of Palestines Archaeological Heritage

Over the past several decades, Palestine’s archaeological heritage has faced serious challenges caused by the looting of antiquities. This ongoing phenomenon has resulted in the partial or total destruction of thousands of archaeological sites and features, and the extraction of hundreds of thousands of heritage objects. Despite the tremendous efforts made toward the protection of these archaeological resources, the Palestinians must redouble their endeavors and begin to create new, appropriate and practical measures in order to safeguard their homeland’s heritage. This paper focuses on the attitudes of Palestinian religious institutions and religious scholars toward the looting of archaeological material by Palestinians from heritage sites located within the Palestinian National Territories. It consists of two parts: (a) a fieldwork project carried out by the author over a significant period to examine the religious attitudes of Muslim and Christian religious institutions and their scholars toward this issue, and (b) presentation of the results in a workshop organized by the Institute of Archaeology of Al-Quds University, under the same title as this paper, held on November 21st, 2011 on the Abu Dies campus. The principle aim of this study is to inquire into the official attitudes expressed by the Palestinian religious institutions and scholars regarding this problem and then to make this information available to the public.The author would like to extend his gratitude to all Palestinian religious scholars and institutions (both Muslim and Christian) for their positive cooperation in accomplishing this research, for issuing their fatwa and advisory opinions on the subject of antiquities looting, and for their newly embraced role of helping safeguard the land’s heritage resources. Thanks are also due to Al-Quds University for hosting the workshop on November 21st, 2011. Finally, a special thank you to Mr. George Al-A’ma, for his active participation in the interviews with the Palestinian Christian churches

The Canaanites: Their spatial origin, geographical borders, and sociopolitical landscape during the Bronze Ages (3600-1200 B.C.E)

This present study focuses on the inhabitants of the southern Levant (Canaan) during the Bronze Ages, based on a variety of physical archaeological evidence that has been uncovered both in the Levant itself and in neighboring lands. The aims of this study are fourfold: (1) to present the names of this region known to us from surviving written sources dated to the second and first millennia BCE, and to identify the spatial and ethnic origins of the Canaanites; (2) to identify the geographic borders which the neighboring peoples observed in relation to Canaan; (3) to present the Canaanites\u27 social landscape and its manifestations in the emergence and ultimate prevalence of the city-state system throughout the region; and finally, (4) to demonstrate the political complexities that prevailed in the southern Levant during the Bronze Ages. This study pointed the author to two main conclusions: (a) that the Canaanites were native to the southern Levant and can be seen as a natural extension of the population that had inhabited the region during the Neolithic period, and (b) that the functional geographic borders of Canaan changed repeated over time, witnessing several expansions and contractions. The methodology implemented in this study consists of a review and analysis of the existing scholarly literature related to this subject; biblical texts, by their very nature, were not included in the study

The mosaic pavement substrates in the southern rooms of the eastern church at Khirbet et-Tireh, Ramallah (Palestine)

The Eastern Church complex at Khirbet et-Tireh comprises five distinct sections: an atrium, a narthex, a tripartite main hall –nave and two aisles–, three adjoining auxiliary rooms on the north, and finally four more auxiliary rooms along the south side. The floor of the church was originally completely tessellated with polychrome mosaics, forming pavements patterned with figurative and geometric designs on a white background. Structurally, all known floor mosaics of the classical Mediterranean world had two main components: a substrate –all the hidden, preparatory layers– and the tessellatum –the tesserae and the filling mortar between them–. The most common substrate configuration consists of –from bottom to top– the statumen, rudus, nucleus, and bedding layers. In practice, however, the characteristics of these preparatory layers (substrate) –their number, order, thickness, technique, and material composition– have been found to differ from one period to another, from site to site, from building to building within a site, and even from one room to another within the same structure. In this context, the substrate of the mosaic pavements of the southern rooms of Khirbet et-Tireh church was found to be constructed of five layers, including a thin soil layer existing between the bedding and nucleus layers. To our knowledge, this layer has only been documented in Khirbet et-Tireh among the known archaeological sites paved with mosaics

The level of offenses against archaeological and heritage resources, one year after implementation of the new Palestinian antiquities law

This article analyzes the cases related to offenses against cultural heritage property registered by the public prosecution courts throughout the West Bank, focusing on those registered during the first year after the new antiquities law took effect. The article presents some information on the global phenomenon of antiquities looting and the trafficking in antiquities; among others

Palestinian Looted Tombs and their Archaeological Investigation

This report describes archaeological rescue work in four looted tombs from late Roman and early Byzantine times in the surroundings of Ramallah, located in the Occupied Palestinian National Territories (OPNT). One goal of our work was to assess in detail how much of the original remains of a tomb are left behind after looting. A second aim was to explore the actual practices of looting by comparing interviews with looters with the results of an archaeological examination of looting practices of these tombs. This provides a unique comparative perspective that draws on oral history and its material correlates. Finally, this work helps to assess future possibilities for reconstructing what has been lost during looting events. The results of the research include unexpected insights, such as the repetitive character of looting single tombs, the presence of modern material remains of the looting process itself, but also the use of previously looted tombs for new purposes