Khirbet Beit Loya, Excavation Season 2023, Week Two (08-16 April )

Following a fruitful first week, we were welcomed by an unexpectedly successful second and last week of excavations at Khirbet Beit Loya. Despite some rainy days, which cut our excavations down to 10 out of 13 on site days, we were able to advance pottery reading and flotation under our roof.
More importantly, great advancements have been made in each square, providing each team member with further research to look for the coming months and years.

Coins retrieved this season from the Roman, Abbasid, and Mamluk periods suggest that the residents participated in a market economy and had accumulated a level of wealth. Further analysis will be carried to best grasp the quality of conservation, as well as understanding possible trade routes or taxation systems at Khrbet Beit Loya.

In square W, a room full of pottery crushed in place provides evidence of the range of table, storage, and cooking wares used by a typical household in the late Mamluk period. It also helps us understanding a frozen moment in time when the site was suddenly abandoned. We took soil samples from most of the inside of the artifacts found, to later carry lab work and soil analysis. Furthermore, evidence of metal and very fine handmade painted wares may suggest the presence of local workshops in metalworking and pottery-making. There is evidence of local industry in most of the site, including production of agricultural products such as olive oil and possibly fertiliser. On our last day, we also had the chance to explore, together with the Hebrew University staff, the underground tunnels of the site, which will open further research opportunities to better grasp the complexity of the site.

All in all, it was an encouraging first season of the TERRSOC project, in which members from both Bonn and the Hebrew universities worked together. The quantity and variety of material culture found along the way strongly encourages the entire team to research more and return to the site the following excavation season of 2024.