Selected Pottery from the Synagogue at Ḥorbat Merot

The pottery finds retrieved in the synagogue excavations at Ḥorbat Merot included vessels from sealed loci below the Stratum II Phase 2 stone-paved synagogue, providing a terminus post quem for the laying of the Phase 2 floor, not earlier than the fifth century CE; and a complete Umayyad-period buff-ware flask found within a sealed rock-hewn niche below the Stratum II Phase 3 Bet Midrash floor. Roman- to Ottoman-period pottery from disturbed contexts was also retrieved. Based on the pottery finds, the site was occupied in the Early Roman, Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods.