Settlement Remains from the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods at Khirbat Burnat (Southwest) (Hebrew, pp. 1*–68*; English summary, pp. 157–159)

Excavations at Site 8a at Khirbat Burnat (Southwest), within the Modi‘in Region Industrial Zone, revealed remains of a simple oil press (bodeda) and a cooking pot dating to Iron Age II; fragmentary walls, potsherds, a stone altar and metal objects from the Persian period; and agricultural terraces and scattered finds from the Byzantine period. Most of the remains, however, belong to a large rural dwelling complex, which was occupied during the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods (second century BCE–second century CE). Nine buildings and three courtyards were identified, all founded on bedrock and connected with passageways. Several installations were hewn in and around the buildings: cisterns, sitting baths, a miqveh, quarries, cupmarks, winepresses and burial caves. The ceramic, glass and numismatic finds indicate that the settlement was occupied in the early part of the second century CE and abandoned during the Bar Kokhba Revolt. The dwelling complex was probably part of the Jewish settlement in the Lod plain, established after the region was handed over to Jonathan the Hasmonean by Alexander Balas in 147 BCE.