Fish Remains from ‘En Gedi

The vicinity of 'En Gedi has been studied on and off since 1949, exposing layers of occupation from the Chalcholithic to the Late Byzantine periods.A multi-layered synagogue, from the Roman and Byzantine periods, was excavated in 1970-1972 by Barag, Porath and Netzer (1981).In 1993 Gideon Hadas, from the IAA, carried out a limited excavation of adjacent structures.These were dated to the Early Roman and Byzantine periods (see Hadas, this volume).'En Gedi was a small Jewish village at that time, located on the western shore of the Dead Sea, within a large oasis with several springs in its vicinity.The region was famous for growing dates and balsam.The purpose of this report is to describe a small assemblage of fish bones unearthed during the excavations in 1993, the only ones available for study from the site.