The Water Cisterns in the Roman-Period Jewish Town of Bet She‘arim

Bet She‘arim (Beth She‘arim) in the western Lower Galilee was a Jewish town in the Roman period, renowned for its elaborate necropolis that served local and Diaspora Jews. Since there was no natural water source within the town, the local population collected rainwater in cisterns, pools and reservoirs. Water was required for daily life, and for the ritual purification baths that were an integral component of Jewish settlements in the second–third centuries CE. This paper presents a survey of rock-hewn and plastered bell-shaped cisterns distributed throughout the town, only a few of which were excavated. Some of the cisterns exhibit two special features, namely, cisterns with two openings—a main opening and a secondary shaft, and cisterns with built elements in the interior. We examine the Bet She‘arim cisterns and offer an interpretation of their unique features in light of historical written sources, specifically the Rabbinic literature on the laws of Shabbat and eruv (the mixing of two domains).