שרידים מהתקופות הפרהיסטוריות עד התקופה העות'מאנית בכרם מהר"ל

• Published in: עתיקות 2021-01, Vol.105, p.69-171
• Format: Article
• Language: Hebrew
• ISSN: 0792-8424

In 2002–2005, salvage excavations were conducted at the site located in the central and southern parts of Moshav Kerem Maharal, on the southwestern slopes of the Carmel range (Fig. 1). From the Arab village Ijzim on the summit of the northern hill survived the remains of a two-story building (Sheikh’s house), which according to its style was built in the Ottoman period (probably the seventeenth century CE); it still incorporates some ancient architectural elements (Figs. 2–4). On the northern hill, two squares were excavated in each lot designated for construction (Areas A–E, H, I, K, L; Fig. 5; Table 1); in some areas the excavation reached the bedrock at a depth of 3.5 m below surface, cutting eight occupation layers. About 10% of the summit of the northern hill (15–20 dunams) was excavated. The excavations on the southern hill were conducted only in the lots and on the road connecting them (c. 35 dunams; Areas F1–23; Fig. 5), only where archaeological remains were detected in preliminary test trenches dug mechanically. In most of the area of the southern hill, bedrock was reached close to the surface (up to a depth of 0.5 m). The excavations revealed agricultural installations, quarries, rock-cuttings, cisterns, tombs, including a burial cave, and cup marks from 12 occupation layers (ten periods; Figs. 6–21; Plans 1–25; Appendix 1): Stratum XII, the Geometric Kebaran period (fourteenth–thirteenth millennia BP; see Marder, this volume); Strata XI–X, the Persian–early Hellenistic periods (sixth–fourth centuries BCE); Stratum IX, the Roman period (late first–early second century CE); Strata VIII–VII, the Byzantine period (fifth–seventh centuries CE); Stratum VI, the late Byzantine–beginning of the Early Islamic periods (seventh–eighth centuries CE); Stratum V, eleventh century CE; Stratum IV, twelfth–thirteenth centuries CE; Stratum III, the Mamluk period (late thirteenth–fifteenth centuries CE); Stratum II, the Ottoman and British Mandate periodS (until 1948); Stratum I, the modern era (after 1948). The pottery, glass and numismatic finds from these strata are discussed by Gendelman and Sai’d, this volume; Cytryn-Silverman, this volume; Katsnelson, this volume; and Kool, this volume. Additional periods are represented at the site by pottery alone: the Chalcolithic period, Late Bronze Age II and Iron Age II (tenth–seventh centuries BCE), the Hellenistic period (fourth–third centuries BCE; see Gendelman and Sa’id, this volume), and from the Early Islamic pe