בית מגורים מהתקופה הרומית הקדומה בכפר נין ואירועי המרד הגדול בעמק יזרעאל

• Published in: עתיקות 2022-01, Vol.107, p.1-272
• Format: Article
• Language: Hebrew
• ISSN: 0792-8424

In March 2007, a salvage excavation was conducted in the ancient nucleus of Nein, located in the southeastern part of the Jezreel Valley, at the northern foot of Giv‘at Ha-More (map ref. 233082–97/426172; Fig. 1). Architectural remains of four strata were revealed. A late Hellenistic-period (first century BCE) building comprising three rooms was built on bedrock; two Hasmonean coins retrieved from this stratum suggest a Jewish identity of the inhabitants (Stratum IV; Plan 1; Fig. 8). These remains were overlain by segments of a few rooms of a luxurious domestic residence dated from the late first century BCE to the second half of the first century CE (Stratum III; Plan 2; Figs. 2–5, 9, 10, 12–15). Two Mamluk-period ṭabuns (Stratum II; Fig. 11), and a late Ottoman-period cesspit and house foundations, were found as well (Stratum I; Plan 3; Fig. 6). In addition, Iron Age II potsherds (Fig. 7) were found in Stratum III floor beddings. The Stratum III Early Roman-period residence (Plan 2) yielded many finds. In Room A, found within a drainage channel, were three pairs of gold earrings, a bronze bracelet and an iron housekey, as well as a rich pottery assemblage, including imported ESA bowls (Fig. 12). In Room C, a skeleton of a woman, two gold rings, a pair of gold earrings and a bronze key were exposed under a layer of ash and collapsed building stones (Fig. 13). An additional pair of gold earrings, a bronze pendant and faience beads were found nearby (Fig. 14). In Courtyard D, a destruction layer contained glass vessels (see Gorin-Rosen, this volume), and in Room E, yet another human skeleton was found in an ash layer. The rich finds from Stratum III suggest an upper-class household. Whilst the Early Roman-period village was probably inhabited by a Jewish population, the ethnic identity of the house owners cannot be determined based on the finds alone. Similar luxurious items, such as gems exhibiting pagan figures and aucissa fibulae (Fig. 15:1), have been found elsewhere in both Jewish and pagan contexts. It is proposed to associate the destruction of the house with episodes of the First Jewish Revolt in Galilee (66–67 CE) enacted in and near the Jezreel Valley, as recounted in the autobiography (Vita) of Josephus Flavius.