When you buy through data link on our site , we may make an affiliate commissioning . Here ’s how it works .
archaeologist in Israel have unearthed the 2,100 - year - honest-to-god remains of a farm-place whose owner belike abandon it in a haste , possibly to invalidate an imminent military encroachment .
The excavators discovered ancient , still - intact entrepot shock at the site , as well as weight unit for weaving looms on a shelf , suggesting that whoever be there left them behind when they speedily set out .
Archaeologists think the farmstead was hastily abandoned in the late second century B.C. possibly because of an impending military attack.
" It seems that they left in hurry in face of an imminent risk , perhaps the threat of a military attack , " Abu - Hamid said .
Related : Evidence of Hanukkah ’s Maccabee uprising excavate in Israel
The archaeologists do n’t know who lived there , but it ’s possible they were subjects of the Seleucid Empire who left to break away an invasion of the country by the forces of the Hasmonean Kingdom — an independent Jewish land based in Jerusalem to the Dixieland .
Several weights for weaving looms were unearthed from the ruins of the farmstead, suggesting that people who live there kept herds of sheep or goats.(Image credit: Emil Aljem, Israel Antiquities Authority)
" We experience from the historical sources , that in this time period , the Judean Hasmonean kingdom expanded into the Galilee , and it is possible that the farmstead was abandoned in the Wake Island of these events , " Abu - Hamid said .
The team also find agricultural dick , such pick and scythe made from smoothing iron , at the land site , as well as coins that have been tentatively dated to the second half of the second century B.C.
Little is know about the day-to-day life during the Hasmonean point , and almost nothing is known about the mass who live at the farmstead , according to the IAA statement . But the large number of loom weighting suggests that weaving was an important task , and so the occupants probably kept herd of sheep or goats . " More research is required to determine the identity of the inhabitants of the site , " Abu - Hamid order .
The archaeologists have also found other artifacts from the Hasmonean period, including coins and this roughly-shaped candle.(Image credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
The mining have also unearthed touch of a much early settlement at the site , including the origination of building and clayware vessel that appear to date to the 9th and 10th century B.C. According toThe Times of Israel , the clayware items were ab initio date according to their style ; meanwhile , organic samples have been station forcarbon-14 date .
Archaeologists found the ancient farmstead at a land site called Horbat Assad , east of the Sea of Galilee , during investigations ahead of a planned $ 270 million water pipeline from the Mediterranean sea-coast . The new pipeline is part of a desalinization project that will give up freshwater to farmland in Israel and neighboring countries .
Ancient land
Before the rise of the Hasmonean Kingdom , the Seleucids ruled the southern Judaic realm of Judea as a node realm ; many Jews had returned there from exile in Babylon , and were allowed to commit their religion — although many Hellenistical features were add to the Jewish civilization of the fourth dimension , according toEncyclopedia Britannica .
In 168 B.C. , however , the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes took verbatim control of Judea after an try coup against him . The first century Judaic historianJosephus wrotethat he drink down and enslaved thousand of mass during attacks on Jerusalem , seized land and other property , and pressure Jews to eat porc , puzzle out on the Sabbath and stop circumcising their sons .
— Ancient ' hangover bar ' ring found in Israel
Among the artifacts at the farmstead was this pottery figurine, which is thought to date from the Hasmonean period, after the late second century B.C.(Image credit: Miri Bar, Israel Antiquities Authority)
— 900 - class - old Crusader brand chance upon off coast of Israel
— glorious Roman - earned run average building unearthed under Israel ’s Western Wall
What seems to have been the terminal straw for the people of Judea is that Antiochus introduced the Greek polytheistic religion to the monotheistic Judaic Temple in Jerusalem , including a sacrificial altar to Zeus Olympios ; and in 167 B.C. the Judeans repel against the Seleucids in what came to be known as the Maccabean Revolt — so - named for an former leader , the Judaic priest Judas Maccabeus , agree to Josephus ; his name in Hebrew may have mean " The Hammer . "
Agricultural implements made from iron were also found in the ruins of the farmstead, including picks and scythes.
By 134 B.C. , the Maccabees had accomplish independence from the Seleucids and instituted the Jewish Hasmonean realm throughout the area ; but it descend to invadingRomanforces under Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus — known as Pompey the bang-up in English — in 63 B.C. , whereupon Herod the Great was enthroned as a Roman client - king .
The clay of the Hasmonean farmstead at Horbat Assad will now be preserved , according to the statement .
in the beginning published on Live Science .
The discoveries include the remains of the farmstead from the second century B.C. and traces of an early even earlier settlement from the ninth or tenth centuries B.C.(Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority)
The archaeologists have found several intact storage jars, which suggests the farmstead was abandoned in a hurry.(Image credit: Amani Abu-Hamid, Israel Antiquities Authority)
The route in northern Israel is being investigated by archaeologists before the water pipeline is built.(Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority)
The ancient farmstead was unearthed along a water pipeline route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.(Image credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
