The Israel Antiquity Authority invites public to view unique Byzantine pottery workshop.
Excavations carried out in Shlomi, Western Galilee, have revealed an unusual pottery workshop dating back some 1,400 years to the Byzantine period. The ancient workshop included a potter’s residence and five kilns, each for firing a different type of pottery. The largest of the kilns, used for firing transport jars, has a diameter of about three meters. According to Yoffe Hushkar, director of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the kiln’s base was cut into bedrock and its walls constructed with queried stone. This method of construction is unique. Smaller furnaces were used to make oil lamps and other small objects. The variety of kilns is unusual, and highlights the technical skills of the ancient potters in that region.
Large kiln discovered at the Shlomi excavation site. Photo: Assaf Peretz, Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
During the Byzantine period, most of Western Galilee was under the control of Acre, a prominent costal city north of Mt. Carmel. The workshop at Shlomi, however, was part of the Phoenician region of Western Galilee and belonged politically and economically to Tyre, another port city farther north on the coast. As far as researchers are aware, the workshop is the only one in the region under Tyre’s control.
Photo: Assaf Peretz, Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Recently, the IAA invited the public to visit the excavation site. A team of archeologists who excavated the workshop led tours showing the various kilns and explaining their uses.
According to Dr. Einat Ambar Ermon, director of the IAA Educational Center, dozens of local youth volunteered at the excavations and helped the IAA in their discoveries. Most of the teens had never participated in an excavation before, and were surprised at the vast amount of pottery fragments discovered as part of the ancient workshop’s manufacturing debris. Dr. Ermon said the youths “dug shoulder to shoulder with the workers, and together they all unveiled one of the most special and fascinating sites in the area.”
Photo: Assaf Peretz, Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The excavations are carried out by the IAA and funded by the Israel Lands Authority and the Shlomi Regional Council, as part of the establishment of a new Israeli neighborhood.
Abby VanderHart, FIAA Contributor