Archaeologists in Negev unearth 1,200-year-old jug decorated with camels
Artifact daubed with red pattern and trio of animals, considered advanced for its time, discovered near olive press in Yatir Forest
Rossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.
A 1,200-year-old clay jug painted in bright colors and ringed with camels and a mystery beast was unearthed by archaeologists at the Horvat Anim site in the Yakir Forest, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday.
Located some 30 kilometers north-east of Beersheba, the Yatir Forest in the Negev desert is one of Israel’s largest forests, with its millions of trees planted by the Keren Kayemet LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) in the 1960s, as part of its efforts to make the desert bloom.
A millennium before, the area was teeming with life. Archaeological remains suggest that Christian and Jewish communities inhabited the region side by side in the Byzantine period (4th-6th centuries CE). An impressive olive press from the Early Islamic Period (7th-11th centuries CE) was also uncovered. The IAA team identified the unique vessel close to the olive press.
“In the Early Islamic period, camels served as the primary mode of transportation,” IAA researcher Oren Shmueli said in the IAA statement. “In the Roman and Byzantine periods, goods were typically transported by ship or by land using carts, but in the Islamic period, the camel took precedence as the dominant mode of land transport, replacing the Roman ship with the ‘ship of the desert.'”
The IAA described the jug as rare.
The jug is adorned with intricate red geometric patterns and features three animal figures near its rim. Two of these figures are identifiable as camels by their distinctive humps.
Researchers suggest the third figure could represent a donkey, gazelle, or possibly an ostrich. This jug was used for transporting liquids.
The olive press, constructed within a cave, employed technology similar to modern methods of olive oil production. It comprised two massive stones and a basin to collect the extracted oil.
“The uniqueness of the olive press in the Yatir Forest lies in its well-organized and advanced construction for its time,” Shmueli said. “Essentially, it was an ancient factory equipped with a sophisticated and expensive machine for its era.”
The jug was unearthed during conservation and preparation efforts by IAA and KKL-JNF preceding the public opening of the Horvat Anim site.
Once open, visitors will also be able to access the synagogue remains, originally discovered some 40 years ago.
“Around 1,500 years ago, the Yatir region was part of an area known as the ‘Daroma,’ where Jewish and Christian communities lived side by side,” Shmueli said. “There is no doubt that the synagogue discovered in Anim served as the religious center for the Jewish population living there.”
Shmueli is one of the authors of a paper documenting the discovery of the jug that will be presented today during the IAA’s 20th Annual Southern Research Conference, taking place at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
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