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‘Atiqot 79 (2014)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Section of the Gezer–Ramla Aqueduct (Qanat Bint al-Kafir) and a Mamluk-Period Cemetery near Moshav Yashresh
(pp. 213–230)
Amir Gorzalczany
Keywords: water installation, hydraulic plaster, flow rate, cemetery, burial customs
The excavation exposed the excellently preserved remains of a section of the Gezer–Ramla aqueduct (Area B), as well as nine pit graves (Areas A, B). This section of the aqueduct, generally oriented southwest–northeast, was exposed along c. 150 m; two maintenance shafts were located along its course. It is the northernmost part of the Umayyad-period aqueduct to Ramla found to date. It may have been a secondary branch that split from the main channel and headed toward the water cisterns in the White Mosque area or the industrial area excavated in a neighborhood south of Ramla. After use of the aqueduct ceased, the area to its north was converted into a Muslim cemetery. The graves were simple pits dug into the ground; no funerary offerings were found. The deceased were positioned in an east–west direction, the head in the west and the face looking south (studied by Yossi Nagar). This method of interment, with the gaze of the deceased toward Mecca, is characteristic of Muslim burial.