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‘Atiqot 101 (2020)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Byzantine-Period Church at Ḥorbat Ḥadat
(Hebrew, pp. 93*–118*; English summary, pp. 141–143)
Uzi ‘Ad, Orit Segal, Oren Shmueli and Rudolph Cohen
Keywords: Modi‘in, Judean Shephelah, Lod Valley, chancel screen, column, mosaic, art, epigraphy, Greek inscription, Christianity, cross
Excavations at Ḥorbat Ḥadat revealed a church paved with colorful mosaic floors. Two phases of construction were discerned: an early phase, comprising a basilica-type church and a complex of adjacent rooms; and a later phase, when the plan of the church was altered and reduced in size. The construction of the church is dated according to a Greek inscription in a mosaic floor to the second half of the fifth century CE. It is plausible that the church belonged to a large agricultural monastery that was in use from the mid-fifth or early sixth century through the seventh or mid-eighth century CE.