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‘Atiqot 71 (2012)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Roman-Period Farmstead at El-Qabu, South of Ashqelon
(Hebrew, pp. 1–12; English summary, p. 111*)
Ofer Sion
Keywords: coastal plain, agriculture, numismatics, coin hoard, burial, quarry
El-Qabu is a farmstead where wine was produced in the Roman period (second half of the second to the third centuries CE). Buildings arranged around a courtyard, winepresses, tabuns and vaulted tombs were exposed. Storage jars were inserted into the floors of two of the rooms—a phenomenon that was noted at other sites in the coastal plain and the Negev during the Roman and Byzantine periods, probably attesting to the function of the rooms as storerooms. Based on the latest coin (286–305 CE) recovered from the excavation, the site was abandoned at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century CE. This is one of dozens of agricultural sites situated in the hinterland of Ashqelon, one of the major cities during this period.