During October 1991, 20 volunteers and core staff excavated for two weeks at Khirbet Nisya near Ramallah, Israel. ABR is investigating this site as a possible alternative for Biblical Ai. Dr. David Livingston was director of the excavation, joined by Dr. Bryant Wood of ABR and Professor Wilbur Fields of Ozark Bible College as core staff. Living accomodations while digging were provided by the orthodox Jewish settlement, Psagot, near Ramallah/El-Bireh. They also provided an armed guard during the excavation. Excavation permit #501 for 1991 was issued by the Antiquities Authority of the State of Israel.
Excavation at Khirbet Nisya was begun in 1979. The 1991 effort was the ninth time ABR research teams have excavated since that beginning. The first six seasons are reported in David Livingston’s doctoral dissertation done at Andrews University, published in 1985. The report for the seventh and eighth seasons, along with background information and a summary of the work of previous seasons, was published in Archaeology & Biblical Research, Autumn
Area 79
Retaining Wall7 is on the extreme right in the photo
Wall 15 is just to the left of an “alleyway” along Wall7
Doorway of domestic structure — center
Floor inside the structure — lower center
Above the door lintel in the balk is a 40 cm yellow clay layer
Extreme left — remains of large retaining Wall4
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Two rolling stones used in making olive oil in the Iron Age. These were found incorporated in the terrace wall behind them.
1990, p. 113f., and in the Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin, Fall 1990, p. 1f.
The 1991 Excavations
The group of 20 was from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, and Idaho. We worked 11 days during October 6-17. The first day was spent getting settled into our quarters. Most of the next two days were spent moving a dump from the previous season (the first time in nine seasons that this has been necessary)!
This year we excavated 5 m square Area 79 and 4 x 5 m Area 80 in Field C to bedrock, finished digging and planning a wine storage pit and associated installations, continued work on a square from 1990, and surveyed two terraces near the spring. Besides that, a plan was drawn of a previously excavated tomb.
A drawing was also made of an Iron Age II olive oil tub press cut from limestone found in 1981. Two round olive pressing stones from the same period, which had been incorporated in a terrace wall, were also discovered this year (see photo above). To make olive oil, the bathtub-shaped receptacle was filled with olives, these were then pressed by inserting a rod through the hole in a pressing stone with a man on each side rolling the stones back and forth in the tub. The mash was then ladled into bags and pressed by heavy weights until all the oil was extracted.
Area 79
Area 79 (photo on page 16) was, unfortunately, covered by the 1990 dump!
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When it was moved and a stone terrace wall along the southern edge of the area dismantled, a 5 x 5 m square was laid out and work began.
An indication of the earliest occupation in this area was a Persian store jar “cemented” to bedrock in the northeast balk. Loci over it also contained considerable Persian pottery. Wall 20 (W20) is likely associated with this first phase. A little over 1 m remains of this wall in the north corner of the area, running southeast-northwest between W15 and W7.
The second phase of occupation is evidenced by a retaining wall (W7) along the northwest balk and by a domestic dwelling of the Byzantine period. Although W7 is imbedded in the balk, thus making it difficult to determine its purpose, its serpentine shape suggests that it was a retaining wall to support the higher level of Area 80. The balk must be removed to determine its true function.
Remains of a domestic structure include walls W24, and W15 and W22 joined to an intact stone doorframe, Locus 18 (L18) with a lintel made of a large, flat stone. The door’s height is 1.28 cm. All the walls are founded on bedrock. The bedrock is cut out to flatten the floor as well as to make a step down from the doorway into the room. If a fourth wall in the northeast balk is part of the structure, the room size is 2.0 x 3.7 m. Another doorway between walls W24 and W22 seems to lead to a room to the southeast. A 4-cm-thick layer of ash (L19) was found on the floor (L23) in front of this doorway. Pottery from both loci is Byzantine, dating the structure to that period.
Volunteer Dr. Paul McCoy holding one of the restored wine jars he uncovered while cleaning Area 86 (see page 21).
60-cm-wide W15 is a well built wall, one of the best found on the site. There appears to be an “alleyway” between it and W7 leading to a higher level.
When the structure mentioned above went out of use after the Byzantine period, walls W10 and W13 were constructed on the remains of W24. It appears that stones from the upper sections of W15, W22, and W24 were used to make these walls, possibly a squatter dwelling among the Byzantine ruins. W7 also seems to have remained in use during this later period.
Among the debris from both periods were found many large stones which tumbled from a substantial structure above. The 7th or 8th century earthquake, evidence of which is prevalent on the site, probably destroyed these late Byzantine, early Arabic buildings also.
Another feature is a 30–40 cm thick yellow clay layer (L2) on the southwest side of the square, similar to clay layers found in Areas 77 and 78. It does not seem to be a wall and there are no delineations of mudbricks in the layer. To all indications, its total width is 3.6 m which may indicate it was a road next to the tower (?) in Area 77. Or it might be that the clay layer is a collapse of a claybrick
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Area 80
(1) Wall 1
(2) Yellow clay layer (Locus 4)
(3) Wall 3
(4) Middle Bronze jar handle
superstructure of the “tower.” This does not seem as likely, however, since the clay layer is so uniformly laid down. It is underlaid by a cobble layer (L11) which, in turn, had been laid on large, flat stones (L9).
When the final phase, large retaining wall (W4) was built along the south side of the square, the builders cut through clay layer (L2) down to bedrock. This thick wall was built of large stones inside and out, the center filled with rubble.
Area 80
Area 80 lies next to and northeast of Area 78 (probed in 1987 and finished in 1990), and northwest of Area 79.
The most significant feature was a layer averaging 11 cm in thickness consisting of yellow clay mixed with limestone chips approximately 20 cm above bedrock (which is relatively flat in this area). The clay layer, Locus 4 (L 4), was obviously a surface and very distinct. Although only about 16 cm remained
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projecting into the square under Wall 1 (W 1) before being cut by some kind of disturbance, it covered early ceramics. Although few ceramics were recovered, the latest found was Late Bronze or possibly Iron Age I. One of the most diagnostic sherds was the base of a Middle Bronze II chalice. Half of an upper millstone made of chert was also recovered from beneath L4.
The clay layer seems to have originally gone completely across the northeast side of the square, except where it was cut by the disturbance of L3, since a similar clay layer was discovered at the same level in the northeastern corner for about 1.5 m. Again, the ceramics under this surface were all early.
Megalith lying on bedrock in Area 80
Wall3 beside it to the left, portions of which have been removed, runs up the center of the picture and lies under Wall1
The close proximity of Area 78 is mentioned above because the same yellow clay layer was found in that area in both 1987 and 1990 with early (Iron Age I or Late Bronze and Middle Bronze) ceramics under it. Thus one meter remains in the balk and another meter under 1-m-wide W1 in Area 80, making 2 m to excavate of this feature in the next season. This is the first architectural unit from such an early period.
Another interesting feature in Area 80 was a very large stone (1.6 x 1.2 m) lying flat on bedrock with a mortar hole (30 cm in diameter) cut into its flat top. The clay layer was level with the top of this stone (40 cm below surface level) but did not cover it. The megalith may originally have been incorporated into the floor and used as a working surface.
One other consideration is that this same megalith may have been one of a row of stones related to the two megaliths (on edge) in Area 77 (see photo inside back cover). The stone in Area 80 if it had been on edge originally is not far off-line, in its present fallen condition, with those of Area 77.
W3 was an early wall, possibly Iron Age, which cut through the clay layer (L4) and was laid on bedrock. It was at right-angle to but under W1. The foundation trench of W3 yielded a large-jar handle from the Middle Bronze period, but little else. W3 ran southwest-northeast across the square and was laid up against the megalith and partly covered it, so was later than the placing of it. It
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was made by laying small oblong fieldstones cross-ways on bedrock. These were then covered with medium-size boulders also oblong and laid crossways.
Trench E/G
Two trenches (E and G)in Field T, originally dug parallel to each other as 1-m-wide probes were joined and enlarged in 1990 in a 6 m square. Their excavation was detailed in the 1987–1990 report in the NEAS Bulletin. In 1991 we wanted to ascertain the period of the layer of soil between the cobble layer and bedrock since we had not determined this in 1990. The soil under the cobbles yielded Iron Age II ceramics as the latest. Although most of the ceramics were body sherds, there also seemed to be a significant percentage of Early Bronze.
This soil layer covered by cobbles formed an unusual 15–20° sloping ramp across almost the entire 6 m square. It joined the outside edge of one bedrock outcropping (the vertical face of which is about 2 m in height) with the outside edge of the face of the next level which is about 1.5 m higher. Its purpose seems to have been to cover the jagged, irregular bedrock surface making it an even slope covered with cobbles. But why? At present we have no suggestion what the sloping cobble layer may have been.
Area 86
The excavation of Area 86, a wine storage area near the northern end of the site, was in the 1987–1990 report in the NEAS Bulletin. This year, while cleaning it in preparation for drawing a plan (see above) of this complicated area, a small soil deposit still remaining in the bottom of the largest pit was removed. Under the soil and on bedrock were two complete, restorable wine jars from the late Hellenistic Period. One is seen in the photograph on page 18. Earlier, a limestone stopper for them had been uncovered and this is in Fig. 4:15 in the 1987–1990 report.