Life on the Farm in Late Medieval Jerusalem
The Peasant Farmstead of Khirbet Beit Mazmil, its Occupants and their Industry over Five Centuries
Edited by
Bethany J. Walker [+–]
University of Bonn
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Prof. Dr. Bethany J. Walker (PhD 1998, University of Toronto, Islamic art and archaeology) – Co-Director of the Khirbet Beit Mazmīl excavations and Co-PI of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project. Research Professor of Mamluk Studies and Director of the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn (Germany). Author of Jordan in the Late Middle Ages: Transformation of the Mamluk Frontier (Chicago, 2011), editor of Reflections of Empire: Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies on the Pottery of the Ottoman Levant (Boston, 2009), and author of 65 scholarly articles. Founding editor of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology (Equinox) and Co-editor of Equinox’s Monographs in Islamic Archaeology.
Studies of Jerusalem in the post-classical periods have traditionally centered, unsurprisingly, on the Old City, isolating it from the regional setting in which it operated on a daily basis. The agricultural hinterland of Jerusalem – comprising a network of smaller settlements, agricultural terraces, fields, cisterns, watch towers, and local marketplaces that together fed the city – have not been a focus of archaeological research until very recently.
Life on the Farm in Late Medieval Jerusalem offers a rare glimpse into the daily life of a single rural household and its intimate, but ever-evolving, relationship with Jerusalem from the 14th through the early 20th centuries. It does so through a tightly integrated, multi-disciplinary study of one astonishingly well-preserved farmstead in its agricultural setting, how both settlement and farmland developed together over time, and how these changes impacted the socio-economic development of Jerusalem during the Mamluk and Ottoman Sultanates. The life history of this place is thus written on the basis of archaeological, botanical, and geological data, all interpreted against a rich textual record of land sales, field development, conflict, and cooperation.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
University of Bonn
Prof. Dr. Bethany J. Walker (PhD 1998, University of Toronto, Islamic art and archaeology) – Co-Director of the Khirbet Beit Mazmīl excavations and Co-PI of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project. Research Professor of Mamluk Studies and Director of the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn (Germany). Author of Jordan in the Late Middle Ages: Transformation of the Mamluk Frontier (Chicago, 2011), editor of Reflections of Empire: Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies on the Pottery of the Ottoman Levant (Boston, 2009), and author of 65 scholarly articles. Founding editor of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology (Equinox) and Co-editor of Equinox’s Monographs in Islamic Archaeology.
This introductory chapter briefly surveys the origins and general history of project, and situates the project in the larger fields of Mamluk Studies and Islamic archaeology.
Chapter 2
Hebrew University and Israel Antiquities Authority
Prof. Dr. Gideon Avni (PhD 1997, Hebrew University, Institute of Archaeology) – Professor of Archaeology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Director of Excavations and Surveys of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Co-PI of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project. Author of The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach (Oxford, 2014) and Nomads, Farmers and Town Dwellers, Pastoralist – Sedentist Interaction in the Negev Highlands, 6th -8th Centuries CE. Jerusalem, 1996), two edited and several collaboratively written monographs, and 37 scholarly articles.
Tel Aviv University
Prof. Dr. Yuval Gadot (PhD 2004, Tel Aviv University, Archaeology/Jewish Studies) – Professor of Archaeology; Director of Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. Director of the terrace component of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project. Co-author of 5 monographs, editor of 4 published works, and author of 72 scholarly articles.
This chapters sets the language of the rest of the volume, introducing key concepts related to the decision-making process behind historical land use and “reading” the archaeological record in this regard.
Chapter 3
Israel Antiquities Authority
Zubair Adawi (M.A., – Ben Gurion University, 2010, Archaeology) – Research and Excavation Archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Authority
Independent Scholar
Dr. Benjamin Dolinka (PhD 2007, Archaeology, University of Liverpool) – formerly Jerusalem District Ceramics Specialist, Israel Antiquities Authority; currently Independent Scholar. Author of Nabataean Aila (Aqaba, Jordan) from a Ceramic Perspective (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 2003) and 7 scholarly articles.
Pulling on the results of a single season of salvage excavations at the base of the hill in 2017, Chapter Three recreates the form and function of the monumental, multi-level complex of the Byzantine period that formed the foundation of the current site.
Chapter 4
Israel Antiquities Authority
Dr. Benyamin Storchan (M.A., Bar-Ilan University, Archaeology) – Jerusalem Region Research Excavation Archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Authority.
Independent Scholar
Dr. Benjamin Dolinka (PhD 2007, Archaeology, University of Liverpool) – formerly Jerusalem District Ceramics Specialist, Israel Antiquities Authority; currently Independent Scholar. Author of Nabataean Aila (Aqaba, Jordan) from a Ceramic Perspective (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 2003) and 7 scholarly articles.
This chapter is based on the results of the first season of fieldwork at the site in 2012 and 2013, interpreting the results in light of what has been discovered in subsequent excavations. It focuses on the southern half of the site, which has been identified as the “outbuildings” of a Mamluk-era (13th-15th c.) amiral estate.
Chapter 5
University of Bonn
Prof. Dr. Bethany J. Walker (PhD 1998, University of Toronto, Islamic art and archaeology) – Co-Director of the Khirbet Beit Mazmīl excavations and Co-PI of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project. Research Professor of Mamluk Studies and Director of the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn (Germany). Author of Jordan in the Late Middle Ages: Transformation of the Mamluk Frontier (Chicago, 2011), editor of Reflections of Empire: Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies on the Pottery of the Ottoman Levant (Boston, 2009), and author of 65 scholarly articles. Founding editor of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology (Equinox) and Co-editor of Equinox’s Monographs in Islamic Archaeology.
Independent Scholar
Dr. Benjamin Dolinka (PhD 2007, Archaeology, University of Liverpool) – formerly Jerusalem District Ceramics Specialist, Israel Antiquities Authority; currently Independent Scholar. Author of Nabataean Aila (Aqaba, Jordan) from a Ceramic Perspective (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 2003) and 7 scholarly articles.
University of Bonn
Dr. Nicolò Pini (PhD 2017, Classical Archaeology, University of Cologne) – Research Affiliate at the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology, University of Bonn. Author of Arab Settlements: Tribal Structures and Spatial Organizations in the Middle East Between Hellenistic and Early Islamic Periods (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2019).
This chapter is the longest of the monograph, covering four seasons of survey and excavations. The bulk of the ceramic and architectural analysis will be found here. The excavations of these seasons were not salvage, but a purely research-based study of the northern half of the site on the summit of “Telegraph Hill”, which has been identified as the residential component of the Mamluk estate, subsequently resettled as a family farmstead and remaining in this form through the Ottoman era. Its occupation extends from the 14th through the early 20th centuries.
Chapter 6
University of Bonn (PhD student)
Omer Zeʿevi (M.A. 2019, Near Eastern Archaeology, Tel Aviv University) – PhD student in Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn
Tel Aviv University (PhD student)
Nitsan Ben-Melech (M.A. 2018, Near Eastern Archaeology, Tel Aviv University) – PhD student in Near Eastern Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.
Several seasons of excavations in what were the cultivated lands of medieval Beit Mazmīl and Ein Kerem are presented in this chapter. It centers on the results of the OSL dating of the agricultural terraces, creating a map of land and field development contemporary with the occupation of the farmstead.
Chapter 7
Tel Aviv University
Dafna Langgut is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University, Israel. In 2013 Langgut established the Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments. She specializes in the study of past vegetation and climate in the Near East, based on the identification of botanical remains. Through this discipline, she reconstructs climate changes and considers
the past relationship between humans and the environment, e.g. human dispersal out of Africa and the beginning of domestication. Langgut’s research also involves the identification of micro-botanical remains (mainly pollen) and macro-botanical remains (wood-charcaol remains) from archaeological contexts. Langgut is also the curator of pollen and archaeobotanical collections at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural
History, Tel Aviv University.
the past relationship between humans and the environment, e.g. human dispersal out of Africa and the beginning of domestication. Langgut’s research also involves the identification of micro-botanical remains (mainly pollen) and macro-botanical remains (wood-charcaol remains) from archaeological contexts. Langgut is also the curator of pollen and archaeobotanical collections at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural
History, Tel Aviv University.
American Agricultural College, Thessaloniki
Dr. Sofia Laparidou (PhD 2016, Anthropology-Palaeobotany, University of Texas, Austin) – Adjunct Professor at the American Agricultural College in Thessaloniki (Greece); from 2021 will be a Marie Curie postdoctoral Fellow at the Islamic Archaeology Research Unit of the University of Bonn.
University of Groningen
Groningen Institute of Archaeology
Groningen Institute of Archaeology
Annette Hansen (M.S. 2012, Archaeological Science, University of Oxford) – PhD student in Palaeobotany and archaeology, University of Groningen (Netherlands)
University of Sheffield
Dr. Chiara Corbino (PhD 2010, University of Siena) – Honorary Research Fellow, University of Sheffield
The final results of the botanical and faunal studies are presented here, in four separate sub-sections (as below). If needed, some of the larger charts, which comprise a reference archive of macrobotanical finds, will be relegated to the online supplement for the sake of space. 7.1: Evidence from Pollen – Dafna Langgut – analysis of pollen record from samples taken in the terraces 7.2: Evidence from Phytoliths – Sofia Laparidou – phytoliths from site and terraces 7.3: The Macrobotanical Record – Annette Hansen – macrobotanical analysis from site 7.4: The Zoorarchaeological Remains – Chiara Corbino – zooarchaeological analysis from site
Chapter 8
University of Bonn
Prof. Dr. Bethany J. Walker (PhD 1998, University of Toronto, Islamic art and archaeology) – Co-Director of the Khirbet Beit Mazmīl excavations and Co-PI of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project. Research Professor of Mamluk Studies and Director of the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn (Germany). Author of Jordan in the Late Middle Ages: Transformation of the Mamluk Frontier (Chicago, 2011), editor of Reflections of Empire: Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies on the Pottery of the Ottoman Levant (Boston, 2009), and author of 65 scholarly articles. Founding editor of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology (Equinox) and Co-editor of Equinox’s Monographs in Islamic Archaeology.
Chapter Eight is a survey of the textual record on this site and the villages and farmland in its vicinity, providing the historical backdrop for the archaeological, botanical/faunal, and terrace studies (and simultaneously interpreting their collective results in a historical perspective). The textual record includes a wide range of largely unpublished documents – in the form of court and tax registers, endowment records, legal and agrarian manuals – and the more familiar genres of chronicles, geographies and travelers’ accounts. These texts together allow for an assessment of the political, economic, and social factors behind the development of the farmstead and its fields, from the 14th through 19th centuries. The chapter then culminates with a new assessment of the relationship of medieval Jerusalem with its rural hinterland and the role of commercialization of agriculture in this regard.
Chapter 9
University of Bonn
Prof. Dr. Bethany J. Walker (PhD 1998, University of Toronto, Islamic art and archaeology) – Co-Director of the Khirbet Beit Mazmīl excavations and Co-PI of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project. Research Professor of Mamluk Studies and Director of the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn (Germany). Author of Jordan in the Late Middle Ages: Transformation of the Mamluk Frontier (Chicago, 2011), editor of Reflections of Empire: Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies on the Pottery of the Ottoman Levant (Boston, 2009), and author of 65 scholarly articles. Founding editor of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology (Equinox) and Co-editor of Equinox’s Monographs in Islamic Archaeology.
This concluding chapter extracts “lessons learned” about the ways local communities have historically participated in market agriculture, their reasons for developing the land, and how they came to control, in modest but important ways, food production. It is theory-based and connects to contemporary scholarship on food security and sustainable agriculture.
