Luxurious medieval villa from early Islamic period discovered in Israel
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ARCHEOLOGY – Built around the VIIIe or the IXe century, this vast and rich set would have belonged to a local notable. The site dates from the same period as an ancient mosque discovered nearby in June.
It could have been Roman remains, Persian or Hellenistic. But not this time. Israeli archaeologists discovered this summer a magnificent villaduring a preventive archeology dig carried out in the expanding outskirts of the city of Rahat, in the Negev. Located about fifty kilometers south of Jerusalemthe site dates from around the 8the -IXe century AD, the beginning of Islamic rule in the region, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Tuesday.
This estate, made up of four wings organized around a central courtyard, was equipped with all the amenities imaginable at the time, set in refined luxury. marble floor, polychrome frescoes on the walls and glass tableware are among the remains unearthed by the researchers, who also uncovered the outlines of an ancient tower, a cistern and a water supply system.
A residence of the elite
Even better, archaeologists were delighted to discover vaults “unique and impressive underground“, arranged under the villa and “proof of the means of the owners“said the AIA in a press release. 5.5 meters high, these vaultswere carefully constructed and probably led to other intricate underground spaces that have yet to be discovered“, explained the archaeologists in charge of the excavations on this site which must open to the public on Thursday.
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This property is the “first of its kind in the Negev“, say the Israeli archaeologists. “We assume whoever lived here was a local leader”, Archaeologist Noah D. Michael, head of the excavation site, told AFP. The villa and its rich owner must have overlooked neighboring farms in the north of the region. The site now neighbors other medieval remains. In June, the AIA announced that it had unearthed the remains of one of the oldest rural mosques in the world in the same area..
Dating from the same period as the area just exhumed, these remains testify to the spread of Islam in this part of the Middle East ceded from the middle of the 7the century by the byzantine empire to the first Muslim caliphs. “These sites will be preserved for the public, for tourists and for the city of Rahat so that it has an archaeological park», assures Noé D. Michael. Unless other fabulous discoveries come to further delay the emergence of the new district of Rahat.
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