{"id":716,"date":"2025-12-02T19:25:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fulbrightisrael-magazine.org\/2025\/?post_type=books&p=716"},"modified":"2025-12-02T19:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:25:17","slug":"dr-itamar-taxel","status":"publish","type":"books","link":"https:\/\/www.fulbrightisrael-magazine.org\/2025\/books\/dr-itamar-taxel\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Itamar Taxel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Itamar Taxel is the head of the Pottery Specializations Branch at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) Archaeological Research Department. He is involved with various fieldwork and research projects on behalf of the IAA, Tel Aviv University, and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and he has authored and coauthored seven monographs and numerous articles and book chapters on the archaeology of Hellenistic to Late Islamic historical Palestine.

Me\u1e93ad Yero\u1e25am: A Caravanserai Site of the Roman and Byzantine Periods in the Negev Highlands<\/em><\/a> studies the area situated to the southwest of the modern town of Yero\u1e25am, in the heartland of other Negebite towns of the classical periods (Mampsis to its northeast, Elusa and Re\u1e25ovot-in-the-Negev to its northwest, Nessana and Sobota to its southwest and Oboda to its south). The site of Me\u1e93ad Yero\u1e25am has received little attention in modern research due to lack of publications. Surveyed by Palmer (1870) and Glueck (1954) and excavated by Cohen (1966\u20131967, 1993) and Baumgarten (2000), the site\u2019s four areas of excavations (A\u2013D) revealed three layers of occupation dated from the Early Roman (1st\/2nd century CE) through the Late Byzantine (6th and possibly early 7th century CE) period, based on the unearthed pottery and coins. While the early occupation at the site is restricted to Areas B and C, the site\u2019s current architectural landscape dates to the Byzantine period and illustrates a relatively dense settlement whose character \u2013 apparently a caravanserai with a few buildings of military and domestic (familial) nature \u2013 differs from contemporaneous Negebite large villages and townlets. This function and use may also hint at its character during earlier periods of occupation. One of the Greek ostraca found at the site mentions a toponym, \u039c\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03b1\u03b8\u03c9\u03c2, perhaps the site\u2019s ancient name which sadly is unrecorded in contemporaneous epigraphic material or known from historical sources. This study constitutes a full report of the site\u2019s excavations, dealing with its history of research, environs, architecture and stratigraphy, architectural sculpture, pottery, glass, stone (and other artifacts) and coins, as well as ostraca, dipinti and shells. The site\u2019s necropoleis and hinterland are also discussed in detail. The analysis of Me\u1e93ad Yero\u1e25am is holistic in nature, based upon the finds recovered and the Zeitgeist of the current research of the classical periods in the Negev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":718,"template":"","class_list":["post-716","books","type-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fulbrightisrael-magazine.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/books\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fulbrightisrael-magazine.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/books"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fulbrightisrael-magazine.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/books"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fulbrightisrael-magazine.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fulbrightisrael-magazine.org\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}