Khirbat Shumeila
4th century BCE
Achaemenid Persian
Jar, bag-shaped, Jug/p...
This site encompasses a large building with a pottery kiln inside its courtyard with three phases of continuous occupation. The building is located in the Shephelah, in the modern Ramat Bet Shemesh area. The layout of the building suggests that it functioned as a workshop and not as a domestic house. This is the first site where a kiln of the Persian period was found in the Shephelah and the Central Hills area. The kiln produced storage jars and stands, based on the large amount of these forms found around and in the ash layers associated to the kiln functioning.
Helena Kogan Zehavi excavated the site on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority