Tel Beth-Shemesh: overlooking Sorek Valley; is a 3-hectare mound approximately 30 kilometers west of Jerusalem. The site of Tel Beth Shemesh is located at the geographic meeting point of three regions: the coastal plain, the Shephelah and the central hill country renders it an ideal site for investigating geopolitical, social, and cultural dynamics. The ruins of the ancient biblical city are located at a site called Tel Beth Shemesh (Tell el- Rummeleh) that extended over the western mound and was first identified by Edward Robinson in 1856 (Gapek 2012: 19). The site was excavated firstly by Duncan Makenzie in (1911–1912) on behalf of the Palestine exploration fund then the American expedition led by Grant and Wright between the years (1928–1933) (Mackenzie, et al. 2015: 1–11). In 1990, the Israeli expedition led by Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman initiated several excavations at the site. These past excavations concluded that the site was inhabited from the Middle Bronze IIB, to the end of the Iron IIB (8th century BCE) when the site was finally destroyed in 701 BCE by Sennacherib (Bunimovitz and Lederman 2016: 70).  The main strata on Tel Beth Shemesh are the strata of Iron I to Iron IIB (Levels 6‒2). The biblical Tel has yielded many important finds; a complex system of public buildings and fortifications, large storage facilities, water reservoir, metal workshop, cultic finds and ostraca (Bunimovitz 2009: 127–133). In 2018, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) launched salvage excavations led by Boaz Gross on the eastern mound at the ruins of the Palestinian village Ein Shams (Tel Beth Shemesh East) exposing remains from the Late Bronze Age to the Ottoman period. The Main levels on the eastern mound are from Iron IIC (Level 6) in which our sherds were found, to Level 2 the Mamluk-Ottoman period (Gross 2021: 2).

The geological section of Tel Beth-Shemesh and its surroundings is built of massive sedimentary strata of the Taqiye Formation To the north, south and west of the site, the Paleocene strata are overlain by the ‘Adulam Formation of Eocene Age. The formation is built of well bedded limestone and hard chalk, partly silicified, white to yellow, containing lenses of chert. The total thickness of the formation is up to 130 m. Moreover, the ‘Adulam Formation is overlain by the Maresha’ Formation of Middle Eocene Age, built of white chalk and marl up to 180 m in thickness (Ilani, Lederman and Bunimovitz 2020: 2–3). Much of The Pottery in Beth Shemesh indicates its belonging to the Shephelah region and it reflects a continuous tradition in pottery making since the Bronze Age (Bunimovitz and Lederman 2008: 24). Moreover, it appears from the archaeological data that the pottery industry in Beth Shemesh and other sites in the Shephelah was located in workshops located in the region, especially in Wadi Ayla, which is distinguished by clay suited for pottery production (Na’aman 2017: 16). The local production of pottery is often characterized by its dark reddish-brown color with a dark core and identified as terra rossa soil which is typical of the mountainous regions. Terra rossa soil mixed with wadi sand and/or crushed calcite was used by the potters in the Shephelah region. (Goren and Iserlis 2011: 1030). 

Contributor:  Jad Abu Saed 06/15/2021