Between July – September 2004 a salvage excavation was conducted at  Horbat Burnat, located east of Shoham. The excavation was carried out in the wake of the construction of the Modi’in regional industrial zone and was directed by Dr. D. Amit, H. Torgë and P. Gandelman.

 

In five large excavation areas that were opened on the northern and eastern slopes of the hill, the remains of a Jewish village of the Second Temple period, dating from the Hasmonean period until the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, were discovered. Some of the houses in the village that were abandoned following the Bar Kokhba Revolt were reoccupied in the Late Roman and Byzantine periods.    

 

Eight large farmhouses were excavated at the site. Next to the farmhouses or inside them were discovered fortified guard towers, ritual baths, “sitting” tubs, columbaria, a large olive oil production complex, a wine press, pressing installations for domestic oil production and water systems.

 

In Area E, a residential building with a row of interior columns was exposed. It  was blocked by a wall in a later phase and was divided into small rooms, perhaps during the period between the uprisings. A tabun dating to the Bar Kokhba Revolt was discovered on the floor of one of the rooms.

 

Besides the large agricultural installations, farming objects and implements were discovered such as numerous millstones used for grinding flour, a cow bell which is indicative of grazing and many loom weights signifying a wool industry. The many ritual baths, as well as an abundant amount of measuring cups – stone vessels that do not absorb impurity – all indicate that the residents of the site were Jewish. The canceling of the ritual baths in the later periods shows that the inhabitants who reoccupied the site after it was abandoned were not Jewish.

 

Some personal effects of the residents were discovered in the excavation including numerous coins, earrings, toggle pins and pendants. The discovery of three Bar Kokhba coins from the Year 2 of the revolt is especially important. These are the northernmost such coins that have been discovered to date in the country and attest to the size of the uprising. In addition to the coins, arrowheads and the rear part of a lance were discovered indicating the active participation of the village’s residents in the Bar Kokhba Revolt.