liat nadav-ziv

Recent excavations at Yavne show the scale of the wine industry at the site, indicating the central place of its wineries in the viticulture, processing and trade of wines from Ashqelon and Gaza during the Byzantine period. The paper analyses the textual and archaeological evidence for the production and popularity of these wines and gives emphasis to the discovery of a huge wine estate that includes multiple winepresses, warehouses and pottery kilns. These finds are contrasted with similar sites along the southern coastal plain of Late Antique Palestine. The specific wineries and pottery kilns associated with this industry are presented, showing unifying and differentiating characteristics, and the connection between the wineries and adjacent kilns in which ubiquitous Gazan amphorae were manufactured. These traits point towards the creation of a regional terroir (wine growing region) and a branded product from the 5th to 7th centuries CE. Finally, an attempt is made to address the production capacity of this wine industry, as expressed through evaluation of the winepresses at Yavne.

A shallow, human dug pit dated to the Early Islamic period (Area C3, 9th-10th century CE) and containing solely pig remains (Sus scrofa/S. s. domesticus) was discovered in an ongoing large scale excavation in Tel Yavne, Israel. Evidence of the intentional disposal or interment of the pig remains in the pit raises questions regarding the reasons for this peculiar occurrence at a time that the southern Levant was subject to the rule of Islamic law and dietary prohibitions. While it is known that non-Muslim communities continued to flourish in the region during the Early Islamic period (Fischer and Taxel 2007, and see the historical references therein), direct evidence of pig exploitation at this time has not been extensively documented. Our results indicate that at least seven suids, most of them domesticated and a few of feral/wild individuals, were slaughtered and rapidly deposited together inside the pit, in a one-time event. A comparison of the remains from the pit with other suid remains from the site, dated to the late Byzantine-Early Islamic period (7th-10th century CE), shows the pit to be a strikingly dense concentration of pig remains and reveals a unique techonomic pattern of the dominance of maxilla over mandibles. Pig husbandry at the site was generally based on culling of young animals (piglets), a pattern typical of dense urban sites, while many of the animals in the pit displayed abnormal molar tooth wear, suggesting consumption of abrasive food and teeth defects indicating stressful captivity conditions. We refer to archaeological and historical data in an attempt to reconstruct a scenario explaining the suid pit.