Basement House

Overview

Directly across the street from the typical houses of the western quarter is the Cellar House, so named because it does indeed have a basement. The house is massive, with a total area of around 300 square meters, and is the largest residential structure at Beersheba. The Cellar House is built according to a basic four-room house plan, but with a large courtyard in the center and an expansion of the southern side to create a fifth room. At the front of the house, on the eastern side, is a courtyard. Unlike many four-room houses, the basement building does not have any pillared walls. There is a long central room that was paved with white crushed chalk, where the excavators found an oven with a cooking pot, two grindstones, and lots of charred wood. The excavators found signs of severe burning and collapse along the adjacent walls. The northern wing was badly damaged by a later silo and pool. The southern wing was divided into two smaller rooms. Throughout the whole building, the excavators found lots of charred wood that probably fell from the roof of the building.

This building is unusual because of its basements, which were accessed through a series of stairs at the southwest corner of the house. The excavators found lots of pottery in the basements, covered by brick debris and charred wood that fell from above the rooms. Thus, the excavators believed there were rooms above the basements. The basements were used for storage, probably wine, but whatever was stored in them was removed before the house was destroyed along with the city.