Roman Fortress

Overview

A trapezoidal Roman fortress was built in the center of the tell. Rooms lined the wall of the fortress, and there was a courtyard in the center. The entrance was in the eastern wall, which is the same side of the tell in which the Israelite gate was built, likely because that was the easiest way to access the tell based on the topography. The excavators found a tamped earthen floor outside the fortress on the west and the south, which was probably a large open courtyard that extended to the edge of the tell. There were ten rooms in the fortress that could have been used by troops. The fortress could have held between eighty and one hundred soldiers, although the permanent number stationed may have been less. It is not known when this fortress was built, but it appears to have been abandoned by the fourth century CE. This fortress was likely used as a part of a network of Roman fortresses to protect the region.

This fortress was used again during the Arab conquest of the seventh century CE, indicated by seventh-century pottery fragments and some alterations to the building. A new entrance was made in the western side and a cistern was built in the south of the building. Not much was found inside fortress and no Roman pottery was found. The lack of Roman pottery fragments suggests that when the Romans abandoned the fortress, they took all their belongings with them.

To the east of the mound there extends a lower cape on which remnants of Byzantine structures were discovered, along with sherds from earlier Roman, Hellenistic, and Judean periods. A settlement of substantial dimensions is suspected to have been located at the foot of the mound during these periods.