Ricerc@Sapienza

In 2017, during a salvage excavation carried out by the Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage of Palestine, an Iron Age shaft tomb close to the site of Khirbet Bir el-Kharayib in Central Palestine came to light. The funerary equipment of the tomb goes within the Iron Age IIA pottery tradition. Vessels of this period primarily consist of Red Slip Ware bowls and juglets, Black Slip Ware juglets, Simple Ware jars, jugs and juglets, and Cooking Ware pots. A Bichrome Ware jug, a bronze bowl and a zoomorphic figurine complete the funerary set.

In Spring 2019 the Italian-Palestinian joint team of Sapienza University of Rome and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Palestine Dept. of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage resumed rescue excavations at the Necropolis of Khalet al-Jam’a, 2.2 Km south-east from the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. Works were focused on Tomb A7, identified in 2015, a huge underground burial place, dating back to the Iron IIC (8th-7th century BC), but also including earlier depositions dating from the EB IVB-MB.