Find of the Day Feb 24, 2014

Here is the room all cleaned out. Irina and her team removed every gouffa of dirt from the room and swept the floor. The floor was a beautiful red tinted color. The walls are plastered with a mixture of terracotta pottery crushed and mixed into the compound. There were vents in the wall above the floor to allow for water to escape.

 You can see a doorway in the upper right hand side with a raised threshold so we know that there was another floor laid on top (perhaps a mosaic floor since we did discover some tessera). The door frame was installed during the Byzantine period as there was plaster between the door frame and the wall.

Here in the corner of the floor (upper right hand corner) is where we found a Byzantine oil lamp. (It was found turned over). We keep saying the good stuff is in the corners and here is a good example.

Here is the close up of oil lamp which was found in the corner of the room. Adler states "common motif is a candlestick, which is sometimes referred to as a palm branch or a Menorah design."  Noam Adler, Oil Lamps of the Holy Land from the Adler Collection (Jerusalem: Old City, 2005), 146 Nos. 933-940. Stylized menorah on spout: six candles flanking central pole, the spout of the lamp acts as the 7th candle when lit! It dates to the second half of the fourth cent. to the fifth cent. AD. Some of these style also have the Greek inscription "Jesus light shines for all" which we have on our site. LINK This example may have two of the Greek letters on the side but it is not clear whether it was a decoration or the Greek Letters.