Field Notes The Second Season of Excavation at Horvat Midras

The second season of excavations at Horvat Midras (Fig. 1), located in the Adulam Grove Nature Reserve in the Judaean Foothills, c. 6 km northeast of Beit Guvrin was conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University and lead by Orit Peleg-Barkat from July 24 to August 18 2017. This season the excavation focused on three areas, A, C, and D and uncovered a Roman ashlar building, remains of the Hellenistic settlement and a funerary monument. Based on previous surveys and short salvage excavations, the site was probably founded in the Persian or Early Hellenistic periods and reached its zenith as a Jewish settlement in the Early and Middle Roman periods (1st century BCE–2nd century CE). This settlement, which included buildings, caves, ritual baths, extensive hiding complexes, columbaria and other agricultural installations, seems to have been significantly richer and larger than other nearby rural sites.¹