Hirbet er-Rām – A Newly Discovered ˘Frankish Village North of Jerusalem: a newly discovered frankish village north of Jerusalem

During a salvage excavation conducted in the Ăt ˙ ārōt Industrial Area, located north of Jerusalem, a large Frankish period settlement was unearthed. This settlement has all the hallmarks of a European style street-village, and it is more than likely it was one of the agricultural villages controlled and operated by the Church with the blessing of the royal court in Jerusalem. The Church had settled such villages with free-men of Frankish decent during the 12^th cent. C.E. who were awarded with agricultural land in return for regular tribute, mainly in the form of agricultural produce and other by-products such as wine. The Frankish settlement seems to have been short-lived, yet after its abandonment, at least some of the village’s structures remained in use until the 20^th cent. C.E. The discovery and excavation of this previously unknown Frankish settlement adds valuable information to our knowledge of the agricultural hinterland of Jerusalem during the Frankish period, the establishment of well-organized villages in the Levant, and their usage after the fall of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem.