New discoveries at Horvat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Tombs, hiding complexes, and graffiti

Horvat Burgin (Khirbet Umm Burj) occupies the summit of a hill in the Judean Shephelah. This article presents the results of archaeological fieldwork undertaken by the authors from 1995 to 2008, focusing on rock-cut underground cavities that had served as burial caves, hiding complexes, and agricultural installations. Most of the features discussed had been plundered; only one burial complex was found sealed. The article reviews the main issues published in Hebrew in preliminary form, and presents for the first time the following results: • The stratigraphy revealed in a probing excavation of a residential area; a special find: a short ink inscription in Latin, on a handle of a locally produced storage jar. • The relationship between the residential area and the hiding system hewn underneath it. • An inscription in the cursive Jewish script incised on a doorjamb of an underground room in the system. • Some outstanding burial caves and three recently looted tombs: one from the late Second Temple period; two others from the late Roman period, with schematic ornamentation executed in relief on their walls. • Two inscriptions in the ancient Asomtavruli Georgian script of the late tenth or early eleventh century CE, incised on the walls of a bell-shaped cistern. This information enables afresh overview of the history of the site during the Roman and Byzantine periods, and a discussion of its possible historical-geographical identification as the Second Temple period village of Kefar Bish.