The Israel Antiquities Authority unearthed well-preserved agriculture tools including tens of loom weights used for weaving clothing, big pottery storage pots, and iron equipment, as well as numerous picks and scythes.
The tools belong to a farmhouse at Horbat Assad, located near Nahal Arbel in eastern Galilee which dated to the second half of the second century BCE based on the coins discovered. The 2100-year-old Hellenistic Hasmonean era farmhouse comprises possible hastily abandoned artifacts.
The excavation was financed with the assistance of Mekorot company project in order to promote the NIS 910 million to transfer water to the Kinneret pursuant to a government resolution. Its objective is to carry desalinated water to the Kinneret in order to maintain the water level and anchor a continuous water supply for households, agriculture, and neighboring countries.
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Dr. Amani Abu-Hamid, Director of the excavation said: “We were very lucky to discover a time-capsule, frozen in time, in which the finds remained where they were left by the occupants of the site, and it seems that they left in haste in face of impending danger, possibly the threat of a military attack. The weaving loom weights were still on the shelf, the storage jars were intact. We know from historical sources, that in this period, the Judean Hasmonean Kingdom expanded into Galilee, and it is possible that the farmstead was abandoned in the wake of these events. More research is required to determine the identity of the inhabitants of the site.”
