Majdal Yābā: More Insights on the Site in Medieval and Late Ottoman to Mandatory Times

Abstract

In 2016 another excavation season was carried out at Majdal Yaba, concentrating on three rooms (02, 03 and 22) in the ground floor of the Ottoman-Mandatory manor house. Rooms 02 and 03 are large, adjacent halls apparently designated as storage and working areas, while Room 22 is a smaller living quarter. Each of the rooms revealed evidence for at least two main construction and utilization phases during the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods. In Room 03 were also unearthed—for the first time in the site—substantial foundations belonging to the Crusader castle of Mirabel, associated with well-dated finds. The analyzing of the present excavation included a first study of the faunal remains found in many of the Ottoman and Mandatory contexts, which shed much light on animal exploitation at the manor house and the (sometimes surprising) diet habits of its residents. Also studied were the rifle cartridges discovered in the excavation, the majority of which represent a homogeneous assemblage of First World War German ammunition. This hitherto largely overlooked class of artifacts was found to be much useful as an archaeological dating tool of early modern remains, alongside their contribution to the knowledge about the site’s history in the early 20th century.