Roman and Byzantine Burials at Yavneh-Yam: New Insights into the Site’s Settlement History

Abstract

This paper discusses Roman and Byzantine tombs and burial caves at Yavneh-Yam (the harbor site of ancient Iamnia) excavated in the 1960s and 1980s. It focuses on the finds recovered during these excavations as a means to enhance our knowledge on the site’s social and religious history vis-à-vis the inhabited site’s recent excavations and studies. More specifically, the discussed funerary remains reflect the changes in the site’s social composition between Early Roman to Byzantine times. While in the Early Roman period Yavneh-Yam was probably predominantly Jewish, in Late Roman and mainly Byzantine times it was developed into a large and thriving harbor town whose mixed population was composed of polytheists, Jews, Samaritans and Christians.