Tel Masos; Khirbet el-Masas; Khirbet el Meshash - Monastery

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Monastery name, type, category

Site Name:

Tel Masos; Khirbet el-Masas; Khirbet el Meshash

Identification:

Based on the style of the chapel and on Syrian inscriptions, the monastery was identified as a "Nestorian" i.e. a Syrian monastery.

Monastery name:

Monastery

Monastery type:

Cenobium

Monastery category:

Village

Former ruin

Location

Coordinates, ITM system:

196,749.00

569,144.00

Coordinates, ICS system:

146,745.00

69,142.00

Geographical region:

Beer Sheba Valley

Provincial affiliation:

Palaestina II

Bishopric:

Eleutheropolis

Topographical location:

On the southwestern edge of the Iron age Tel Masos, on the bank of Nahal Beer Sheva in an area of low hills.

Soils:

Loes

Distance from nearest bishop-seat:

ca. 31 km (Elusa)

Distance from Roman roads:

ca. 2 km north of the road leading from Beer Sheva to the Dead Sea.

Source of knowledge

Epigraphy

Archaeological remains

Excavated site

Excavators:

Name	Date
Kempinsky and Fritz	1971-1975

Bibliograpy:

Aharoni, Y., Fritz, V. and Kempinski, A., 1975	110-12
Fritz, V. and Kempinski, A., 1983
Goldfus, H., 1997	51-57
Duncan, C., 2008
Varga, D., 2021

Abbreviation for Journals and Series

State of certainty:

Archaeologicaly definitive

General description

State of preservation/which parts were uncovered:

Tel Masos is located in the Beer Sheva valley about 18 km east of the modern city of Beer Sheva. The complex, 30x20m in dimensions, is situated on the southwestern edge of the Tel. It was built on two levels, the southeastern, higher level, containing a chapel, and the lower level, to the west and north, consisting of a courtyard surrounded by seven rooms and four additional rooms to the east. Five stairs separated the two levels. Most of the structure was excavated, the remains being in a fairly good state of preservation although some of the external southern walls have been washed away by erosion and the room adjacent to the church had collapsed into the crypt below it.

Illustrative material:

Illustrative_material

Figures

Tel Masos- plan of the site (Fritz and Kempinski 1983).

Tel Masos- reconstruction: view from the east (Fritz and Kempinski 1983: 140).

Tel Masos- reconstruction: view from west (Fritz and Kempinski 1983: 139).

General description

Enclosing walls:

A rectangular structure (19 x31 m) surrounded by a wall encompassing an area of ca. 589 m².

Gate/s:

The main entrance is from the south with a secondary entrance in the east. Just inside the main entrance there is a small courtyard, which probably served as a gatehouse, from which five steps lead to the higher level.

Courtyards:

The complex has several courtyards. A small courtyard just inside the gate may have served as a gatehouse. The main courtyard (about 12.50 x 5.60 m) has a row of pillars on its eastern side, indicating that it was roofed. The rooms surrounding this courtyard could be accessed directly from it. An outer courtyard, south of the monastery’s southern perimeter wall of which only the southern and eastern walls were found. Further to the south, there is a second outer courtyard in the center of which a building was constructed at a phase later than the foundation of the monastery.

Churche/s:

A rectangular chapel (10 x 6.60 m.) is located in the upper level of the complex in its southeastern corner. To reach the chapel, a flight of six steps ascended from the monastery's entrance. The chapel's ceiling was supported by three arches, the floor was paved with stone slabs. The excavators described the chapel as Syrian in style (having a square sanctuary).

Dwellings:

The main courtyard is surrounded by rooms, some of which probably served as dwelling cells for the monks. Of the total of about 12 rooms in the complex, three were apparently covered with vaulted roofs as shown by preserved pilaster foundations. The remains of charred wooden beams found in one of the rooms point to its wooden ceiling, which may have supported a second story where additional dwellings were located .

Burials:

North of the chapel, a room containing seven tombs was unearthed. The room could be accessed from an opening in the east perimeter wall of the complex. The tombs were of carefully cut limestone and were covered with stone slabs. In each of the tombs, 2-3 human skulls were found, in a bad state of preservation, facing east. Remains of a pair of leather sandals were found in one of the tombs. Broken pieces of plaster in the debris, found in the tombs, had remains of inscriptions in Syriac Estrangela script. This led to the proposal that this was a Nestorian monastery.

Kitchen:

A room in the northeastern corner of the courtyard was identified as a kitchen, based on two ovens and pottery of a domestic nature.

Baking oven:

The ovens are built of limestone which was partially cracked by heat. The ovens were sunk below the floor level, ashes and broken pottery were found in them. The ovens had openings at the top for the release of smoke. One of the ovens still had a clay cylinder that apparently served as a chimney. A small opening, apparently a drain, was located in the northern wall.

Hostelry:

Two rooms in the outer courtyard south of the church may have served as a hostel.

Garden:

The ground slopes down towards the west. The excavators suggested that the lower terrace had been surrounded by a wall and may have served as the monastery’s garden.

Small finds

Small finds:

Category	Description
Inscription - see under epigraphy	Syriac and Greek.
Pottery	Cooking pots with lids; amphorae and spouted jugs; bowls; 2 pilgrim’s flasks all dated to the seventh century.
Oil lamps	A single oil lamp.
Leather	Remains of sandals found in the tombs.
Metal objects	Fragments of an iron sickle. Iron nails
Bones	Human skulls were found in the tomb in a poor state of preservation. The skulls faced eastwards.
Other	Four incised drawings on blocks of stone: two drawings of ships, one of a bird and one with figures standing outside a tent.
Other	Remains of charred cedar beams.

Detailed description

Dimensions:

Total area (sqm)	Size class
589	Small

Structure

Materials applied (walls):

Limestone

Materials applied (roofing):

timber

Components

Enclosing wall

Gate/s:

Courtyard/s

Monastery church:

Church type	Diakonikon	Link to church section	Church location
single nave			Ground floor

Refectory

Dwelling type:

cells

Kitchen

Baking oven

Hostelry

Tombs type:

Burial chamber

Garden

Architectural evolution

Phase 1
Abandonment

Dating material:

Pottery and Epigraphy

Phase date

Century:

6th c.

Within century:

Late

General outline:

The monastery was destroyed violently, as attested by the charred remains of wood, sometime in the early eighth century.

Dating material:

Charred beams and a large amount of broken pottery dated to the Early Islamic period.

Phase date

Century:

8th c.

Within century:

Early

Iconoclastic evidence

Iconoclastic evidence:

Post Arab conquest history:

Still in use

Post conquest history comments:

Based on the pottery, the excavators dated the monastery to the late Byzantine-Early Arab period. The excavators were also assisted in the dating by the addition of vowels to the Estrangela script found on stones in the debris of the monastery, which came into use around the eighth century CE. The excavators surmise that the monastery was active for no more than one hundred years. This would then place its foundation no later than the end of the sixth century and its destruction sometime in the early eighth century.