RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL—According to a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), archaeologists uncovered a remarkable 1,700-year-old commercial complex in Ramat Gan during excavations next to the Winter Stadium. The site contains a series of workshops, warehouses, pottery kilns, and other industrial spaces that were organized around a network of intersecting streets. “Although buildings and artifacts from ancient periods have been discovered in the area in the past, the results of the current excavation exceeded all expectations,” said excavation directors Yoav Arbel and Lior Rauchberger. In addition to the ruins of buildings, the IAA team also recovered dozens of pottery vessels, oil lamps, cosmetic implements, iron pickax heads, dozens of coins, and a large quantity of local and imported glass vessels. The site seems to have been founded in the seventh or eighth century a.d. during the Umayyad or Abbasid Caliphate, and was situated along an important route that connected Jaffa, the district capital of Ramla, and Jerusalem. For more on the Umayyads, go to "Expanding the Story."
