Vol. 1, 2022

We are proud to announce the journal Lod, Lydda, Diospolis, which will be published as an online English version parallel to the annual Lod: “Diospolis-City of God,” printed in Hebrew since 2015. The online journal was founded out of a desire to create a quality platform for research and publication of the heritage of Lod—a city with one of the richest histories in the Near East. Lod is the only city in Israel apart from Jerusalem that holds an annual conference and publishes a journal, both dedicated to its heritage.
The community archaeological project managed in Lod by the Israeli Institute of Archaeology since 2005 is the largest project of its kind in Israel and one of the largest in the world. For information about the project, see the English web edition of Alon Shavit’s book “The Devil Went Down to Diospolis”, on this website.
The journal is peer reviewed and recognized by the Council for Higher Education in Israel. We are careful to instruct the authors to submit articles written in clear language that will suit the general public alongside the research community, without sacrificing accuracy and scientific standards.
The academic editorial board includes architect Giora Solar, a world-renowned conservation expert; Prof. Avi Sasson, researcher of architecture, landscape archaeology, and historical geography and Head of the Department of the Land of Israel Studies at Ashkelon Academic College; Dr. Ido Koch, biblical archaeologist and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University; Dr. Assaf Selzer, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa; and Dr. Yotam Tepper, archaeologist of the classical periods at the Israel Antiquities Authority. The editorial team is headed by Dr. Alon Shavit, who initiated the Lod community archaeological project and edited the Hebrew journal from its founding. The members of the board represent a variety of research institutions and a variety of expertise, all relating to the heritage of the city of Lod.
Modern archaeologists have long since understood that researchers studying a central ancient site must be acquainted with its environs and familiarize themselves with the settlement system on which the site relied in various periods. This approach makes it possible to recognize the economic, agricultural, and demographic potential of the site, to identify processes of development or retreat in the region, and to examine their impact on the central city. Adopting this approach, in this volume we have chosen to view Lod from its immediate surroundings.
The first three articles in the first volume are devoted to the history of Jindās, the closest village to Lod. Roy Marom conducted a comprehensive study of the village’s history and the upheavals that characterized the entire region in the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Ron Toueg et al. present the archaeological excavations in the western part of the village, in the fields of present-day Moshav Ginaton, where they uncovered mainly the cemetery of Jindās from the Mamluk period and the beginning of the Ottoman period. Vered Eshed et al. present a study of the ancient demography of the village, based on a study of those buried in the cemetery.
Avi Sasson presents us with one of the most impressive monuments in the city of Lod—Bir el-Zeibak, the Well of Peace, which served as a road station on the main route across the country. Ruthy Lewis and Ido Koch present the finds from Tel Hadid (a relatively small settlement, located about an hour’s walk east of Lod) from the Byzantine period, when Lod flourished.
The volume also includes a section called “On the Margins of Research,” featuring reviews that have not undergone peer review. In this section Alon Shavit presents the attempts that the Israeli Institute of Archaeology and the Council for the Preservation of Heritage Sites in Israel made to obtain a concession to develop the Hassuna Oil Plant as a visitors’ center. Unfortunately, these attempts have so far been unsuccessful.
We hope you enjoy this volume.

The Editorial Team.