The Mamluk and Ottoman Cemetery in the village of Jindās

Ron Toueg, Shahar Krispin and Dr. Vered Eshed, Israel Antiquities Authority
ISSN 2788-5151
Open Access Journal

Abstract

English
עברית
العربية

An excavation at the site of the ancient village of Jindās (now in the fields of Moshav Ginaton) revealed the remains of three buildings dating to the end of the Ottoman period and the beginning of the British Mandate. A cemetery that was used by the villagers in the Mamluk period and at the beginning of the Ottoman period was exposed beneath the remains of the buildings and in other areas of the excavation. In addition, the remains of a drainage ditch that was probably used in the early Muslim period were exposed. A wall, which was probably used as a dam, was also excavated.
About 90 graves were uncovered in the cemetery and classified into six different types, according to their design. The simple graves were dug into the ground with no embankment, cover or marking by stones. Another type included pits covered with stone slabs. The most common type of grave was lined and covered by smoothed fieldstones. Two graves were covered with pottery jars in secondary use and not with slabs as was customary. Another unique type was the burial of children or babies in jars.
Most of the deceased were buried in the customary posture in a Muslim cemetery with the head to the west and facing south, towards Mecca. Burial objects were often found in cemeteries from the late Islamic period, despite the official Muslim prohibition of grave goods. Bronze jewelry, glass bracelets, glass necklaces and beads were found in the graves at Jindās. Also found was a tiara made of pierced coins that were no longer in use, earrings, rings, small glass bottles and even one knife.

בחפירה שנערכה באתר הכפר הקדום גִ’נְדַאס (כיום בשדות המושב גינתון) נחשפו שרידים של שלושה מבנים שתוארכו לשלהי התקופה העות’מאנית ולראשית ימי המנדט הבריטי.

מתחת לשרידי המבנים ובשטחים נוספים של החפירה נחשף בית קברות ששימש את תושבי הכפר בתקופה הממלוכית ובראשית התקופה העות’מנית. בנוסף נחשפו שרידי תעלת ניקוז אשר כנראה שימשה בתקופה המוסלמית הקדומה. כמו כן נחפר קיר אשר שימש כנראה כסכר לעצירת נגר.

בבית הקברות נחשפו כ 90- קברים אשר סווגו על ידי החופרים לשישה טיפוסים שונים, בהתאם לסגנונם.  הקברים הפשוטים היו שוחות באדמה ללא דיפון, כיסוי או סימון באבן.

טיפוס אחר כלל קברי שוחה אשר כוסו בלוחות אבן בלתי מהוקצעים. טיפוס הקברים השכיח ביותר בבית הקברות היה של קברי שוחה מדופנים באבני גויל ועליהם כיסוי באבנים שטוחות ובלתי מהוקצעות. שני קברים כוסו בקנקני חרס בשימוש משני ולא באבני כיסוי כמקובל. טיפוס ייחודי נוסף היה של קבורת ילדים או תינוקות בתוך קנקנים.

מרבית הנקברים הוטמנו במנח המקובל בבית קברות מוסלמי כשהראש במערב והפנים פונות לדרום, לעבר מכה. בבתי קברות מן התקופה האסלמית המאוחרת נמצאו לעיתים קרובות חפצי קבורה זאת למרות האיסור ההלכתי המוסלמי. בקברים בגִ’נְדַאס נמצאו תכשיטי ברונזה, צמידי זכוכית, שרשראות זכוכית וחרוזים. כמו כן נמצא נזר עשוי מטבעות מנוקבות שיצאו משימוש, עגילים, טבעות, בקבוקי זכוכית קטנים ואף סכין אחת.

كشفت الحفريات الأثرية في موقع قرية جنداس المندثرة (الآن في حقول موشاف جيناتون) عن بقايا ثلاثة مبان تعود إلى نهاية العهد العثماني وبداية الانتداب البريطاني. كذلك، تم العثور عن مقبرة كان يستخدمها سكان القرية خلال العصر المملوكي وبداية العصر العثماني تحت بقايا المباني وفي مناطق تنقيب أخرى في جنداس. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، تم الكشف عن بقايا قناة تصريف ربما كانت تستخدم في العصر الإسلامي المبكر. كما اكتُشِفت جدار ربما كان يستخدم سدَا لمجري مياه شتوي.

 أما المقبرة فتم العثور على حوالي 90 قبراً من ستة أنواع مختلفة حسب تصميمها. تمكن السكان من حفر القبور البسيطة في الأرض دون استعمال أحجار في بناية القبر وتسكيره وتمييزه بشواهد. وشمل نوع آخر حفر مغطاة بألواح حجرية غاشمة. كان النوع الأكثر شيوعًا من القبور مبطّنًا ومغطى بأحجار مبعثرة من الحقول المجاورة. تم تغطية قبرين بأواني فخارية في الاستخدام الثانوي وليس بألواح كما هو معتاد. نوع فريد آخر هو دفن الأطفال في الجرار الفخارية.

كذلك، دُفن معظم الموتى على العادة الإسلامية مع الرأس نحو الغرب ومتجه للجنوب باتجاه القبلة. غالبًا يتم العثورعلى مقتنيات في المقابر التي تعود إلى أواخر العصر الإسلامي، رغم النهي الشرعي عن ذلك. أما مقبرة جنداس واكتشف على مجوهرات برونزية وأساور زجاجية وقلائد زجاجية وخرز. تم العثور أيضًا على تاج مصنوع من عملات معدنية مثقوبة لم تعد قيد الاستخدام، وأقراط وخواتم وقنان زجاجية صغيرة وحتى سكين واحد.

الكلمات الدالة: قرية جنداس . اللد. قبور قديمة. الفترة المملوكية. الفترة العثمانية.

Key Words

Ancient GravesLydda-LodMamluk PeriodOttoman PeriodVillage of Jindās
The article

Historical Background

The village of Jindās is located in the Lod Valley region, north of the ancient city of Lydda (Lod), east of the channel of the Ayalon River. The archaeological survey conducted at the site identified archeological remains from the Early Islamic period (Gophna and Beit-Arieh 1997: 73, Site 159).
West of Jindās, over the Ayalon River, stands the Lod Bridge, also known as Jisr Jindās and sometimes Jisr Baybars (Gat 2020:9). The bridge is about 30 meters long and 13 meters wide. According to the inscription incorporated in the bridge, it was built in 1273, during the reign of Sultan Baybars (Gat 2020; Czitron 2020). In 1873 the French historian Charles Clermont-Ganneau wrote that according to the local tradition, which he heard in the village of Jindās, the village was founded only after the construction of the bridge. He said that when he first heard this, he was puzzled, because according to the Latin charter written in 1129, 144 years before the bridge was built, a fortress called Gendas appears in the vicinity of the city of Lydda, and in his opinion, this fortress should be identified with the village of Jindās. Indeed, while staying in Lod and documenting the bridge, he identified an ancient construction phase, claiming that it may even be Roman or Byzantine, since the bridge is at a strategic point that connects the city of Lydda (Diospolis) to Caesarea via Afek (Antipatris). Clermont-Ganneau added this bridge may be the same one as that mentioned in the Talmud as ma‘abarata de-Lod. This claim can be consistent with local tradition, in which the village was founded only after the bridge was built, and therefore the founding of the village must be dated to the Roman or Byzantine period (Clermont-Ganneau 1896).
As for the name of the village of Jindās, Clermont-Ganneau writes that it has no Arab or Semitic origin. In his opinion the word Jindās is a corruption of the name Gennadius (Γεννάδιος) or Gennadis (Γεννάδις). These names were common in the Byzantine period, so Jisr Jindās could simply mean “the bridge of Gennadius.” Clermont-Ganneau suggests that perhaps Gennadius was a local official in the Byzantine period, who was involved in the construction or renovation of the bridge. Gennadius linked his name to the bridge, and later the village received the name (Clermont-Ganneau 1896).

Fig. 1: Location map (prepared by A. Delarsohn, IAA)

Most of the historical documentation of the village comes from the censuses conducted during the Ottoman period (16th-20th centuries). Data from these censuses show that in the 16th and 17th centuries, the village of Jindās was a small hamlet of about 150 inhabitants (for a comprehensive overview of the history of the village, see Marom 2022 in this volume). At the end of the 19th century the village was abandoned, and there is no longer a record of tax collection in the village (Grossman 1983: 96-94). Al-Dabbāgh (1972), who compiled a great deal of information about the inhabitants of the Arab villages in Palestine, claims that the last inhabitants of Jindās, who were members of the same family, emigrated to the village of Lubbān in Samaria (near the village of Rantīs). That is, they moved from the coastal plain to the mountainous region. According to Grossman, this migration direction is contrary to the usual direction in recent centuries, and he adds that according to a family report, they emigrated to the village of Lubbān following a request for help that was addressed to them due to a quarrel. According to him, this story gives the impression that at the time of the final abandonment of the village, the population of Jindās was very small and did not number more than four brothers who lived alone (Grossman 1983: 96).
The question arises: what happened to this area after the village was abandoned? Benvenisti (200: 192) brings in his book a picture of a place on the coastal plain called Nabī Jindās, but it is not clear if this is the village we are discussing. The photo was taken in the 1940s, and shows the remains of a sheikh’s tomb (similar to the one in the village of Jindās) and a temporary tent settlement. Whether this picture is indeed of the village of Jindās or not, it is probable that after the abandonment of the village there was a seasonal temporary settlement in the area. The excavation findings described below strengthen this argument.

Description of the excavation

The excavation was conducted in three areas. In Area A, remains of three buildings from the Ottoman period and a Mamluk cemetery were exposed. In Area B, remains of buildings, similar to those uncovered in Area A and of the same period, were revealed, as was a drainage canal from the Early Islamic period (Fig. 2). In Area C, remains of a field wall from the Byzantine period were exposed. The remains of the Arab village of Jindās, abandoned in the second half of the 19th century, can be seen nearby, including the remains of buildings, a ruined tower and a concrete water reservoir. The site was surveyed (Gophna and Beit Aryeh 1997) and the remains of scattered buildings, installations and potsherds dating to the Early Islamic period were identified.

The excavation findings

Area A (Fig. 2)

Fig. 2: Areas A-B (prepared by A. Delarsohn, IAA)

In the northern part of the excavation, remains of three buildings were exposed. from which the foundations of walls and the remains of crushed limestone floors were preserved. Fragments of pottery vessels, of black Gazaware type, Marseilles tiles and Ottoman smoking pipes were uncovered in the excavations. The buildings were dated to the Ottoman period and to the beginning of the British Mandate (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Remains of a crushed limestone floor (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

A cemetery was uncovered beneath the remains of the buildings and the rest of the excavation area, and 90 graves were identified, dating to the Mamluk period. In addition to tombs from the Mamluk period, several simple pit tombs, dug in the ground without lining walls, were exposed. These tombs were dated to the Ottoman period. The cemetery was excavated along a strip intended for laying a natural gas pipeline, but it covers a wider area, which was not excavated, as revealed in the northern part of the excavation (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4: The northern part of the cemetery (prepared by A. Delarsohn, IAA)

Six types of graves were identified in the excavation (A – F, below).


• Type A: Field burial – burial in a dug trench. Tombs of this type were found in the spaces between the tombs of types B and C (which will be described below) and sometimes – above them.
• Type B: Trench graves covered with stone slabs (Fig. 5) – a dug trench covered with coarsely dressed stones that are leaning against the sides of the trench.
• Type C: Box graves (Fig. 6) – a trench whose sides were lined with smoothed stones placed on their sides; the tomb was then covered with smoothed stones that leaned on the built-up sides.

Fig. 5: Type B graves (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)
Fig. 6: Type C graves (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

Type D: Uncovered walled trench graves (Fig. 7) – a trench grave whose walls were lined with fieldstones or stone slabs placed on their side, without the graves being roofed over.
• Type E: Burial in a walled grave, covered with jars (Fig. 8) – a trench whose sides were lined with smoothed stones placed on their side. The grave was covered with one or two rows of jars placed on their sides, as a substitute for covering it with stones.
• Type F: Burial in jars (Fig. 9) – babies were buried in jars from which the base was removed. Some of the babies were buried inside single jars and some – in two jars that were inserted into each other. These graves were found amongst the other graves.

Fig. 7: A Type D grave (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)
Fig. 8: A Type E grave (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)
Fig. 9: A Type F grave (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

Beneath the crushed limestone floor of one of the buildings were found human bones buried in a simple grave, dug in the ground, which was exposed near the surface, thus the preservation of the bones in the grave was poor. Surprisingly, those buried in type A graves were not buried in a uniform direction (see Fig. 2, Square A-1). In some of the graves (L156 L141, L103, and L157), the deceased were buried in an east-west direction, with the face to the west, facing the direction of Mecca, whereas in other tombs (L124, L123, L122 and L126), the deceased were buried in a north-south direction, facing east. A similar phenomenon was revealed in the excavation conducted by Toombs in Tel el-Hesi, and the excavator suggested that this direction of burial may be due, perhaps, to the desire for the deceased’s face to be directed towards Jerusalem, which is the third holiest city in Islam, or due to an error in estimating the direction of Mecca (Toombs 1985: 79).
Among the objects found in the excavation between these simple tombs were Ottoman smoking pipes that dated from the 16th to the 20th century, as well as several fragments of Marseilles tiles and pottery of the black Gazaware type.
During the preparations for the excavation, a gap of about 25 meters was exposed between the graves in the northern part of the excavation and those in the southern part, and this gap may indicate that less than the entire area designated for the cemetery was filled with graves before burial ceased there (Fig. 2). In some of the graves one person was buried, and in some – more than one. Among the buried are young and old men and women, as well as children and infants.
Of the total number of graves excavated, seven were of type A. As mentioned, these were simple, unmarked trench tombs, in which the buried were placed. Twenty-two Type B tombs were excavated – dug trenches without built-up walls. The graves were about two meters long and were covered with stone slabs coarsely dressed to a similar size. The slabs were placed slightly above the grave. Thus, for example, in Grave L156 (Fig. 10).


Fig. 10: The covering stones of a grave (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

39 Type C graves were excavated – box graves, dug in the ground. Their walls were lined with a single row of thin stones, placed on their narrow side, or with fieldstones, which protruded slightly above the grave. The graves, about two meters long, were covered with stone slabs of a similar size (their average dimensions were 0.40 × 0.30 × 0.20 m). The covering slabs were placed on the embankment stones. A rotor in secondary use was found in the excavation of Grave L184, between the covering stones (Fig. 11). The stone was smoothed and had a handle to which a wooden or metal arm was attached, which made it possible to roll it on clay ceilings, in order to compress the ceiling and provide better resistance to rain conditions. The rotor was also used to compress other surfaces.

Fig. 11: Rotor in secondary use (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

Five type D graves were excavated – trench graves lined with fieldstones or with thin stones placed on their side. The graves, which are about two meters long, were found uncovered, with the deceased lying inside them.
Two type E graves were excavated – dug trench tombs, lined with thin stones placed on their side or fieldstones that were slightly higher than the deceased. These graves, such as Grave L200, were covered with jars in secondary use, that were placed such that the base of some of the jars faced north and others faced south.
12 type F graves were excavated, in which children and infants were buried in jars. The jar graves were placed among the graves of types B-E and some of the graves were found to be located above them. The jars were fixed in place by small stones placed around them (Fig. 12). Graves L149 and L190, differ from the common jar graves in the cemetery, in that the infants were buried in two jars placed one inside the other. In Grave L190, the base of the jar was removed to accommodate the infant’s body and the resulting opening was closed with the neck of another jar. In Grave L149 the infant was buried in a clay hive, which was inserted into the top of a jar. The use of jars and hives for burial is known from various sites (Taxel 2006: 203–212).

Fig. 12: Infant burial in a jar immediately adjacent to a built grave (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

Once the placement of the deceased in the grave was determined, they were set on their right side, with the head to the west, the feet to the east, and the face always facing south (Fig. 13; L173).

Fig. 13: Grave L173 (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

Area B (Fig. 2)
Five squares, measuring 5 × 5 meters, were excavated in Area B. In two of the squares, remains of infrastructure for a floor made of small fieldstones, bonded with bonding material (L115), were exposed. These are the remains of floors from the period of the buildings that were exposed in Area A, dating to the Ottoman period and the beginning of the 20th century. In one of the squares, a drainage channel (L136) with an external width of one meter and an internal one of 0.50 meter was uncovered. The walls of the channel were built of medium-sized fieldstones. These were conglomerated with mortar, and the channel’s bottom was coated with waterproof plaster. Pottery vessels dating to the Early Islamic period were collected in the excavation (Fig. 14).

Fig. 14: Area B. The channel, L138, in Square B-138 (prepared by A. Delarsohn, IAA)

Area C (Fig. 15):
Two squares were excavated in Area C, in which a wall was exposed (Fig. 16; W111). The western face of the wall was built of fieldstones, some of which were roughly hewn to fit together, while the eastern face was built of small fieldstones, indicating that it was the inner side of the wall. The wall, which was preserved to the height of one course, was built near the channel of a stream. It may be a remnant of a dam that crossed the gorge, only part of which has been preserved. Pottery dating to the Byzantine period was collected in the excavation.

Fig. 15: Plan of Area C (prepared by A. Delarsohn, IAA)
Fig. 16: W111, Area C (Photograph: E. Peretz, IAA)

Discussion

In light of the positioning of those buried in the graves, with the head in the west and the face looking south towards Mecca, or lying on the right side, facing south, this is a Muslim cemetery. The orientation of the buried dead is one of the distinct characteristics that help researchers determine their religion, thus determining the time frame for their existence. In the case of Muslim burial, it cannot be before the Early Islamic period, i.e. the 7th century.
Gorzalczany showed that although the positioning of the buried is known and fixed in the sharia, a close examination of the Muslim cemeteries excavated at various sites in the Land of Israel shows that not all graves were built in an exact east-west direction, and there are deviations ranging from 65° to 90°. During the excavation, a compass test was conducted and a similar deviation was found in the cemetery excavated in Jindās. In Gorzalczany’s opinion, this deviation was due to the fact that the direction of the grave was determined by observing the point of sunrise, and since there is a difference in the sun’s orbital path between the seasons, he suggested (Gorzalczany 2007: 71) that this is the cause of the deviation. However, an analysis of more than 700 Muslim graves in the Mamilla cemetery found that there was no correlation between the deviation of the graves and the changing directions of the sun at sunrise in various seasons, contrary to Gorzalczany’s proposal (Shavit and Cohen-Klonymos, in press).
Grave goods were often found in cemeteries from the Late Islamic period, despite the explicit sharia ban (Toombs 1985: 42–43). Such goods were found only in graves where the buried were female. For example, in cemeteries from the late Islamic period, including Tel Zarur (Ohata and Kochavi 1996: 3), Zarnuka (Ajami 2007), in the excavation of the Sheikh Munis cemetery in Tel Aviv (Dayan, Ajami and Nagar 2012), in Tel el-Hesi (Toombs 1985: 42 –43), and in Rosh HaAyin (South) (Shadman 2014). In Jindās, the grave goods included bronze jewelry, glass bracelets, glass necklaces and beads. A tiara was found, decorated with coins that were no longer in use. The coins were pierced for the purpose adding them to the tiara. Some of the coins fell out of use in the Mamluk period. Earrings and rings were also found, and in several graves small glass bottles and even a knife were found. The beads were in several colors, each representing a different aspect of protecting the deceased (Simpson 1995: 246). Grave goods did not include luxury objects, and there was a preference for cheap and simple items, which were used as protective amulets for the buried. It should be noted that the use of coins instead of beads in necklaces and bracelets, cannot be used to date the tombs, since secondary use was made of old and even ancient coins.
Remains of red cloth were found in two of the graves in the Jindās cemetery (L196 and L198), and may have been the remains of the clothing of the woman buried there or perhaps the remains of the shrouds. Next to the red cloth, small glass bottles were found. The use of coins from the classical or pre-Sassanid period instead of beads or semi-precious stones, is completely contrary to the religion of Islam (Simpson 1995: 245–256). In Tel Yelkhi in Iraq, Invernizzi (1980: 30) describes bracelets and beads that in most cases were found in the graves of young girls. In the cemetery in Jindās, too, in some of the graves where girls were buried, jewelry was found, which they probably wore during their lives, and were not removed from them at the time of burial. Special jewelry was found in two graves. In Grave L209, two girls, aged 10-14 years, were found fully articulated, and wearing jewelry that includes a necklace, consisting of five coins; two glass beads; bronze jewelry, iron objects, an earring made of silver and two vials. In grave L134, an infant aged 0.5-1 years was found fully articulated and wearing jewelry including a bracelet and a ring. A vial and a metal object were found in the grave next to the infant, and the jewelry and objects date to the Mamluk period.
Of special interest were the Type E graves, which were a shallow trench, dug in the ground, and lined with a single row of stones. The stones were roughly chiseled and sometimes fieldstones were used. What sets these tombs apart is their cover, which was not of stones, as is customary, but of bag-shaped jars placed horizontally across the grave. Similar graves were uncovered in an excavation in Moshav Ge’alya, near Yavne, conducted by Gorzalczany (2016). In Grave L156, the jars were placed with the base of two jars facing north, and the base of the next two jars facing south, so as to achieve maximum coverage of the grave (Fig. 8). In Ge’alya, another type of grave was excavated, type B (not found in the Jindās cemetery), in which one jar was placed with the base of the jar facing north, and the one next to it was placed upside down, with the base of the jar facing south. This was repeated until the whole grave was covered (Gorzalczany 2009: 225). Gorzalczany found similar tombs in other cemeteries, all dating to the Mamluk period (Gorzalczany 2009: 226–230).
The types of tombs described above are known so far from a defined geographical area, from the Yarkon River basin in the north to the Nahal Sorek basin in the south (Gorzalczany 2009: 234; Fig. 1). The jars used to cover the tombs included bag-shaped jars or hives. They were found in the cemeteries in Ge’alya (Gorzalczany 2007), in Kafr ‘Ana (Gophna et al. 2007), in Ramla (Elisha 2005), in Ness Ziona (Levy 1991; Glick 1995, 1998; Gorzalczany 1998: 74, 2004: 38) in Azor and in El-Hadaria (Gorzalczany 2007: 228).
The graves in the Jindās cemetery are built in an east-west direction, in accordance with Muslim burial practices, with the faces of the buried towards Mecca, and in some there is a deviation from the east-west direction.

Summary

The village of Jindās was abandoned in the second half of the 19th century (Marom 2022, in this volume). The smoking pipes and fragments of Marseilles tiles, found in several squares in the northern part of the excavation, appear to indicate that some activity took place there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, activity that is reflected in the remains of the buildings that were exposed above the cemetery. We have no information regarding the use made of these buildings, but it is not inconceivable that they were used as temporary residences for farmers who cultivated the village’s lands or for shepherds who grazed their flocks in the area. It is possible that the simple graves, dug in the ground at a higher level than the built graves, indicate continued burial at the site during this period.
Simple tombs, covered with stone slabs, are very common in cemeteries from the Early and Late
Islamic periods, and they have been found in several cemeteries, including in Jindās. Another characteristic discovered in all the cemeteries is the use of jars to cover the graves. Three cases, which form the majority of the infant burials, are of burials in jars whose base had been removed. In one case the infant was buried in a jar that was placed inside a larger one.
Most of the skeletons were found in good condition and were inspected and investigated on site during the excavation, along with finds found in the graves. One hundred and seven individuals were buried in the cemetery, including 47 children (under the age of 15, 52.2% of all those buried), and 42 adults (47.8%). Of the adults, it could be determined that there were 13 women and 20 men, and the gender of another 10 adults could not be determined. A particularly interesting statistic is the high number of children and infants (more than 50%) buried in the cemetery.
Six types of graves (A-F) were excavated in the Jindās cemetery. Most of the graves are similar in
shape, and they include a shallow trench dug in dark clay soil, in which the deceased was placed. Some were lined with stone slabs, laid on their side, or with fieldstones. The average length of the tombs is 1.80-1.60 meters and their width is 0.70-0.40 meters. They are covered with stone slabs that are usually 0.50×0.40×0.30 meters.
Across the Middle East, there is evidence that local superstitions, folk beliefs, and religious laws played an important role in death and burial rites. In cemeteries where grave goods were found, they were chosen because of their apotropaic qualities (means such as witchcraft or ceremonies to ward off evil), and not due to their material value (Simpson 1995: 249). Most of the coins used as grave goods, apart from two, were pierced silver coins incorporated into jewelry. Glass beads, earrings, and glass bracelets were also found, as were also bronze bracelets. The pierced coins are evidence that they were jewelry in secondary use and not amulets intended to protect the deceased or for ceremonial purposes.

Grave L114 is probably the oldest and dates to the 14th century, and the latest tombs date to the end of the Ottoman period.

The material finds from the excavation of this cemetery are similar to those found in the cemeteries at the various sites described above. This dates the Jindās cemetery to the Mamluk period and the beginning of the Ottoman period. In addition to the similarity in the material finds, the coins collected in the excavation, dating to the Mamluk period (from the middle of the 13th century to the beginning of the 16th century) confirm the cemetery’s dating.
The Jindās cemetery is one of the Mamluk cemeteries excavated at various sites in the area between the Yarkon and Sorek Rivers, and is similar to the others in many respects. Its excavation expands our knowledge of the cemeteries from this period, the types of graves and the burial customs.


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