Area V1
By Yuval Amir
Located on the higher eastern slopes of the mound, area V1 is the first excavation area that opened within the confines of the village of al-Haditha during the 2022 season (Fig. 1). The location of the excavated area was chosen following an examination of aerial photos of the village taken in the first half of the 20th century CE (Fig. 2), which showed an open courtyard demarcated by a wall at the northern entry way into the village’s original nucleus. As a seemingly uninterrupted open space, excavating the courtyard allowed for relatively direct access to the remains of the village that preceded its 1948 destruction. Moreover, the courtyard was a potential hub of various activities due to its proximity to one of the village’s main entrances.
For these reasons, three probes were opened in area V1 during the 2022 season, which were later expanded into three excavation squares during 2023. The various finds uncovered during two seasons of excavation in area V1 reveal a fascinating episode in the story of Tel Hadid. Excavations in the courtyard uncovered material remains of al-Haditha from Late Ottoman Period (roughly 1800–1918 CE) and the British Mandate of Palestine (1922–1948 CE). These finds, including pottery vessels and several local and imported clay smoking pipes, offer a glimpse into life in the village during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and help our expedition to better understand the various sequences of settlement in al-Haditha.
What truly took us by surprise occurred during the final two days of the 2023 season, when two nearly complete ceramic vessels (Figs. 3–4) were uncovered immediately under the Ottoman Period layers. Following a quick on-field analysis, the vessels turned out to be a jug and storage jar which date to the Iron Age II, between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE, thus linking between two periods of Tel Hadid separated by more than 2500 years of history!
