The Israel Antiquities Authority shared on Tuesday (23) the discovery of a luxurious building more than a thousand years old in the Negev desert region.
The Instagram post shows a luxurious mansion, which contains a central courtyard overlaid with a vaulted complex and a water cistern carved into a three-meter-deep rock dating from the Islamic era (8th to 9th centuries AD).
The 1,200-year-old rural property is the first of its kind discovered in the region. The village consisted of four wings with rooms to meet the needs of the residents.
The find came amid excavations of the government’s plan to build a new neighborhood in the Bedouin town of Rahat, in the desert that occupies more than half of Israeli territory.
In one of the wings, there was a paved hall with marble and stone floors and walls decorated with frescoes (mural paintings on damp plaster).
The authority wrote that the small fragments of existing frescoes were finely colored in red, yellow, blue and black. In other rooms of the mansion, there were plaster floors.
In some areas, the decor featured large ovens and fragments of delicately decorated glass platters.
“The luxurious property and impressive one-of-a-kind underground vaults are evidence of the owners’ means. Their high status and wealth allowed them to build a luxurious mansion that served as a residence and entertainment,” say excavation directors Oren Shmueli, Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Noé D. Michael.
According to the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Eli Eskosido, “by good chance, and to the great interest and enthusiasm of the local population, the building remains uncovered in the area planned to expand the city of Rahat into the early Islamic period,” he said. .
Authorities now plan to conserve and display the findings to the general public, but as of yet.
Source: CNN Brasil
