A team from the Israel Antiquities Authority has uncovered the remains of a Byzantine-era monastery and farmhouse in southern Israel, shedding light on desert monastic life in the region over 1,400 years ago.
The site, discovered in Naḥal Peḥar near the modern community of Giv‘ot Bar, north of Beersheba, includes a well-preserved monastery complex and a nearby farmhouse with a watchtower.
Archaeologists report that the findings date back to the Byzantine era and offer rare insights into daily life in the Negev Desert during the sixth and early seventh centuries.
“The monastery was well-preserved, attesting to the daily life of the monks in the Negev in the Byzantine period. It was paved with poorly executed mosaic floors, probably laid by the monks themselves,” said Nir-Shimshon Paran, who led the excavation.
“Most of the finds in the monastery were uncovered on the floors, attesting to its orderly abandonment in the late Byzantine or beginning of the Umayyad period (sixth–seventh centuries CE),” Paran noted.
The Byzantine-era desert monastery in Israel featured a small chapel, dining hall, kitchen, workspaces, and a winepress. The main building had thick walls, making it look like a fortified structure. The floors were decorated with simple mosaics, likely made by the monks.
One of the most striking discoveries was a chapel mosaic bearing a Maltese cross. Beneath it, a Greek inscription named the monastery and four monks who once lived there.
Nearby rooms revealed clues about everyday life, including pottery dating to around 460 to 475 CE and a cooking pot used well into the seventh century.
Archaeologists identified the kitchen by a 10-centimeter layer of ash, suggesting a cooking area. Stonework tables were found, and a large jar buried halfway into the floor likely served as a rudimentary oven.
The wine production area included a plastered treading floor and a settling pit, with a nearby water system believed to be a cistern. These features suggest that the monks produced wine, possibly for local use or trade.
Two tombs were uncovered in the chapel’s stone-paved apse. One had a cross carved into its eastern side. Additional items in the area—such as a broken screen post, bronze hook, chains, and glass lamps—indicated religious ceremonies once took place there. Two burial inscriptions written in reddish-brown ink further confirmed the space was used for graves.
Archaeologists uncovered a farmhouse from the same period just south of the monastery. The structure included a rectangular watchtower with a small window. A coin that was found on the floor dates to the first half of the sixth century CE.
Researchers believe both the monastery and farmhouse were used during a single period and were abandoned orderly near the end of the Byzantine era. Paran noted that rising instability in the region during the early Islamic period may have led to the sites’ desertion.
The full findings were published in Atiqot, Volume 116, by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
