Most people like to live in communities. Some prefer splendid isolation. The affluent ancient Samaritan estate now being excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority in today's city of Kafr Qasem wasn't part of a settlement, says Alla Nagorsky, who with Daniel Leahy Griswold is heading the dig for the IAA.
The place was a wealthy compound supported by olive oil production; it stood on its own from about the fourth century C.E. to the second half of the seventh century - meaning, throughout the Byzantine period in Israel.
That said, the site was just a 10-minute walk from a Roman road that would likely have been used to sell the estate's products. The place also falls within the archaeological span of Khirbet Kafr Hatta, birthplace of Menander, the Samaritan magician who succeeded the famed Simon Magus, who could levitate and converted to Christianity, according to early Christian sources. Hence he needed a successor.
There is one reference to Simon the sorcerer in the New Testament (Acts 8:9-24) and a great deal of convoluted and controversial information in gnostic sources.
Anyway, the newly exposed buildings arose a couple of hundred years after the lifetime of said Simon, and the excavation is being done in something of a rush ahead of the construction of a new neighborhood in Kafr Qasem - in fact, a new house is already going up right next door to the ancient walls. Much work remains to be done before the archaeologists can tell the story of this site, but one thing they're sure of: It's Samaritan.
For one thing, the stretch from Haifa south to Ashkelon was Samaritan in the third and fourth centuries, Nagorsky says. For another, its art is pure Samaritan.
The estate had at least two main structures, northern and southern, each with multiple rooms and water channels, with a courtyard in between.
One of the water channels screams of the construction quality, because even it was tiled in mosaic. And this wasn't just lousy white tile, but a continuation of the floor's geometric patterns. Nothing like that has been seen before, Nagorsky says.
The southern structure may have been more residential and the northern one either was, or became more industrial, with an olive oil production facility with two oil presses.
The oil factory is next to a large "public" mikveh built in the Jerusalem style, with steps on all four sides - one could descend to immerse from any side. The bath may have been built next to the oil press so the workers could purify on the spot before rolling up their sleeves, Nagorsky adds.
The other building had a normal mikveh for a single person, with steps leading down to the pool from one side.
Nagorsky believes that the complex was built by a single, very rich family that did not stint: The archaeological remains include pillars and a lot of art.
Both main structures feature mosaic flooring in the Samaritan style, so there are no depictions of animals, let alone humans, Nagorsky notes. So there is nary a lion, a huge motif in other local cultures - and there are no gods.
The chief motifs consist of geometric forms augmented by what are unmistakably a watermelon depicted with a knife to cut it, and other fruit and vegetables.
The various images include an artichoke (shown above), asparagus spears tied in a bunch, grapes galore and pomegranates.
Fruit clearly doesn't count as forbidden figurative art, and the style shows that this grand estate belonged to Samaritans, not Jews or Christians. The same is suggested by the orientation of the main complex toward Mount Gerizim, which is sacred to the Samaritans, Nagorsky adds.
No, there is no view of Mount Gerizim, where the patriarch Abraham is supposed to have tried in vain to sacrifice his son Isaac to the deity: It's too far. But one can see places from which one can see Gerizim.
By the way, despite the prohibition on graven images, synagogues of the Byzantine period such as the famed one at Tzippori seem to have been heavily influenced by classical mores. Their floors crawl with mosaic images of humans, animals and pagan gods including Zeus and the sun god. Judean sites from biblical times feature a wealth of figurines, including of naked women.
Back at Kafr Qasem, at the entrance to the room with the grand botanical mosaic, there is an inscription, which is every archaeologist's dream. It's in Greek, but sadly, some is missing. All we can say is somebody was wishing somebody good luck.
If the family had good luck, it didn't last forever, though 400 years is a goodly stretch.
In time, Nagorsky says, the luxury of the buildings was replaced by oil production and agricultural installations, grinding stones and ovens. Large storage rooms also attest to stolid functionality.
She notes that the estate actually produced some olive oil all along, but there was clearly a change to the grand building as of the late fifth century, when the Samaritans rose up against the Byzantines, who wished to impose their religious values.
It bears stressing, Nagorsky adds, that despite the grimness of the times, the estate soldiered on and remained Samaritan in nature, as judged by the oil lamps - they retained classic Samaritan decoration.
But resources once spent on luxuries would have been routed to war. The later construction transforming a palatial structure into a factory actually cut through some of the mosaics, and the once magnificent capitals and columns were repurposed in the new walls.
And then this once magnificent structure that was possibly reduced to a farm with a nice house was abandoned forever. More research would be needed to say why, but Nagorsky suspects the earthquake in the year 749 that leveled towns in central and northern Israel including the city of Beit She'an. Like there, the evidence shows fallen walls.
The estate never was repopulated, but it disappeared under the sediment of time and modern grime. By the time work started on the new neighborhood of Kafr Qasem, necessitating a salvage excavation, the land was home mainly to olive trees. Which are now gone too.