Khalet al-Jam’a. A Middle Bronze and Iron Age necropolis near Bethlehem (Palestine)

During Spring 2013, the MOTA-DACH Office of Bethlehem was informed of the retrieval of a tomb during the construction of an industrial area roughly 2.2 Km south-east of the Basilica of the Nativity on the Hindaza hill slope called Khalet al-Jam’a. Palestinian archaeologists recovered a number of items identifying there a multi-period necropolis. The site was the object of a rescue excavation in the following Spring 2014. Eleven tombs and their fittings were rescued and recovered in the MOTA storerooms. In May 2015, a joint Italian-Palestinian team preliminary surveyed the necropolis and recorded its finds, planning a future systematic exploration. At a provisional exam, KJ necropolis was in use during Intermediate Bronze Age (EB IV), Middle Bronze Age and, successively, through the whole Iron Age.