... Horvat Midras was one of the largest rural settlements in the Judean foothills and was inhabited by several ethnic and religious groups from the fourth century BCE to the sixteenth century CE, including Idumeans in the Hellenistic period, Jews in the early Roman period, polytheists in the later Roman period, Christians in the Byzantine period, and Muslims under the Umayyads, Ayyubids, Mamluks, and Ottomans (Figures 1 and 2). As such, the site provides us with a window into social dynamics, interactions between and among ethnic-religious groups, and how rural life was impacted by military conflicts that prompted migration and abandonment, transforming the character of a rural village.For more on the pyramid at Horvat Midras (Khirbet Midras), see here and links. For that ruin that was not a synagogue, see here. And for many posts on the nearby site of Maresha, see here and here and links.
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