תבניות נופים תרבותיים

abstracts

xii

was mainly moral. Years later Professor Evans affirmed that both “radars” were indeed radio-

telephone stations.

Keywords

: British Mandate, Palmach, Hagana, illegal immigration, radar , radio-telephone,

wireless carrier.

MAGHAR - A VILLAGE OF CAVES FROM THE OTTOMAN PERIOD IN

THE COASTAL PLAIN

Avi Sasson

Land of Israel Studies Department, Ashkelon Academic College

The village of Maghar is set apart by its rock-cut caves that were used as dwellings, a feature

that was not characteristic of this region. The village was not exceptional in its surroundings

in terms of materials and style of construction, its agricultural life pattern, and other local

characteristics. Its sole significance for scholars lies in the fact that it is seemingly more ancient

than other similar villages, and in the uniqueness of its caves. The creation of a village consisting

of caves dug and built in uniform style and similar size, strongly attests to a superb social

organization. Such uniformity would appear to be intentional, for otherwise we would find

dense and spontaneous construction, as can be seen in the common Arab village. Obviously the

social structure of such social organization also influenced other areas of life, which would be

expressed in the spatial distribution of the village plots and functions.

Most of the houses contained only one or two large rooms. In a number of caves niches of

differing sizes were discovered in the walls of the structure. Only one single chamber of this

type was rock-cut in each dwelling unit, and usually this was a small space with a small

entrance opening, that in certain places enabled he dweller to stand upright. The described

reality in the coastal plain during the Ottoman period, before the renewal of Jewish settlement

in the late nineteenth century, proves that similar phenomena could be found among Jews, as

in the case of the first residents of Gederah who settled in a cave, which is not so exceptional in

historical terms.

Keywords

: Coastal Plain, Kurkar, Ottoman Period, Rock-cut caves.