The Decline of Communal Tombs and the Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palaestina Prima/Jund Filasṭīn

Communal tombs were one of the most emblematic elements of the material culture in the ancient Palestine. Quantitative analysis enabled us to reconstruct the dynamic changes of burial customs that occurred in Judea, Samaria and the Coastal Plain from the 4th until the 10th century CE. The results of the survey revealed that from the 5th century CE onwards, the number of new communal tomb foundations gradually decreased, and the most recent date to the early 7th century CE. Though some tombs were still in use in the 8th century CE, they disappeared completely in the following centuries.