Description

This is the final definitive publication of the excavations that were conducted by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem on the site of the Crusader castle of Belmont (Suba), in the Judaean hills west of Jerusalem, between 1986 and 1989. The excavations and associated documentary research indicate that Belmont began its existence as a manor house or maison-forte in the first half of the twelfth century; at that time it probably represented the country seat of a fief-holding knight on the royal domain. By the 1140s, however, the area in which Belmont lay had been acquired by the Hospital of St John, which subsequently developed nearby Abu Ghosh (identified as biblical Emmaus) as the centre for an extensive estate. Following the Hospitallers takeover, while another former maison-forte, Aqua Bella, was converted into a priory or infirmary building, Belmont was extended and developed as a concentric castle, dominating the landscape round about. A polygonal outer ward was added to the original rectangular maison-forte on the top of the hill, and ranges of vaulted buildings were constructed within it. This castle fell to Saladin in 1187, and was slighted by the Ayyubids in 1191. After this, the site was occupied by a village until 1948. The account of the excavation is preceded by a historical introduction and a discussion of the castles archaeological setting. It is followed by specialist reports on the coins and tokens, pottery, ceramic lamps, Persian seal impressions, glass, metalwork, clay tobacco pipes, and objects of stone, bone and terracotta. A detailed analysis and discussion is provided of the faunal remains; and a concluding chapter discusses the castles architecture and planning, its military functions, and its economic role within an agricultural estate that developed in the later twelfth century to produce food and revenue for the Hospital in Jerusalem.