Walker/Life on the Farm, 1. On Farmsteads and Terraced Fields: The Origins of the Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project

Studies of al- Quds al- Sharīf/Jerusalem in the post-classical periods have traditionally centered, unsurprisingly, on the Old City, isolating it from its hinterland and regional setting. That Jerusalem was part of a larger social world was obvious to contemporaries, who readily recognized the interconnections of satellite settlements, farms and farmsteads, and seasonal settlements that formed a totality which was “the Hill Country of Jerusalem ( Jabal al- Quds).” Pilgrimage reinforced this sense of oneness, as did the structure of imperial administration. The agricultural hinterland of Jerusalem— comprising a network of smaller settlements, agricultural terraces, fields, cisterns, water systems, roads, watch towers, and local marketplaces that together fed the city— have not been a focus of archaeological research until very recently.