Khirbet Kurkush
Khirbet Kurkush (Arabic: خربة قرقش) is an archeological site in the State of Palestine, located in the city of Bruqin, in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank. The site was inhabited mostly during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, from which impressive remnants of structures and quarries still survive. However, there have been findings from earlier times, such as the Iron Age, as well as later ones, such as the Middle Ages. There are several nearby rock-cut tombs, some of which are lavishly decorated, that resemble similar Jewish tombs of Jerusalem during the late Second Temple period. Archeologists disagree on whether Jews, Samaritans, or pagan groups used this necropolis and other nearby similar sites in western Samaria. Nonetheless, the majority of archaeologists believe the site to be a Jewish necropolis constructed for the rural Jewish elites of the area, possibly by Jewish craftsmen who fled Jerusalem prior to its siege and destruction in 70 CE. Surveys and excavations In 1870, the site was visited by Victor Guérin, who described it as a ruined Arab village covered with brushwood, and noted a few ancient cisterns in its vicinity. Guérin most likely didn't notice the surrounding necropolis, which the Palestine