This title deals with one of the most important areas in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple period. It was to this area that most Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile, and it was here that the Hasmonean state, with its religious and military heritage, was formed and flourished. At the core of this book is the description of the discovery of two agricultural settlements and the finds unearthed there, which illuminate Jewish rural life during the Second Temple period. Most important is the unearthing of a synagogue, dating from before the destruction of the Temple, which is the first synagogue discovered from that period to date in the Land of Benjamin.