Limepit

A limepit is either a place where limestone is quarried, or a man-made pit used to burn lime stones in the same way that modern-day kilns and furnaces constructed of brick are now used above ground for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCO3) and by which quicklime (calcium oxide, CaO) is produced, an essential component in waterproofing and in wall plastering (plaster skim). The production of lime in the Land of Israel has been dated as far back as the Canaanite period, and has continued in successive generations ever since. The man-made limepit was usually dug in ground near the place where limestone could be quarried. Remnants of old limepits have been unearthed in archaeological digs all throughout the Levant. In a country where hundreds of such limepits or limekilns for burning limestone were found, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) describes dozens of them (בור סיד / כבשן סיד), one discovered in Kiryat Ye'arim, another in Har Giora - East (2 km. north of Bar-Giora), as well as in Neve Yaakov, among other places. Two lime kilns, stratigraphically dated to the late Hellenistic period were excavated at Ramat Rachel, the latter of which being circular in shape (3.6 metres in diameter) and built into the ruins of a large pool, using earlier walls. A rounded kiln (2.5–2.8 metres in diameter) was found northeast of Jerusalem dating back to the Iron Age (seventh–sixth century BCE), and was built of stones and had a rectangular unit adjacent to it. In the Lachish area, several lime kilns were excavated by a team on behalf of the IAA, and which kilns were partially hewn in the bedrock and partially built of fieldstones, and last used at some point between the mid-15th century and the mid-17th century CE. In Bedouin-Arab culture in Palestine, the limepit was dug to a depth of about and about in diameter. By all appearances, the pit was made after the same basic principle used in a "Dakota fire pit," which is made with an air inlet at the base, allowing for air-ventilation, but on a larger scale.