Bayt Shanna

The village, located on top of a high hill that was surrounded by lower hills, overlooked wide areas in all directions except the north. The hill sloped gradually towards the south, leading to a wadi that separated the village lands from those of the nearby village of Salbit. A secondary road linked it to the Jerusalem-Jaffa highway, to the southwest, and dirt paths led to several neighboring villages. In 1596 Bayt Shanna was a village in the nahiya of Ramla (liwa' of Gaza) with twenty-two inhabitants. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, fruit trees, and vineyards, as well as goats and beehives. In the late nineteenth century the site was not inhabited and only traces of ruins were observed there. In modern times it was classified as a hamlet by the Palestine Index Gazetteer. It had a crescent-shaped layout and its houses were built close to one another, constructed of stone and adobe brick. The residents of Bayt Shanna were Muslim. Their agricultural lands were alternately flat and undulating and were mainly rainfed. The more rugged lands were used for grazing. The villagers cultivated grain, olives, grapes, figs, apples, almonds, and vegetables. In 1944/45 a total of 865 dunums was allocated to cereals; 44 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Ancient ruins on the site included two khirbas west and northeast of the village, which contained the foundations of a church and other buildings, cisterns, and rock-hewn presses.