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.

In a country where hundreds of such limepits or limekilns for burning limestone were found, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) describes dozens of them (Hebrew: בור סיד / כבשן סיד), one discovered in Kiryat Ye'arim,[1] another in Har Giora - East (2 km.

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.

[4] 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.

The limestone blocks were then crushed, afterwards slaked (the process of adding water and constantly turning the lime to create a chemical reaction, whereby the burnt lime, or what is known also as calcium oxide,[7] is changed into calcium hydroxide), and mixed with an aggregate to form an adhesive paste (plaster) used in construction and for daubing buildings.

In some Middle-Eastern countries where rain-fall was scarce in the dry season, lime production for use in plastering home-made cisterns (in making them impermeable by adding thereto a pozzolanic agent) was especially important.

In the following account, Abu-Rabiʻa describes the practice of Bedouins in the Negev, during the late 19th and early 20th-century: Lime is derived from chalk [sic] by burning.

One camel load, or cantur (qentar / quntar = 100 ratels, or 250–300 kilograms), of lime would fetch 40 grush on the Jerusalem market in the early 1880s.