The Decauville Light Train at Lachish (1933–1938)

The removal of excavation debris is a major logistic problem for every large-scale archaeological project. In 1886, the Dominican Order of the École Biblique was certainly the first in the southern Levant to use the Decauville light train to remove large amount of debris for the excavations of the Byzantine ruins of the Basilica of St. Etienne in Jerusalem. About fifty years later, a more sophisticated Decauville system was developed from 1934 to 1938 at Tel ed-Duweir, Biblical Lachish. Some prominent stone constructions visible there today are not ancient remains, but installations remaining from that light train setup.