sentences:  Conservation work in the catacombs at Beit Shearim has being carried out over the years, in order to check the decay and to preserve old structures.Pottery shards discovered at the site indicate that a first settlement there dates back to the Iron Age.An anecdote about communal life in Beit Shearim has come down in the name of Judah ha-Nasi, who, after mentioning the place, alludes to the practice of its people being observant in the laws of Jewish ritual purity.