Directions

Presentation Schedule

Sites with a spade to the left are live digs this quarter.

	✠ Caesarea Maritima Excavator:
	5/9 Tu	Along with the massive reconstruction of Temple Mount in Jerusalem, this seaside city was the jewel in Herod the Great's crown. While Rome successively granted him greater and greater swaths of land in the region and thus helped Herod to secure control of regional trade, the only port he actually controlled was at Gaza. Herod opted to increase his revenue and signal his ties to Rome by building the most technologically advanced seaport in the Roman Mediterranean at the time. In addition to port facilities, Herod added Roman institutions and buildings, importing marble and wood from all parts of the eastern empire. It's no surprise that later Roman prefects chose the seaside Caesarea Maritima as their base rather than the volatile Jewish ancestral capital of Jerusalem.
	✠ Sebaste
	5/9 Tu	Herod the Great rebuilt the former capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, Samaria, into a grand Roman-style city around 25 BCE and renamed it to honor the Emperor Augustus, to whom he owed his crown. (Sebaste is the Greek equivalent of the Latin "Augustus," itself a title rather than a proper name, signifying the honor and religious role of the Emperor.) This practice of honoring the emperor through benefactions and public building signaled the loyalty of a client king and secured further favor for Herod and the Judeans.
	✠ Qumran
	5/9 Tu	While this site is not directly associated with Jesus, it is "home" to the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose sectarian documents derive from a Jewish group of Jesus' time. While the sectarians shared many beliefs in common with early Christians (such as shared property, apocalyptic beliefs, and some strict interpretation of Jewish law), they also diverged in important ways. Your task will be to determine what the archaeological remains tell us about life in Judea in Jesus' time and the fate of a contemporary sect.
	✠ Nazareth
	5/11 Th	Most historians believe that Jesus was likely born in the town all the gospels associate with him, Nazareth in the Galilee, a small village of no account.
	✠ Bethlehem
	5/11 Th	The gospels of Matthew and Luke report that Jesus was born in Bethlehem; according to Matthew, this is where Joseph and Mary lived, while in Luke they just happened to be there for a census when Jesus was born, but their home town was Nazareth.
	✠ Capernaum Excavator:
	5/16 Tu	Capernaum lies on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee and according to all the canonical gospels served as a home base for Jesus during his public work (note that he did not base out of his own home town). The site was merely a village, rather than a city, so the archaeological remains suggest more modest dwellings and circumstances than a Sepphoris or Tiberias.
	✠ Magdala Excavator:
	5/16 Tu	This modest village was the home of Jesus' closest female companion, Mary Magdalene (hence her name). It was a fishing village in Jesus' time, and there have been some recent and very interesting excavations that have revealed remnants from Jesus' time.
	✠ Bethsaida Excavator:
	5/18 Th	A fishing village located on the north-central coast of the Sea of Galilee and a frequent stomping grounds for Jesus and his crew. There is some debate about exactly where Bethsaida was located; if you choose this site, you'll have to address that.
	✠ Sepphoris Excavator:
	5/18 Th	This city just a few miles northwest of Nazareth was a former capital of the Hasmonean dynasty. Herod the Great took it for Rome. When Herod died and the residents rebelled against Rome, the city was obliterated by a Roman legion. It was soon rebuilt under Herod Antipas, so that it functioned as one of the leading cities of the Galilee during Jesus' lifetime. It is thus particularly interesting that the gospels make no mention of it. Like many of the cities built by the elite client kings of Rome, the architecture and institutions of the city were Greco-Roman, although clearly there was a predominantly Jewish population. By the time of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome in 66-74 CE, Sepphoris decided to play it safe, siding with Rome rather than the rebels and thus avoiding a second destruction.
	✠ Tiberias Excavator:
	5/18 Th	After Herod the Great's death in 4 BCE, part of his kingdom encompassing the Galilee and Perea fell to his son Herod Antipas (short for "Antipatros," Herod the Great's father's name). Unlike his father and brother, this Herod did not immediately build sites to honor the emperor, although he must have signalled his loyalty in other ways since he managed to remain on the northern throne for some 40+ years. In fact, it was not until about 6 years after the accession of Augustus' nephew Tiberius, in 20 CE, that Herod Antipas embarked on a major village overhaul. He took a spot on the mid-western shore of the Sea of Galilee and built an entire town and port there, and named it Tiberias. While the gospels don't mention the site, it becomes extremely important as a great center of rabbinic learning, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
	✠ Caesarea Philippi
	5/18 Th	When Herod the Great died, control of the northern reaches of his kingdom above and east of the Sea of Galilee fell to his son Philip. Philip immediately signaled both his loyalty to Rome and his intention to follow in his father's footsteps by building an entire city where his father had built a temple to Augustus. His name for the city literally means "Philip's city of Caesar." The site lies near Banias, the ancient grotto of Pan - a spot where the headwaters of the Jordan River emerge from a grotto.
	✠ Galilee Excavator:
	5/23 Tu	Much of the detailed archaeological work on towns and villages in the Galilee has yielded a general picture of the region that is tremendously useful in imagining why the wandering preacher and healer Jesus would have become popular. This "site" is really a study in the economic and political developments in the region that might help us to situate the Jesus movement.
	✠ Cana
	5/23 Tu	This village northeast of Nazareth was associated with some of Jesus' earliest activity in the Gospel of John. There is some debate about precisely what excavations in the immediate area were the original village of Cana, giving you some idea of how small a village we are talking about.
	Decapolis
	5/23 Tu	Literally, the "ten cities" founded during the period of Hellenistic control of the region. These were essentially colonies populated by Greeks and granted Greek constitutions. The lay mostly to the east of the Jordan River, and running from the northernmost city of Damascus (the capital of Syria today) to the southernmost city of Philadelphia (the capital of Jordan today, Amman). In regions closer to the Galilee and Perea, where there had been Jewish settlers, they were dispossessed of their farmland and turned into tenant farmers. In Jesus' time, that was ancient history, but there was still animosity toward these nearby Gentile cities. If you study this "region," you'll have to pick one of the ten sites to study rather than all. Here is a list of the sites (purple dots on map, from north to south):
	Damascus One of the oldest continuously occupied sites in the world, this city still boasts some remains from its days as the northernmost city of the independent Roman Decapolis, including the easternmost gate in its city wall (Bab Shari). However, most of the Roman-era ruins lie about 16.4 feet below the surface of the current city, and because the site is still occupied, little excavation on this period has been done.    Kanatha Most of the excavation results are published in German.    Hippos There’s not a lot of archaeological work yet on this sit .    Gadara The gospels mention either this site or Gerasa as a place Jesus visited; not a lot of archaeological excavation yet.    Abila There’s a good deal of material on this site.    Capitolias There’s not a lot of archaeological work yet on this site.    Scythopolis A.k.a. Bet Shean; loads of material on this site.    Pella Lots of work on this site is available; more important for later Christians than for Jesus, as it was the place Christians fled to from Jerusalem on the eve of the Jewish Revolt against Rome.    Gerasa The gospels mention either this site or Gadara as a place Jesus visited; there’s a good deal of archaeological information available.    Philadelphia Modern Amman, Jordan; not a lot of archaeological work here yet because the modern capital is built on top of the ancient city.
	✠ Jerusalem Excavator:
	5/25 Th	The ancient capital of the country, site of its only temple, and home of the Sadducean aristocrats with whom the Romans worked closely. While the first three canonical gospels report that Jesus traveled there only once, John's gospel may be more accurate in suggesting multiple trips. After all, there were three great annual pilgrimage festivals that occurred at the Temple, and many Galileans would make the 4-5 day trip. This was especially true as Herod the Great expanded the Temple platform to some 16 football fields in size and greatly improved the amenities. For this "site," you won't deal with Temple Mount, but will choose a few other sites associated with Jesus, including but not limited to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which allegedly sits on the site of both Jesus' crucifixion and burial.
	✠ Herodion
	5/30 Tu	Herod the Great built a new palace for himself on a conical shaped mountain just south of Bethlehem, complete with sleeping and eating quarters at the flattened summit and a hippodrome and pools at the base. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer believes that Herod was buried here as well, in a tomb subsequently vandalized by Zealots during the First Jewish Revolt.
	✠ Masada Excavator: Mia Platt
	5/30 Tu	Herod the Great fortified and expanded the Hasmonean palace at Masada, on the southwest shore of the Dead Sea, as he did many of the earlier Hasmonean fortresses in around the region. This stunning mountaintop fortress is infamous as the final holdout of the Zealots during the First Jewish Revolt where, according to Josephus, they killed each other and committed suicide rather than surrender. It has become iconic of national self-defense in contemporary Israel; the Israel Defense Forces initiate new corps members there.
	✠ Gamla Excavator:
	5/30 Tu	This northern site was an important battleground during the first Jewish Revolt. Archaeological excavation at the sites reveals the conditions under which the first century Jewish populations lived—and died. This site is particularly rich in the weapons of war used by the Romans.
	✠ Jotapata
	5/30 Tu	This northern site was an important battleground during the first Jewish Revolt. Archaeological excavation at the sites reveals the conditions under which the first century Jewish populations lived—and died. This site in particular yielded a cistern filled with bones—a mass grave filled with the victims of the siege.