Bethsaida Rediscovered - The BAS Library

Footnotes

1.

Ground-penetrating radar uses radio waves to “see” below the surface, much like X-ray machines provide images of the inside of bodies.

2.

See William Shea, “Jerusalem Under Siege,” BAR 25:06.

3.

See Rami Arav and Richard Freund, “Prize Find: An Incense Shovel from Bethsaida,” BAR 23:01.

4.

See Ze’ev Yeivin, “Ancient Chorazin Comes Back to Life,” BAR 13:05.

Endnotes

1.

Rami Arav began the Bethsaida Excavations Project on behalf of the Golan Research Institute under the auspices of Haifa University. In 1991 the Consortium for the Excavations Project was formed. Today the consortium consists of 17 universities and colleges throughout America and Europe and is jointly sponsored by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Hartford.

2.

We have collected references to 20 earthquakes, both major and minor, going back to the first century B.C.E. The most recent review is David Amiran, E. Arieh and T. Turcotte, “Earthquakes in Israel and Adjacent Areas: Macroseismic Observations since 100 B.C.E.,” Israel Exploration Journal (IEJ) 44:3–4 (1994), pp. 260ff. See also the original report by D. Amiran, “A Revised Earthquake Catalogue of Palestine,” IEJ 1 (1950–1951), p. 225ff; and Ehud Netzer, Greater Herodium, Qedem 13 (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981), pp. 28, 134 n. 22.

3.

The same geological phenomena that led to Bethsaida’s demise also contributed to the disappearance of other ancient ports, such as Ephesus and Miletus in Asia Minor. In addition, declining water levels have isolated former ports near inland seas, including along the Aral Sea of central Asia and near ancient Lake Seistan (now Dasht-Margo, or Desert of Death), in southwest Afghanistan.

4.

Work on the geological and geographic questions at Bethsaida began in 1992. John F. Shroder, Jr., and Michael Bishop, of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Department of Geography and Geology, together with Moshe Inbar of the Department of Geography at Haifa University, led the investigations. The surveys at el-Araj have revealed that the sedimentation contains a mix of Hellenistic and Roman period finds, which were deposited there as a result of catastrophic flooding of the Jordan River following earthquake activity.

Our team includes geologists, geographers, hydrologists, archaeologists and historians. Geoarchaeologists have helped us grapple with processes that span thousands of years. Our work ranged from the very large—26 trenches cut by backhoes and a series of test boreholes dug from the bottom of the et-Tell mound to the Sea of Galilee—to the minute—carbon 14 tests on microorganisms. Our project has been the most extensive investigation ever of the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.

5.

Monika Bernett and Othmar Keel, Mond, Stier und Kult am Stadttor von Bethsaida (et-Tell), Orbis biblicus et orientalis 161 (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998).