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COURTESY OF UZI LEIBNER

WAVE OF DESTRUCTION. In the 140s BCE, numerous cities, towns, and even farms throughout Galilee were abandoned or destroyed in the wake of fighting between Seleucid factions. At the site of Khirbet el-Eika in Lower Galilee, archaeologists found evidence of this destruction in the form of broken wine jars that date to c. 143 BCE. Many sites lay abandoned for decades until they were eventually resettled by the Hasmoneans.