Bethlehem of Galilee
IDENTIFICATION
Bethlehem of Galilee is located on the western fringes of the Jezreel Valley, on the southern border of the low chalk hills of Alonim-Shefar‘am, which rise about 120 m above sea level. An Arab village (Beit
The site is first mentioned in the description of the cities of the tribe of Zebulun (Jos. 19:19). In the third century it is referred to by Eusebius (as Bethleem of the tribe of Zabulon). During the period of the Mishnah and Talmud, Bethlehem of Galilee was called Beth
EXPLORATION AND EXCAVATIONS
V. Guérin, C. R. Conder, and H. H. Kitchener in 1880 describe Bethlehem of Galilee as a small village with decaying houses, but with two impressive ruins built of ashlar masonry. One, with an entrance facing south, was identified as a synagogue; and the other, facing east with four columns preserved in situ, was identified as a church. G. Dalman described the ruins of apparently the same synagogue and church in his survey of the village in 1921. Any trace of the synagogue has long since disappeared. He also investigated the cemetery, where he discovered a grave inscription in Greek: “The place of the burial of Marinos.”
In 1965, following damage to a mosaic pavement and exposure of columns during the paving of a road to the moshav, a salvage excavation was carried out by A. Ovadiah on behalf of the Department of Antiquities. In 1975, a second salvage excavation was conducted by R. Rosenthal in the remains of a public building and in industrial installations dating to the seventh century CE that were carved out of rock on the northeastern end of the ruins. During the course of the Nahalal Map archaeological survey, A. Raban discovered that the center of the mound (surrounding the school) contained the foundations of numerous buildings of ashlar masonry, with columns, column bases, and parts of an olive-oil press. In the vicinity of the houses on the west side of the moshav were found the foundations of buildings, column fragments, column bases, a basalt olive-oil press, and stone-lined silos. Pottery was recovered from the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader–Mameluke, and Ottoman periods. In 1984, A. Berman, on behalf of the Department of Antiquities, excavated a winepress paved with crude white mosaics and an adjoining pit containing the stone core waste produced in the manufacture of Second Temple period stone “measuring cups.” Between the years 1992 and 2003, five seasons of excavations were conducted at the site, under the direction of A. Oshri on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Eight areas (B–L) were investigated in the central, northeastern, and western sectors of the site.
EXCAVATION RESULTS
AREA B. A wall that probably enclosed the settlement in the Byzantine period was built on a leveling fill piled above bedrock in the northeastern corner of this area. The fill contained pottery of the Persian period. A stone rampart abuts the northern side of the wall; a cooking pot found in the foundations of the rampart dated its construction to the seventh century CE. North of this wall and above the rampart were layers of charred organic material, including olive pits. On the southwestern side of the area were uncovered a quarry and a small section of a wall from the Persian period.
AREA C. Six meters of the length of a 7-m-wide hall was excavated in this area. Preserved to a height of 3 m, the walls are built of soft nari ashlars, about 1.2 m wide, attesting to the existence of a second story. A window, 0.85 by 0.85 m, is set into the eastern wall. Two pilasters with a pier between them carried two arches that supported the ceiling. Collapsed building stones filled the hall, a scene of destruction that may have been caused by an earthquake. In the floor of the hall, which was not the same level throughout, is an olive-oil press. Between the northern and middle piers is a plastered, bell-shaped pit (1 m in diameter and 1.6 m deep) that has a step in its side and a shallow depression at the bottom. Adjoining the pit is a screw apparatus and next to the northern pier a post; another post was uncovered near the southern pier. A subterranean barrel vault was uncovered in the southeastern corner of the hall; it was entered through a square-shaped opening in its ceiling. The vault (2 by 1.5 m), particularly its floor, is well plastered. A plastered depression for draining the floor is located under the entrance. Among the finds recovered in the hall are intact oil lamps, some decorated with crosses, Late Roman red ware bowls, various bone objects, coins, and a fragment of a marble plaque with a cross and a wavy band in relief. At the entrance to the vault lay a decomposing wooden beam that probably belonged to a ladder. Judging from the size of the hall and its contents, it was very likely part of a monastery that existed on the site in the sixth century CE and was destroyed at the beginning of the seventh century CE.
AREA D—THE CHURCH. In the salvage excavation conducted in the church by A. Ovadiah in 1965, the excavator believed that only the southern aisle of the church had survived. He uncovered a mosaic pavement with geometric designs, and part of another with a vine trellis medallion inhabited by a basket of grapes. The aisle had been destroyed by fire, which according to Ovadiah occurred during the Persian conquest in the seventh century CE. In excavations directed by A. Oshri, sections of walls and colored mosaic pavements were uncovered that were apparently remains of the northern aisle of the church. A baptistery, of which an area of 13 by 4.5 m was excavated, abuts the church on the north side. The church is more than 40 m long (including the atrium) and at least 30 m wide, and is triapsidal in plan.
The northern aisle is 24 m long; its eastern end terminates in an apse, partly preserved. A mosaic pavement was exposed along the wall for a length of about 13 m and an average width of 1.5–2 m. About 3 m west of the apse lay a collapsed chancel post and fragments of marble chancel screens and posts. One of the fragments bears an incised inscription in Greek (part of the word “amen”). Sunken into the floor of the baptistery apse is a basin lined with stone slabs, which served as a baptismal font. Two coins were found in the font, one of gold and the other of silver, identified as a dinar and a dirham from the time of the rule of al-Mutawakkil in the middle of the ninth century CE and confirming that the church, or at least part of it, was still in existence then. The floor of the baptistery was probably paved with a mosaic that has not survived, as attested by the large quantity of tesserae and tesserae production waste found below floor level. Along the northern wall are three piers that bore arches supporting the hall’s ceiling. The western part of the baptistery and the northern aisle of the church are bounded by a wall, on the southern part of which stand two column stumps. On the mosaic pavement were found fragments of a plastered floor that had fallen from the church’s upper story. The large quantity of iron nails found scattered along the sides of the aisle indicates that the floor of the upper story was constructed of wooden beams. Signs of destruction in a conflagration were also uncovered on this side of the church.
Two mosaic pavements were discovered in the church, one in the apse and the other in the hall. The tesserae of the mosaic in the apse were larger than those of the mosaic in the hall. The apse mosaic boasts a geometric design, and was evidently laid independently of the hall mosaic, perhaps even by a different artist. Around the wall of the apse is depicted a band of geometric designs, consisting of three colorful rhombuses of different sizes and shapes, a swastika, another rhombus, and the tip of a circle. Towards the interior of the hall is another band depicting a pattern of serrated lines in a variety of colors. In the middle of the apse is a fan-like pattern of alternating bands in shades of orange, yellow, and white.
A section of the mosaic border surrounding the hall was discovered along the eastern side of the wall separating the northern aisle from the baptistery. The border features a row of 18 medallions; part of a second row of medallions was also found. The medallions, formed by vine trellises that apparently issued from an amphora in the center of the western end of the pavement, contain depictions of a variety of animal figures and plant motifs. The style and quality of the mosaic are characteristic of church mosaics dating to the fifth–sixth centuries CE.
AREA E. Discovered in area E was a 1-m-wide wall, in which a Doric capital and a column base in secondary use were integrated. The base of the wall cut through an earlier cistern and judging from the sherds, it appears that the remains from the period prior to the construction of the wall date to the fourth century CE. A fragment of a “measuring cup” belonging to the class of stone vessels known from the late Second Temple period was found, but not in a stratigraphic context.
AREA F. Four phases of settlement were distinguished in this area. Phase 1 is attributed to the Persian period. The remains consist of a wall, against which lay two intact juglets, apparently a foundation deposit. Other pottery finds from this phase include sherds of “torpedo” jars, sack-shaped jars, mortarium bowls, and a black Attic sherd dated to the fifth century BCE. Phase 2 consists of a stone floor of excellent quality into which a domestic olive-oil press was sunk. Adjoining it is a square pit, 1 by 1 m and 1 m deep, which contained fragments of bronze implements and probably served as a cache. The pottery found on the floor dates this phase to the Byzantine period. In phase 3, the floor was covered with a layer of plaster and a wall was built above it. The pottery on the floor indicates a date for this phase in the eleventh–fourteenth centuries. From phase 4 were uncovered a house with floors and tabuns. The remains probably belonged to the Ottoman village that existed on the site up to the nineteenth–twentieth centuries.
AREA G. Two strata were uncovered in this area. The northeastern corner of a stone-paved building and a small section of a wall were exposed in stratum 1. The pottery found on the stone floor indicates a date for this stratum in the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries. Uncovered in stratum 2 was a section of a structure consisting of at least four units, built partly of ashlar masonry and partly of leveled stones. Judging from the height and width of the walls, and from the floor sections, plaster, and mosaics, the structure consisted of two stories. The floor of the upper story was partly paved with a colored mosaic and was more elaborate than the lower story. A courtyard paved with large stone slabs and bounded by walls, uncovered in the northeastern part of the excavations, may have served as the building’s central courtyard. Judging from its plan and various features, the building probably served as an inn. The remains of ash and a melted glass vessel discovered in one of the rooms indicate that a conflagration caused the destruction of the building and its abandonment. The pottery and coin finds point to a date for its destruction at the beginning of the seventh century CE, apparently during the Persian conquest of 614 CE.
AREA H. Six building phases were found in area H. To the initial phase belongs a pillared building from the Iron Age or, at the latest, the Persian period. In the southwestern corner of the building is a rock-cut, bell-shaped cistern. The second building phase is ascribed to the Hellenistic period; the plan of the building from this period is not clear. The third building phase is dated from the end of the Hellenistic period to the Herodian period; the southwestern corner of a building from this phase was unearthed. The fourth building phase is dated to the Early Roman period; part of a room with its threshold and a floor paved with stone slabs is attributed to this phase. In the fifth building phase, from the Byzantine period, a cistern was dug in the western part of the excavated area. Above the cistern is apparently a public building constructed of excellent quality ashlar masonry; it appears to have been destroyed in an earthquake. On one of the collapsed stones of the building is a rosette decorated with a Maltese cross, indicating that this structure was part of the monastery excavated in area C, about 60 m to the west.
AREA L. A wall, about 25 m long and 1 m wide, was excavated in area L. Another wall, 4 m wide and built on the same axis, was uncovered at a distance of 50 m from this wall, during the laying of a water pipe in 1997. It suggests, together with the wall excavated in area B and the results of a survey, that the Byzantine period settlement was fortified. The gate of the city wall was located in the southwestern part of the site.
CONCLUSIONS
A number of finds uncovered in the excavations indicate that settlement at Bethlehem of Galilee commenced in the Persian period (fifth century BCE). The bulk of the finds, however, are attributed to the Byzantine period, to a Christian settlement existing at the site at that time. Its remains include a church, a monastery, an inn, houses, and an olive-oil press. The settlement was destroyed at the beginning of the seventh century, apparently during the Persian conquest of 614 CE. The site was also inhabited in the Mameluke period; a few remains from this period were discovered in area F. A small village also stood at the site at the end of the Ottoman period, its remains were found in areas C, F, and G. Alongside this village the Templers established a settlement at the beginning of the twentieth century.
It is recalled that V. Guérin and G. Dalman mentioned the existence of a synagogue on the site. Stone “measuring cups” and their production waste material have been uncovered in the various excavations at the site. Evidence of a Jewish settlement also appears in the Talmud, which states that the priestly division of Malkiya inhabited the site after the destruction of the Temple.
AVIRAM OSHRI
IDENTIFICATION
Bethlehem of Galilee is located on the western fringes of the Jezreel Valley, on the southern border of the low chalk hills of Alonim-Shefar‘am, which rise about 120 m above sea level. An Arab village (Beit
The site is first mentioned in the description of the cities of the tribe of Zebulun (Jos. 19:19). In the third century it is referred to by Eusebius (as Bethleem of the tribe of Zabulon). During the period of the Mishnah and Talmud, Bethlehem of Galilee was called Beth