Strata

016

Luxury Living in the Jordan Valley

IAA Excavations Uncover Impressive Byzantine Villa

A newly excavated Byzantine period villa in Beth-Shean attests to the timeless allure of the scenic Jordan Valley. Uncovered during a rescue dig ordered prior to the construction of a youth hostel, the luxurious villa once included stunning mosaics, numerous storerooms, a family graveyard and a second-floor balcony overlooking the Jordan Valley.

“This was the house of a wealthy family who went outside the walls of the city and possibly had agricultural land around the house,” said Ofer Sion, who directs excavations at Beth-Shean on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “It is clear to us that there were no other buildings on the eastern side of the villa, so the balcony was open to the view.”

Known in Greco-Roman times as Scythopolis, Beth-Shean was a member of the Decapolis, a league of ten Hellenistic cities created after Pompey conquered Palestine in 63 B.C. Commercially vibrant, Beth-Shean continued to thrive during the Byzantine period, when, according to Sion, growth within the city walls may have spurred some wealthy families to escape to the open spaces surrounding the town. Apparently, the land on which the villa was built had previously been used as a family burial ground, since earlier tombs were incorporated into the garden of the imposing new two-story residence. Inside one of the tombs archaeologists found a fresco depicting a beautiful red cross, along with the Greek letters chi and rho—shorthand for the name of Christ.

The building underwent significant changes in the seventh century A.D.—first during the Persian occupation and later under the Muslims. The garden tombs were closed off from the house and remained unused by the new occupants. According to Sion, the new owners also “built on top of the mosaics, and all the Byzantine beauty [of the villa] disappeared … [though] it was still pretty architecturally.” Seriously damaged by the earthquake that destroyed Beth-Shean in 749 A.D., the house was later rebuilt and continued to be used in the Fatimid, Crusader and Ayyubid periods (969–1250).

Excavations of the villa have yielded some impressive finds, including a hoard of more than 750 gold coins hidden inside a jug about 15 inches under one of the floors. “Apparently something happened and the person who hid the treasure was not able to return to retrieve it. … In Byzantine times those coins could have sustained a family of five for 20 years,” said Sion.

In addition, archaeologists were delighted to discover 30 glazed ceramic bowls decorated with beautiful geometric and floral designs in shades of blue, black and red. Generally made in Syria and Persia, vessels of this kind had not been found in such quantity in Israel before. Even more remarkable, the majority of the bowls were found intact. “This is an incredible discovery,” notes Sion, “since in Israel we usually only find pottery sherds.”

Though most of the site has now been covered to allow for construction of the youth hostel, there are plans to incorporate a podium from the garden graveyard into the hostel balcony. Sion also hopes to build a small museum for other finds.

017

Shall We Dance?

New and Old Meet at Sha‘ar Hagolan

Ballroom, disco, tap or ballet, people have been moved to move for thousands of years. The tradition continues, as was shown last summer at a 7,000-year-old site on the banks of the Yarmuk River, just south of the Sea of Galilee. Every July belly dancers from around the world meet at Kibbutz Sha‘ar Hagolan; last year, four dancers decided to step back in time and honor icons to their spiritual forebears.

Potter Daphne Zuckerman replicated a clay figure unearthed along with hundreds of other artifacts at the site. The women placed the statue, thought to be that of a goddess, in the remains of the courtyard where the figurine’s ancient inspiration was found in 1997. For about half an hour they danced in the hot summer sun while the leader of the troupe recited a prayer, thanking the goddess for the forces of life, fertility and peace. She noted the connection between belly dancing, which places great importance on a woman’s abdomen, and the statue’s prominent features that highlight the places in the female body where life begins.

While this ceremony may have little in common with how the ancient occupants of Sha‘ar Hagolan might have worshiped a mother goddess, it is a clear example of the draw of this ancient place. About 50 years ago archaeologist Moshe Stekelis worked here and dubbed the Stone Age people who had lived in this area Yarmukians. The bulk of the excavation of this 50-acre site has been led over the past 12 years by Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University.^a He has discovered a settlement that housed some 3,000 people, boasted a paved street 10 feet wide and contained alleyways and buildings with courtyards and side rooms. The wealth of artifacts has led Garfinkel to call this community the richest prehistoric art center yet found in Israel.

Like the belly dancers, Garfinkel is convinced the Neolithic residents were devoted to a goddess. Only one of the excavated statues was male. Also, the artifacts were found in dwellings, pointing to a home-based reverence for a fertility goddess able to help women in pregnancy and childbirth.

But what about dance? Does Garfinkel see a connection between the modern-day belly dancers and a Neolithic clay figure? Absolutely. Over decades of searching for early artistic representations of dance, Garfinkel has found more than 400 examples dating back thousands of years. His theory is that dance evolved among preliterate societies to foster social cohesion and communication and was part of the ritual for coordinating a community’s activities.

As for these devotees of the goddess, Garfinkel told BAR that their dance was “simply an expression of their joy in themselves as women and their hopes for the world.” He added, “Who is to say that the goddess was not pleased by this attention? Perhaps it is not coincidence that that same morning two fragments of goddess figurines were found at Sha‘ar Hagolan.”

018

Claire Epstein, 1911–2000

Excavator Noted for Her Work on Chalcolithic Golan

Late last year, shortly before her 89th birthday, Claire Epstein passed away suddenly. She left a legacy rich in service to her country and to the archaeology of the Near East.

I last saw Claire sitting up in bed in Hadassah Hospital, her body frail, but her mind as sharp as ever. We both believed she was recovering, and I sat down to have a talk with her over the latest happenings in the archaeological world. Full of future plans, but with some sense of urgency because of her advancing years, Claire outlined her works in progress as I filled her in on my latest excavation news. There was no chitchat—there never was with Claire—just trading real information or ideas.

A few weeks later, at her funeral, I was to discover other, deeper sides to Claire, ones she kept separate from her life as an archaeologist. I learned that Claire was a deeply loved matriarch of the family of her late stepson, Nissim, and her loss to them was devastating.

Born in London in 1911 and having earned a B.A. in English and Italian literature, Claire was one of the founders and early activists of the Zionist youth movement Habonim in England. After a long visit to British Mandate Palestine, Claire emigrated in 1937 and settled in Tel Aviv. She joined the Women’s Corps of the British Army, serving four-and-a-half years in Egypt. Shortly after returning to Tel Aviv, Claire became a member of the newly established Kibbutz Ein-Gev, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was in those years that she lived close to the land and began to develop a keen interest in its buried past. Ancient Hippos (Susita), a hill not far from Ein-Gev, was the first focus of Claire’s archaeological awareness and would become the scene of her first independent excavation. Claire’s interest in the archaeology of the region blossomed over the years, and in 1955 she joined the Hebrew University’s excavation of Tel Hazor as a field supervisor under Yigael Yadin.

In 1959, Claire embarked upon a formal course of studies at University College, London. She earned her Ph.D. under Kathleen Kenyon in 1962 with a thesis on Palestinian bichrome pottery. She next excavated several Middle Bronze Age II (2000–1550 B.C.) tombs in the Galilee and published a study on the stratigraphy of Megiddo.

In 1967 Claire led an archaeological survey of the Golan Heights, an area newly accessible to Israelis after the Six-Day War. The Golan survey brought her to a long-lasting association with a chapter in late prehistory little known until that time. Together with a band of local Druze villagers, with whom she developed a close relationship of mutual respect and fondness, Claire worked in the central Golan for many seasons, often under very taxing conditions and with shoestring budgets. Her team excavated and surveyed a series of small but important sites in which she was able to discern the outlines of a Chalcolithic culture (4500–3100 B.C.), with its agriculturally based villages. Claire’s second monograph, The Chalcolithic Culture of the Golan, remains her crowning achievement.

Claire and I planned trips together whenever possible. Once, we were visiting a border site, when Claire, then about 80 years old, was balled out by a young army lieutenant for leaving “commando-like” shoe prints on a patch of security road where they could be taken for evidence of unfriendly infiltrators. After sheepishly owning up to her error, we all had a good laugh imagining how this thin slip of a woman could cause a major security incident.

Claire was not only an archaeologist with a passion for fieldwork, she was also a meticulous and hardworking researcher and scholar. At the age of 78 she tackled her first word processor and over time became quite adept in its use. Claire continued working almost until her death and several projects will appear posthumously. Claire received several of her country’s most prestigious awards, including the Percy Schimmel award, the Israel Prize and the Irene Levy-Sala award. We, her friends in the archaeological community, deeply miss her.

017

What Is It?

A: Drinking cup

B: Funnel

C: Pitcher

D: Trumpet

018

What It Is, Is …

C: Pitcher.

The unusual birth of the goddess Aphrodite is illustrated by this ancient Anadyomene, as images of her emergence from the sea are known. Wearing a gold necklace, the goddess of love and beauty rises from the pink waves in a colorful seashell. Found at Tanagra, in Boeotia, east-central Greece, this Attic vase dates to the beginning of the fourth century B.C. and is an elegant lekythos, a one-handled vessel with a long narrow neck and small mouth, typically used for holding oils or perfumes. Vessels such as this one were commonly found in baths or at the gymnasium and were useful because the shape of the mouth allowed oil to pour out drop by drop.