ISRAEL 08 #2: An Archeologist's dream

Israel is really an extraordinary country. There is so much to do and see, so many temples and archeological sites that represent many different religions, there never seems to be enough time to see it all.

We left Haifa in the early morning and made a quick stop at the site of the Bahai Temple and beautiful Persian Gardens. I had visited the Bahai Temple in New Delhi two years ago and was hoping to be able to tour the Bahai World Center, the spiritual and administrative heart of the Bahai community. Unfortunately, due to the time constraint, we only had time to view the Gardens.

Our next stop was Nazareth, considered one of the most important Christian sites in the Holy Land. In the New Testament, Nazareth is known as the boyhood home of Jesus and has been an important Christian pilgrimage site since the 4th century. Today, Nazareth is an Arab city with a population of 60,000, mostly Muslim.

Our first stop was the Basilica of the Annunciation; a modern Catholic Church built over the remains of Byzantine and Crusader churches, and considered the traditional site of Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the savior. According to biblical historians, the cave that is enshrined inside the basilica was identified no later than the 4th century as the place of the Annunciation. It is not known when the first church was built here, but one probably existed by the early 4th century.



As we walked back to the car, our guide pointed out Mary’s Well, now located in the center of downtown Nazareth, on the main road. The Well is positioned over an underground spring that served for centuries as a local watering hole for the local Arab villagers. Renovated twice, once in 1967 and again in 2000, the current structure is a symbolic representation of the structure that once was in use.

We left Nazareth and drove to Zippori, one of the most important archeological sites in Israel today. Zippori was a major Jewish economic, political, and intellectual center from the 2nd century BCE to the 7th century CE. It was the seat of Herod the Great and his son Herod Antipas. Zippori minted its own coins from 66-218 CE, and participated in a trade network that extended to Italy.

Excavations at the site began in 1931, but it wasn’t until 1992 that it was open to the public. An entire city was unearthed: a system of streets and public buildings, a theater, a central market, bathhouses, a synagogue and churches mainly dating from the Roman and Byzantine periods, and a fortress from the Crusader period. They also found a system of aqueducts east of the city that included channels, a gigantic water reservoir, a tunnel and a pool.

As I listened to our guide tell the story of Zippori, I found it amazing how much archeologists can tell about a culture and a way of life from their excavations. At one of the excavation sites we visited, a mansion was discovered that dates back to the third century CE. The rooms of this house were paved with colorful mosaics, one depicting the life of Dionysus, the god of wine. From that mosaic it was pieced together that the family was wealthy because they could afford to hire artisans and import materials. I’m simplifying the process and I realize there are many pieces of the puzzle that tell the whole story, but I found it intriguing that so much can be told about civilizations that existed thousands of years ago.

We continued west to the Sea of Galilee and enjoyed a “St. Peter’s Fish” lunch at a seaside restaurant. After lunch we continued our journey to Tiberias by boat.

Brenda, our guide, met us on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and we continued to Nof Ginnosar to see “the Jesus Boat” in a museum nearby. The story of the “Jesus Boat” is wonderful.

A harsh summer in 1985 and a lack of rainfall in the fall of that year created a drought in Israel. Water was pumped from the Sea of Galilee to irrigate parched fields. As the water flowed south, the level of the lake took a nosedive creating vast expanses of mud flats. While of great concern to Israel's residents, for whom the lake serves as a primary source of fresh water, the disaster proved a boom for archaeologists.
Late in January 1986, between the ancient harbors of Gennosar and Magdala, two brothers, Moshe and Yuval Lufan, discovered a faint oval outline of a boat in the muddy lakebed. As one brother later explained: 'It was little more than a curving arc of wood, flush with the surface of the ground, but we immediately realized that this was the uppermost plank of a boat that was entirely buried by the mud.' Before the water level returned to normal, it was cleared of mud, enclosed in polyurethane foam and floated across the Sea of Galilee, to be placed in a conservation pool at the kibbutz's recently completed Yigal Allon museum. Conservation treatment of the boat consisted of impregnation with a special wax material for 9 1/2 years. In 1995, the pool was drained and the boat was revealed.

According to Carbon 14 dating, the so-called 'Jesus Boat' was constructed in about 40 BC and was in use into the 1st century AD. During this period, the lakeside communities witnessed the ministry of Jesus and the unrest of the Jews under Roman control. The Jewish historian of the period, Flavius Josephus, described a fierce sea battle between the Jewish rebels of Magdala and the Roman legions in 67 AD in which the Jews were crushed and the beaches 'were thick with wrecks.' The boat was probably sunk at this time.

The boat is 26 1/2 feet long, 7 1/2 feet wide and 4 1/2 feet high, and it was probably of the Sea of Galilee's largest class of ships. Apparently, a master craftsman built it to last. It was made with different kinds of wood taken from other boats. First, the outside planks were assembled with mortise and tenon joints, then the frames or ribs were nailed inside. Its fore and aft sections were most likely decked and it probably had a mast, meaning it could be both sailed and rowed. Studies of ancient ships suggest this vessel had a crew of five (four rowers and a helmsman). Flavius Josephus referred to such ships holding 15 people. Skeletal remains from Galilee during this period indicate males averaged 5 feet 5 inches tall and about 140 pounds. Therefore it was large enough to accommodate Jesus and his 12 disciples.

It had definitely been a full day and we were all exhausted. Join me next week as we visit Capernaum, the Mount of Beatitudes and continue our journey south to the Dead Sea.