Ancient Jewish town unearthed in Galilee

An archaeological expedition directed by Samford University religion professor James Riley Strange has uncovered the remains of an unfamiliar Jewish village in the Galilee sector of Israel.  Dr. Strange and fellow directors Mordechai Aviam of the Institute for Galilean Archaeology at the Kinneret Academic College in Israel and David Fiensy of Kentucky Christian University announced the discovery this week.

Pottery sherd found in Sichin [Credit: Sichin archaeological team]

The remains include an ancient synagogue, houses and massive evidence of pottery production in the ancient Jewish village of Shikhin, near the ancient Jewish city of Sepphoris (Zippori).  The site is important because it teaches about Galilean Jewish village life and its economy at the birth of both Christianity and the Judaism of the Talmud, according to Dr. Strange.  The sites are about five miles northwest of Nazareth.

"The site of the discovery has been abandoned, except for agriculture, ever since the mid-fourth century A.D.," said Strange.  "The buildings came down and people used its stones in other nearby buildings, then those buildings were destroyed and the stones were re-used again."

He and his colleagues worked with a team of college students on the dig.  Included were Samford students Jonathan Sansom and Richard Shaw.  Aaron Carr, a 2012 Samford graduate who has dug on teams led by Strange since 2009, is a staff member of the dig.  Samford alumnus Kay Clements is a volunteer.

Excavations in the ancient Jewish village of Shikhin, near the ancient Jewish city of Sepphoris (Zippori), revealed an ancient synagogue, houses and massive evidence of pottery production [Credit: Stanford University]

Strange has taught archaeology courses at Samford since 2007, and taken Samford students on archaeological expeditions to Galilee since 2009.  He and the students have worked at the Shikhin site since 2011.

"We surveyed the site in 2011 and made the first excavation at the site in 2012," he said.

The excavators noted that the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, mentions Shikhin as one of the earliest Jewish settlements in the Galilee at the time of the Hasmonaean dynasty, which ruled in about 140-63 B.C.. The Talmud mentions it as a village of potters near Sepphoris.

The team was surprised by the large number of molds for making oil lamps (seven) found at the site, proof that the village potters produced various types of oil lamps in addition to many common pottery forms.  "One small fragment (pictured above) of an oil lamp is decorated with a Menorah and Lulav (palm branch)."