Season 10: Week 1, Day 1 — "Today we began our tenth season of excavation at Khirbet el A'raj"

2-3 century CE city coin found in Area G.

Today we began our tenth season of excavation at Khirbet el A'raj: Roman Period Bethsaida-Julias. For the first time since before the pandemic, we will excavate for four consecutive weeks in the summer months (there will be another two week session in October). We are joined this year by Chis McKinny and students from the Lanier Center for Archaeology at Lipscomb University. During these first two weeks our focus is on three areas. The Lipscomb students are concentrated in Area G about 50 meters north of the church. We opened these squares last October and they are continuing to deepen and widen our earlier efforts. Another team of Israelis are digging in Area A between the northwest corner of the basilica and Byzantine atrium. They are trying address continuing questions related to what appears to be two stages of construction in the basilica walls. Finally, a handful of us are digging a new square (Area H) along the northern wall of the house of Ehud Schneider (z"l). Schneider's house was initially a granary built by the Syrian aristocrat who owned the entire Bethsaida valley. He lived in a nearby villa. Motti Aviam, the director of the excavation, noted that this aristocrat built another granary a few miles away and used the walls of an earlier synagogue as the foundation for his granary. We are doing a quick check to see if he may have done the same at el A'raj. Already we are finding tesserae and Roman period pottery. Some have asked about the conditions of our work. We dig on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which is the lowest freshwater lake in the world at 200 m/650 ft below sea level. In the summers it hot (36c/96f) with little breeze. Of course, we are aware of the events in the Middle East, but for the time being they have little impact on our work. 

Handle from Kfar Hananya (Jewish Galilean) pottery, Roman period pottery.