Season 10: S01 W01 Summary "There Are A Number of Folks Posting..."
- Bethsaida-Julias Staff
- Jul 18
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 8
There are a number of folks posting daily from the excavation, and I did not want to duplicate their efforts. If you have a daily interest, I recommend the Facebook pages of Bethsaida-Julias EAEP and Chris McKinny with Lanier Center for Archaeology which are often linked. On my page, unless there is something special during the week, I will post a summary of what I think we have accomplished during the week.
As I have written, we rise before 4:00AM to be in the field at 5:15. Sunrises over the Golan Heights are magnificent. Temperatures are not bad (yet), rising only to about 95˚F/36˚C. We are presently focused in three areas.
In Area A, they are still trying to determine the line of a wall running just west of the church and its relationship to the Byzantine atrium. They are uncovering lots of pottery and coins from the Byzantine period but no answers yet.
In Area G we are so happy to have the Lanier students with us this season. Motti says it is the first time in his career that he has had a group of students who are already trained in archaeology (MA and PhD students). They are making good progress where we dug last autumn about 50 meters north of the basilica. They have identified three walls of a Roman period house with lots of coins, fishing weights, a strainer jug, and a gemstone with various symbols etched on it. This last item is quite a unique find. The students work hard and are expanding their work area with the hope to uncover more of the Roman period settlement.
I am working with a small team in what has been deemed Area H, on the northern side of the home of a man who lived at el A'raj for 50 years. The structure was initially built as a granary by the Syrian aristocrat who lived at el A'raj at the end of the 19th century. We are looking to see if the granary was built upon an earlier Roman period structure. We have found coins and pottery but the most interesting item we have is a square column with a finely cut base. We are not sure yet its purpose. We will probably dig in Area H for a day or two more to see if the base is of importance. Unless there are suprises (which there often are in archaeology) we will shift to Area F (near the church) where the Russian imigrant archaeologists excavated last summer. Area F has significant Roman period structures and Motti would like to know more about their nature. We dig Sundays through Thursday.
On Friday we had a full day field trip with the Lanier students to Gamla, hiking down to the city and first century synagogue. This was followed by a stop at Majduliyah where we were guided by Micky Osband, who has excavated there a 2nd-3rd century synagogue. Finally, we went to Umm el-Kanatir to see the reconstructed Byzantine synagogue. Together the three stops were a wonderful exercise in looking at the development of the synagogue in the Roman and Byzantine periods. Tomorrow we resume our efforts to unearth ancient Bethsaida-Julias. I add a final note.
On Thursday after the excavation, I was able to travel to Jerusalem to attend the funeral of a dear friend and scholar, David Bivin. David was born in Cleveland, Oklahoma but came to Israel in 1962. He made a significant contribution to the lives of many students and others with whom he came in contact. He also was the publisher for the Jerusalem Perspective. He featured a cover article in 1998 with Mendel Nun sitting on a column drum at el A'raj with the title, "Sitting on Bethsaida?" David's pioneering efforts are what kept the fires kindled until others could begin excavating in 2016. I was so pleased that David was able visit the excavation a few years ago and see the fruit of his efforts. May his memory remain a blessing.
— R. Steven Notley
