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ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 20-08-2008 10:40 Post subject: Findings in Roman Era Palestine |
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Hmmm, The Life of Brian could have included a Pagan Liberation Organisation.
| Quote: | Ruins of a pagan temple from the second century A.D. have been unearthed in the heart of a Jewish capital that existed during Israel's Roman period.
In its heyday, the temple sat within a walled courtyard abutting the most centrally-located homes in the ancient city of Zippori, about halfway between Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and the Mediterranean.
Archaeologists discovered the temple's foundations under the ruins of a Christian church that had been built on the site during the Byzantine period, which spanned the fifth and sixth centuries.
Although pagan artifacts have been found in Zippori before, the temple represents the first significant structural evidence of a pagan settlement in the capital.
"We have textual accounts from the second century indicating the presence of a pagan population in Zippori," said Zeev Weiss, lead archaeologist of the Noam Shudofsky Zippori Expedition at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Based on the new find, "it is clear [the pagans] had the influence and the ability to erect this temple in the center of the city."
Zippori was a thriving multicultural center where tens of thousands of pagans, Jews, and Christians lived and worshipped, the researchers say.
Temple of the Gods
The newfound temple measures about 40-by-78 feet (12-by-24 meters). It was built just south of the decumanus, a colonnaded street running east to west that served as the main thoroughfare in most Roman cities.
The temple originally had a decorated façade, but its walls were plundered in ancient times and only the foundations have survived.
No archaeological evidence was found to indicate the nature of pagan rituals carried out in the temple. The structure was not built like a Jewish synagogue, and formal Christian churches did not exist until at least the third century A.D.
Coins minted in Zippori that date to the time of Antoninus Pius, who ruled Rome from A.D. 138 to 161, depict a temple to the Roman god Jupiter and goddess Fortuna.
Various pagan populations throughout the Galilee region and beyond were known to have adopted Roman gods or integrated aspects of Roman religion into their practices.
"Roman religion of the time was complex and variegated and involved civic religions, mystery religions, personal religions. Romans could function in different religious contexts," said Ed Wright, director of the University of Arizona's Center for Judaic Studies.
Experts don't know exactly when the newly discovered structure ceased to function as a pagan temple.
But the large church built above its foundations indicates that the site maintained its sacred, religious character throughout the various periods of Zippori's history.
The temple "is a testament to the cosmopolitan nature of what was going on at that site," Wright added.
Religious Tension
Beth Nakhai, also at the Arizona center, noted that significant tension existed between Jews and pagans in the period leading up to the second century A.D.
During the second and first centuries the Jewish Hasmoneans attempted forced conversions of pagans to Judaism.
"The problems between Romans and Jews culminated in the destruction of the Galilee [region] and of the first Jewish temple, and pagans often were at the vanguard and worked with the Romans," she said.
Under Roman command, pagan mercenary soldiers often led violent attacks on Jews.
"However, by the end of the second century the Jews understood they needed to live together with the Romans and pagans," said Weiss, the excavation leader.
In fact, the pagan population between the second and fourth centuries had a certain amount of influence on Jewish culture.
A fifth-century synagogue uncovered earlier in Zippori, for example, was found to include a mosaic with an image of Helios, the Greek sun god.
"Interpretation of the textual evidence," Weiss added, "indicated good ties between the Jews and the pagans." |
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/46292480.html
Edit to amend title.
Last edited by ramonmercado on 27-01-2009 15:22; edited 1 time in total |
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| Xanatico Great Old One Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Total posts: 1141 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 20-08-2008 11:44 Post subject: |
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| Isn´t pagan a rather ill-defined term? It doesn´t seem to say exactly what religion they were. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-08-2008 12:02 Post subject: |
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| Xanatico wrote: | | Isn´t pagan a rather ill-defined term? It doesn´t seem to say exactly what religion they were. |
I suppose it is. However from the Jewish or Christian persapective they would have been regarded as Pagan. |
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| Xanatico Great Old One Joined: 11 Nov 2005 Total posts: 1141 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 21-08-2008 00:39 Post subject: |
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| Yes but saying they are non-jewish still leaves open a lot of possibility. I´d like them to say a bit more specific what they were. |
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| azuredoor Great Old One Joined: 13 Apr 2003 Total posts: 218 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 21-08-2008 14:21 Post subject: |
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| It's Roman. The 'exciting' thing is that it's the first one they have found in that city, which until then they thought was Jewish only. Not the most exciting story really lol |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 27-01-2009 15:23 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Israeli dig finds rare Roman bust
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7853150.stm
Israeli archaeologists say they have unearthed a rare Roman-era marble statuette in Jerusalem.
The subject is "most likely an athlete, probably a boxer", the directors of the excavation said in a statement.
The finely carved bust, which is 5cm (two inches) high, depicts a man with short hair and a short curly beard.
The 1,800-year-old figurine was found by the Israel Antiquities Authority in a dig in occupied East Jerusalem, just outside the walls of the Old City.
Archaeologists believe the figurine was used as a weight for a set of scales.
Its style is "indicative of an obviously Greek influence", the statement by IAA archaeologists Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets said.
It can be dated to the Emperor Hadrian's rule in the second or third century, they added, "one of the periods when the art of Roman sculpture reached its zenith".
Nothing similar has been found before in the country, the statement said.
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| Zilch5 Vogon Poet
Great Old One Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Total posts: 1527 Location: Western Sydney, Australia Gender: Male |
| Posted: 26-08-2013 06:37 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Finding the Ironsides
Evidence of the Roman legion military camp found in Israel
For the first time, the camp of the Sixth Roman Legion may have been located. Analyzing an enhanced high-resolution satellite photo, archaeologist Yotam Tepper of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in collaboration with the Jezreel Valley Regional Project, identified what he believes to be the camp’s square-shaped boundary. The team conducted ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic testing and subsequently carried out excavations at the site. They uncovered the base of a battery or wall, a moat surrounding the camp, water pipes, a covered sewage channel, coins, tiles and a shingle decorated with the legion’s symbol. These discoveries seem to support Tepper’s identification of the site as the camp of the Sixth Legion. The site sits between Tel Megiddo (Biblical Armageddon) and the oldest known Christian house of worship, located half a mile south of the camp, which was abandoned by the end of the third century.
According to historical sources, the Legio Sexta Ferrata, known as the “Ironsides,” was based in the Galilee in the second century A.D. The Sixth Legion was most likely stationed there in response to the Jewish antagonism that eventually resulted in the Second Jewish Revolt of 132–136 A.D. From their headquarters, 3,500 Roman soldiers ruled over Galilee and part of Samaria. The city that grew around the camp became known as Legio during the Roman Empire and later as Lajjun after the arrival of Muslim forces in the seventh century. The actual camp site of the Sixth Legion, however, remained unknown. According to Matthew Adams, director of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project, “If [Tepper’s] right and we locate the camp archaeologically, it will be the first time in the archaeology of the Roman Empire that a Roman camp of this period has been excavated in the Eastern half of the Empire!” |
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/finding-the-ironsides/ |
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