Beth Shean Revisited: Reexamining a Late Antique City in Transition by robert ousterhout

Beth Shean, aerial view looking south with the tell in the foreground and the Roman city immediately behind it. Dupy Tal and Moni Haramati, Rockefeller Museum

8 volume 55, number 1 expedition Robert Ousterhout (top), Penn Museum (bottom) immediately abovetheendofcolonnadedstreet. the suicideofJudasIscariotin1973filmJesusChristSuperstar.TheRomantempleandsubsequentlyRoundChurchwouldhaveappeared View lookingnortheastfromtheRomancitytowardtell.Thedeadtreeonitssummit(justleftofcenter)isarelicmorerecent“biblical”events — B imperial rulefromConstantinople; themoregeneralterm CE in Palestineisusually termed “Byzantine,” referring to maximum populationofca. became thecapitalofPalestinaSecundain409CEwith a continued toprosperwellintotheLateAntiqueperiod; it Dionysos. ItbecamepartoftheRomanstatein63BCEand associated withthenymphNysa,nursemaidofgod Hellenistic periodofthe2ndcenturyBCE,whenitbecame after whichoccupationwasminimal. Chronicles. ItfelltotheAssyriansin8thcenturyBCE, Old TestamentbooksofJoshua,Judges,Samuel,Kings,and Solomon. Forthisperiod,BethSheanismentionedinthe when it became part of the Israelite Kingdom of David and following century,andiseventuallyretakenbyKingDavid ations intheregion.Thesiteisstrategicbattlesof which they subsequently used as a base for theirmilitaryoper- when thePhilistinesconqueredCanaanitesettlement, to figureprominentlyinBiblicalhistoryaround1100BCE Occupied asearlythe6thmillenniumBCE,sitebegan be transliteratedandspelledinavarietyofdifferentways. Beth Shean reemerged as an important city in the Beth-Shan, Baysan,orBeisan—thenamecan It isknownvariouslyasBeitShe’an,Bet the Galileeandiswateredbyabundantsprings. Scythopolis, sitsonanimportantcrossroadsin eth shean(“houseofease”),ancientNysa- 40,000. Theperiod330–638 Caesarea in Israel.AfterTsafrirandFoerster,1997. Roman roadsystemshowinglocationofBethShean-Scythopolis Apollonia Dora Ptolemais Sebaste to Tyros Maximianopolis Legio

Gabae Neapolis www.penn.museum/expedition Diocaesarea Sepphoris Ginae Tiberias

SCYTHOPOLIS BETH SHEAN to Jersusalem to Pella

Gadara

to Philadelphia to to Gerasa to to Paneas Hippos 9 “Late Antique” refers to the period of cultural transforma- tion across the Mediterranean, ca. 250–750 CE. Indeed, Late beth shean plan Antique Beth Shean underwent a variety of profound political Plan of Roman-Byzantine city of Beth Shean and religious transitions, including the advent of Christianity or ancient Nysa-Scythopolis. After Mazor and and the arrival of Islam—the latter with Umayyad conquest in Najjar, 2007, Plan 1.1. 634 CE. The city was destroyed by an earthquake in 749 CE. Under Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad rule, the city sheltered a religiously heterogeneous population, as the material evidence abundantly indicates. Penn Museum undertook excavations on the tell (mound) of Beth Shean in 1921 in expectation of clarifying the Biblical history of the site, as Jordan Pickett discusses in the following essay. This was the first American archaeological venture into the Near East following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. Palestine at that time was gov- erned by the British Mandate and was no longer subject to the Ottoman’s stringent antiquities laws. Like contemporary colonialist ventures into Albania, Anatolia, and Iraq, the Penn Museum’s archaeologists saw this as a golden opportunity through which they could combine scientific exploration with significant acquisitions to expand the Museum’s holdings. In the end, the Museum added more than 8,000 artifacts from Beth Shean to its permanent collection. The archaeologists in charge—Clarence Fisher, Alan Rowe, and Gerald Fitzgerald—were all trained in Bronze Age archaeology and were interested primarily in the early history of the site. As with the Museum’s earlier excavation at Nippur in southern Mesopotamia (1889–1900), in which Fisher also took part, both scholars and the general pub- lic were concerned with establishing scientific proof for the 1 Civic center 13 Hellenistic city validity of the Bible. While the early finds from Beth Shean 2 Tell Beth Shean 14 Eastern bridge are noteworthy, the uppermost strata of the mound pre- 3 Northeast (Damascus) (Jiser el-Maktu’a) city gate 15 Western bridge served substantial evidence of the Late Antique city, includ- 4 Northwest (Caesarea) 16 Eastern cemetery ing a church of unique design, a small monastery, a domestic city gate (Tell el-Hammam) quarter, a synagogue, and extensive cemeteries. Nevertheless, 5 Southwest (Neapolis) 17 Monastery city gate 18 House of Kyrios the archaeologists found this material less compelling than the 6 South (Jerusalem) Leontis earlier layers. Consequently, the late material received scant city gate 19 Circular piazza attention and only brief publication. Major finds from their 7 Southeast (Gerasa) 20 Bathhouse city gate excavations are now divided between the Penn Museum and 21 Mosque 8 Samaritan synagogue 22 Crusader fortress the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. And while significant 9 Church of Andreas 23 Turkish serai elements of the older periods of site occupation are on dis- 10 Church of the Martyr 24 Amphitheater play in the Penn Museum, more than 3,000 Late Antique and 11 Monastery of (hippodrome) Lady Mary 25 Extra muros quarter Byzantine artifacts are housed in the Museum’s storerooms, 12 Northern cemetery (Tell Naharon) many of them unpublished, some still in their original pack- ing crates. In addition, the Penn Museum Archives preserve the careful documentation of the excavation—including cor-

10 volume 55, number 1 expedition Robert Ousterhout distance. Aboveright,excavationsintheRomancityrevealedfallencolonnades,associatedwithdestructionof749CEearthquake. Above left,viewfromthetell,lookingsouthwestacrossRomancityexcavatedbyHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,withthetheaterin single family.Asimilarblurring isevidentinthefloormosaics in thecityandperhapsmultiple religiousaffiliationswithina of BethSheanisremarkable and suggestsaleveloftolerance proximity of Christian, Jewish, and pagan objects in the tombs private level.Similarly,asEmersonAverydemonstrates, the the TempleofZeus,paganworshipcontinued,atleaston a by Stephanie Hagan. While the church may have replaced the NysafigurinesfromNorthernCemetery,deciphered discussed byDairaNocera,maybecontemporaneouswith in Jerusalem.Indeed,theuniqueRoundChurchontell, ning in381CE,andclosetothespiritualcenterofChristianity long aftertheanti-paganedictsofTheodosius,issuedbegin - Holy Land,thesurvivalofpolytheistcultsisnoteworthy— Milan of313CEandhissubsequentbuildingprograminthe already inthe4thcenturywithConstantine’sfamousEdictof 5th centuryCE.WhileChristianityassumedadominantrole striking istheenduranceofpaganpolytheismwellinto nuanced textureoflifeinByzantineBethShean.Perhapsmost documentation inthestoreroomsandArchivesofMuseum. Byzantine BethShean,workingfirsthandwiththeartifactsand begun torevisittheartandmaterialcultureofLateAntique wealth ofdocumentationathand,Penngraduatestudentshave new discoveriesandarefinedchronology,nottomentionthe a majorexcavationoftheRomancityatitsbase.Inlight and researchmethods,reexaminedthemoundconducted University ofJerusalem,armedwithmodernarchaeological and unpublishedreports. respondence, daybooks,architecturaldrawings,photographs, The briefanalysespresentedheretestifytotherichand Beginning in1983,archaeologistsfromtheHebrew http://www.penn.museum/collections/. be viewedinthePennMuseum’sonlinecollectionsdatabase: NOTE: tions demonstrate. lessons tolearnfromBethShean,asourcontinuinginvestiga- flict as an explanation for destruction. Clearly there are more Geoffrey Shamos—underscoresourmisuseofreligiouscon- the chronologyofterracottalampproductiondiscussedby Finally, the blurred transition into Muslim rule—evident in where thesamethemesappearincontemporarysynagogues. of asmallChristianmonastery,discussedbyStephanieHagan, University Pressforthe ofPennsylvaniaMuseum,1930. Rowe, A.TopographyandHistoryofBeth-Shan . Philadelphia: 33, 2007. Odeum, BetShe'anI,Jerusalem:IsraelAntiquitiesAuthority Report Mazor G.andA.Najjar.Nysa-Scythopolis:TheCaesareumthe Authority, 1993;EnglisheditionofHadashotArkheologiyot98. 91). ExcavationsandSurveysinIsrael11.Jerusalem:Antiquities Israel AntiquitiesAuthority,TheBetShe’anExcavationProject(1989– Pennsylvania, 1931. Byzantine Levels.Philadelphia:TheUniversityMuseum,of Fitzgerald, G.M.Beth-ShanExcavations1921–1923:TheAraband For FurtherReading Many oftheLateAntiqueobjectsfromBethSheancan Director oftheCenterforAncientStudies. art andarchitecture.Prof.Ousterhoutisalso of PennsylvaniaandaspecialistinByzantine History of Art Department at the University robert ousterhoutisaProfessorinthe www.penn.museum/expedition 11