Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum Edited by Peter Schäfer (Princeton, NJ) Annette Y. Reed (Philadelphia, PA) Seth Schwartz (New York, NY) Azzan Yadin (New Brunswick, NJ) 127 Uzi Leibner Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Galilee An Archaeological Survey of the Eastern Galilee Mohr Siebeck Uzi Leibner, born 1970; PhD Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, Bar Ilan Univer- sity; Ramat Gan, Israel; 2006 Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship, Visiting Scholar at the Kelsey Museum of Classical Archaeology and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, Uni- versity of Michigan; 2007–2008 Mandel Research Position, the Scholion Inter disciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; since 2008 Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Published with the assistance of The Ruth Amiran Fund for Archaeological Research of the Land of Israel The Authority for Research and Development, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem A donation in memory of Simi Mastey and Alice Esses. This work is since 01/2020 licensed under the license “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). A complete version of the license text can be found at: https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16- 151460-9 ISBN 978-3-16-149871-8 ISSN 0721-8753 (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio- graphie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © 2009 by Mohr Siebeck Tübingen. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was typeset by Marzel A.S. – Jerusalem, printed by Gulde-Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. Preface This study had its beginnings over a decade ago in Professor David Adan- Bayewitz’s graduate seminar on Talmudic Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. As a topic, I proposed to investigate the history of one Galilean rural site, utilizing advanced field survey techniques and recent pottery studies, combined with an inquiry of the relevant literary sources. Thus began a fascinating journey into that region’s past, one that has continued to this day through surveys, excavations and historical research. The work, which began as a monograph about a single site, developed over the years into an extensive study covering a large portion of the Eastern Lower Galilee. Exploring Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Galilee, one becomes involved in several fields of scholarship: archaeology, history, geography and religious studies and deals with a variety of classical, Talmudic, ecclesiastic and liturgical sources. The interaction with researchers in these disciplines not only enriched my perspectives, but often forced me to rethink conclusions and attempt to rise above the “dry archaeological data.” Some remarks concerning conventions in this volume are in order. Due to its scope, an attempt has been made to use as few footnotes as possible. Throughout the text, abbreviations and shortened references have been utilized where possible. A list of abbreviations appears at the beginning of the volume and a bibliography at its end. For the ancient sources, scientific editions noted in the bibliography are referred to, except where stated otherwise. Page numbers in references to rabbinic literature follow the scholarly editions found in the bibliography. The text of this volume was completed in the summer of 2006 and the bibliography has not been systematically updated from the end of that year to the present. It is my pleasure to thank the many individuals who provided assistance during the years of research. First and foremost is Professor David Adan-Bayewitz – my dissertation director – who guided me through each phase, introduced me to the intricacies of pottery identification, and established high scientific standards which he helped me attain. Much of his wisdom and many of his comments are embedded in this work. Comments and information provided by fellow research- ers and colleagues proved useful in many phases of this project. Among these scholars are Chaim Ben-David, Ze’ev Safrai, Yoram Tsafrir, Eric Meyers, Douglas Edwards, Ze’ev Weiss, Danny Syon, Mordechai Aviam, Elhanan Reiner; and past and present staff members of the Israel Antiquities Authority: Moshe Hartal, Yardenna Alexandre, Haya Ben Nahum, ‘Abdullah Muqari, Yosef VI Preface Stepansky and Yitzhak Tor. Gerald Finkeilsztejn deciphered the Rhodian jar handles, Gabriela Bijovsky identified the numismatic finds, Yulia Rodman illus- trated the pottery and Donald T. Ariel provided access to the Israel Antiquities Authority’s numismatic files. Thanks also go to Samuel Wolff, Nimrod Getzov and Dina Avshalom-Gorni who provided assistance in identifying sherds from several sites belonging to periods both earlier and later than those covered by the present study. The home of Ofrit and Shai Barkai at Kibbutz Beit Rimmon became my second home for the entire survey season. Professors Ze’ev Safrai, Shim‘on Dar and Hanan Eshel, the heads of the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University, provided ongoing support and aid in obtaining the requisite funding. My sincere thanks go to Alan Paris for translation of this work into English and to Arieh Marzel for the typesetting. My thanks also go to my friends Michael Osband and Yuri Yomtov for their help in proofing during the final stages of this book’s preparation. I am grateful to Professors Peter Schäfer, Annette Y. Reed, Seth Schwartz and Azzan Yadin for accepting this manuscript for publication in the TSAJ series, and to Dr. Henning Ziebritzki and Ms. Tanja Mix of the Mohr Siebeck Publishing House for their assistance in preparing the volume for publication. This research would not have been possible without financial support provided by several institutions – the Bar-Ilan University President’s Doctoral Fellowship and the Rotenstreich Scholarship of the Israel Council for Higher Education. The work was also assisted by research grants from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and from the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeol- ogy at Bar-Ilan University. This book is a revised and expanded version of my Ph.D. dissertation in archae- ology (Leibner 2004). Work on the final version was carried out during my stay as a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan, at the invitation of Professors Sharon Herbert and John Cherry. Thanks are also due to the staff of the Kelsey Museum of Classical Archaeology and the University of Michigan Central Library. The support and encouragement of the staff at the Scholion Inter- disciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University and its director, Professor Israel Yuval, made the completion of this project possible. I extend my thanks to all of them. Finally, I would like to thank the members of my family. My parents, Gladys Leibner-Blassberg – who carefully read and corrected the manuscript – and the late Yehuda Leibner both of whom gave me a love for Jewish history and for the exploration of the Land of Israel. My wife Efrat and my daughters: Kinneret, ‘Einat, Re‘ut and Aluma, provided encouragement and support throughout the years and have tolerated my frequent absence from home. Institute of Archaeology The Hebrew University of Jerusalem September 2008 Contents Preface.........................................V Abbreviations ....................................XI Chapter 1: Introduction .............................1 Previous Archaeological Surveys.........................3 Excavations and Additional Archaeological Data from the Survey Area . 5 The History of Research concerning Settlement-History in the Galilee during the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods .............6 The History of Research on Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Pottery of the Galilee ....................................7 Chapter 2: Geographical Background ...................11 Geographical Background and Agricultural Potential ............11 Climate and Precipitation ............................13 Water Resources..................................13 The Road Network ................................14 Roman Roads ...................................17 Chapter 3: The Pottery .........................19 The Presentation of the Pottery .........................19 Hellenistic Period Pottery ............................21 Roman Period Pottery ..............................27 Byzantine Period Pottery .............................39 Division of Vessel Types from the Survey Findings into Periods ......48 Contribution of the Survey to Pottery Studies .................51 Chapter 4: Survey Methodology ...................59 Limitations of Archaeological Survey .....................60 Archaeological Methodology in this Study ..................61 VIII Contents Definition and Location of Sites.........................61