Nahman Avigad and Benjamin Mazar in Stern et al. (1993) report that all buildings in the city center of Beth She'arim were "destroyed and burned" at the end of Phase III, as indicated by "traces of destruction and conflagration visible everywhere." The precise date and cause of this destruction remain subjects of scholarly debate. A hoard of 1,200 coins found in the "conflagration level" of a "public building" provides a key chronological indicator. All coins belong to the reigns of Constantine I (306–337 CE) and Constantius II (337–361 CE). According to Mazar (1973:3), all coins were minted before 350 CE, while Avigad and Mazar emphasize that "no coin was found dated later than 351 CE." These data leave two plausible scenarios for the city’s destruction. The first links the event to the Roman suppression of the Gallus Revolt sometime between 351 and 353 CE, during which imperial forces sacked numerous Jewish settlements. The second associates it with seismic destruction from the northern Cyril Quake of 363 CE. Most earlier excavators — including Mazar (1973) and Avigad and Mazar (1993) — favor the Gallus Revolt explanation. However, Erlich (2018), who directed renewed excavations in 2014, argues that the town "was destroyed in the mid-4th century CE, perhaps by the 363 CE earthquake."