Hippos/Sussita

Transliterated Name	Language	Name
Hippos	Greek	Ἵππος
Antiochia Hippos	Greek	Αντιοχεία Ἵππος
Hippum	Latin
Sussita	Hebrew	סוסיתא
Sus	Hebrew	סוס
Sussita	Aramaic
Susiya	Early Islamic Arabic
Qal‘at al-Ḥuṣn	Arabic	قلعة الحصن

Introduction

Hippos-Sussita was one of the ten cities of the Decapolis. It declined during Byzantine and Early Arab periods and is believed to have been largely abandoned after it was badly damaged in one of the Sabbatical Year earthquakes. It is situated atop a flat topped ridge which overlooks the Sea of Galilee. Hippos Sussita appears to be subject to a topographic or ridge effect.

Identification and History

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

Antiochia Hippos (Sussita in Aramaic), one of the poleis of the Decapolis, is located 2 km east of the shores of the Sea of Galilee, in modern Israel. Situated on Mt. Sussita, which rises to a height of about 350 m above the lake, the city was cut off from its surroundings by three streams and could only be accessed through a topographic formation of a saddle (fig. 1) in the south-east and a winding path in the west¹. The city’s main construction materials were the two local stones: basalt and a soft calcrete/caliche (nari)².

Antiochia Hippos was founded after the Battle of Paneion (ca. 199 BC), either by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BC), or most probably by Antiochus III the Great (222–187 BC)³. After Pompey’s conquest in 64 BC, the city was incorporated into Provincia Syria. It flourished throughout the Roman period, being the only polis directly next to the Sea of Galilee from the east with a territorium expanding to all the southern Golan⁴. As early as mid-4th century AD, Hippos became the seat of a bishopric, and during the Byzantine period at least seven churches were built in the city. During the Early Islamic period, Hippos was replaced as a regional capital by Tiberias, situated on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee. In AD 749, just at the end of the Umayyad rule, Hippos was destroyed by an earthquake and never resettled.⁵

Footnotes

1 In Hippos, the saddle is the raised area that connects Mt. Sussita with the south-western hills of the Golan Heights.

2 Shtober-Zisu 2014.

3 Eisenberg 2014; Eisenberg 2016; Eisenberg 2017a.

4 Pažout – Eisenberg 2021.

5 For the historical geography of Hippos, see Dvorjetski 2014. For an updated summary see Eisenberg – Segal 2022.

Stern et al. (1993)

from Claire Epstein in Stern et. al. (1993 v.2)

Hippos, a Greek city, known in Arabic as Qal'at el-Husn, is situated some 2 km (1 mi.) east of the Sea of Galilee on a promontory rising 350 m above the sea (map reference 212.242). It was founded by the Seleucids in the Hellenistic period, possibly on the site of an earlier settlement. The town, known by its Greek name, Antiochia Hippos (hippos, "horse"), continued to exist until the Arab conquest. In Aramaic it was known as Sussita. It was conquered in one of the campaigns of Alexander Jannaeus (Syncellus, ed. Dindorf, I, 559). Pompey took it from the Jews (Josephus, Antiq. XIV, 75); according to Pliny (NHV, 74), it was one of the cities of the Decapolis (League of Ten Greek Cities). Augustus gave the city to Herod, much to the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants. After Herod's death it became part of the Province of Syria (Josephus, Antiq. XV, 217; XVII, 320; War I, 396; II, 97). During the First Revolt against Rome, the Jews attacked Hippos (War II, 459, 4 78). Jews from the city were among the defenders of Taricheae (Magdala) (War III, 542). The territory of Hippos extended down to the Sea of Galilee (Josephus, Life 31, 153), and the city was the sworn enemy of Jewish Tiberias on the opposite shore of the lake (Lam. Rab. 19), despite the trade connection between them (J.T., Shevi'it 8, 38a). Jewish villages east of the lake were included in the territory of Hippos and were exempt from tithes in the time of the patriarch Judah I, being considered beyond the frontiers of the land of Israel proper (Tosefta, Shevi'it 4:10; Tosefta, Ohal. 18:4). Remains of ancient synagogues have been found at Fiq (Aphek) and at Umm el-Qanatir, both of which lay within the territory of Hippos. In the Byzantine period, Hippos was the seat of a bishop, being one of the sees of Palaestina Secunda. Like many other towns in the Byzantine period, it enjoyed great prosperity, and many churches and public buildings were erected. The city was probably abandoned after the Arab conquest at the beginning of the seventh century. Isolated buildings were erected on its ruins in later times.

In the nineteenth century Hippos was identified with the neighboring village of Sussiya, which preserved the city's ancient name (Sussita), while Qal'at el-Husn, whose natural shape resembles a camel's hump, was considered to be the site of ancient Gamala. However, following recent surveys of the ruins at Qal'at el-Husn, its identification with Hippos is now generally accepted.

Surveys and Excavations

Survey

from Claire Epstein in Stern et. al. (1993 v.2)

With the settlement at 'En Gev in 1937, surface surveys were again carried out at Hippos by members of the kibbutz. These owed much to the earlier, thorough studies made by G. Schumacher during the latter part of the nineteenth century. However, the new information from observation on the spot, as well as from aerial photographs, made possible a reliable reconstruction of the city plan, on which the positions of its chief public buildings were correctly plotted.

Although Hippos is known to have been founded in the Hellenistic period, few remains from that time have been found, probably because of the comparatively small size of the Hellenistic town. The inhabitants were entirely dependent on a natural water supply, which was inadequate for a large population. After its conquest by Pompey in 63 BCE, Hippos, as one of the cities of the Decapolis, was rebuilt in accordance with standard contemporary town planning. The town plan, which had been preserved, is essentially that of the Roman period, although many buildings were erected later The streets of the city ran at right angles to one another over the length and breadth of the town, forming the characteristic insulae. The public buildings stood at the intersections of the important streets. Of these, the main street is easily distinguishable. It is paved with large basalt flagstones and runs from north-northeast to south-southwest through the center of the town. It is still in use today as a path. Halfway along the main street was the nymphaeum. Close to it was a large subterranean cistern with a vaulted roof and plastered walls and a flight of steps leading down to the water level. After the water had been brought to the nymphaeum and used in its ornamental fountains, it was collected in the cistern for further use. In Hippos, water was a valuable commodity; the main water supply was brought from some distance by a specially constructed aqueduct (see below). Not far from the cistern are Byzantine baths that also required a considerable amount of water.

Evidence that this town of the Decapolis had imposing buildings in Roman times can be seen in the many architectural remains strewn over the surface: massive red-granite column shafts, numerous capitals (Corinthian and Ionic), decorated pilasters, molded lintels, and carved cornices, many of which were reused in the Byzantine period. Most of these lie along the main street or in the center of the city.

The town wall has also been well preserved. It is provided with a number of towers at strategic points. The wall follows the contours of the hill and makes use of the natural cliff wherever possible. On the south side, sectors of the wall still stand to a considerable height, providing an excellent view of the Roman road that ascends from the lakeside through Wadi Jamusiyeh (Nahal Sussita). It is very likely that there was a harbor of some kind at the point where this valley opens upon the lake and where the Roman road coming from the city turned south to continue along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Evidence of such a harbor may be seen in the heaps of stones extending for some distance into the water at this spot.

At the eastern end of Wadi Jamusiyeh is a small promontory or bluff in which there are caves containing niches, stone sarcophagi, ornamented tomb doors, and other evidence of burials. This was doubtless one of the places the people of Hippos used as a cemetery, other graves having been found in the west, also outside the city walls.

Early Excavations

from Claire Epstein in Stern et. al. (1993 v.2)

Excavations were carried out at Hippos by C. Epstein (1950-1955), M. Avi-Yonah (195l), A. Shulman(1951), and E. Anati (l952), on behalf of the lsrael Department of Antiquities.

Renewed Excavations

from Arthur Segal in Stern et. al. (2008)

Following an urban survey of the site in 1999, a large-scale archaeological project, planned to include at least ten seasons of excavation, was inaugurated at Hippos (Sussita). The project is directed by A. Segal, under the auspices of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa. Assisting in the direction of the expedition during the seasons reported were J. Mlynarczyk of the Polish Academy of Sciences and M. Burdajewicz of the National Museum in Warsaw. In the summer of 2002, the third season of excavation, the expedition was joined by a group from Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota, headed by M. Schuler.

Maps, Aerial Views, Plans, Drawings, and Photos

Maps

Normal Size

Fig. 26 Streams and springs

Fig. 26

Geographical settings of the Sussita region. For transect T-T' see fig. 32 below.

Segal et al. (2013)

around Hippos Sussita from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 28 Geologic Map of
Fig. 28

Geological map of the Sussita region and main rock formations (Fm.); modified after a Geological Survey, 2008.
- Emr- Eocene Maresha Fm.
- Of- Fiq Fm.
- Os- Sussita Fm.
- Me- En Gev Fm.
- Mh- Hordos Fm.
- Mβl- Lower Basalt Fm.
- Mbi- Bira Fm.
- Pg- Gesher Fm.
- Pβc Cover Basalt
- Al-Alluvium
Segal et al. (2013)
Hippos Sussita from Segal et al. (2013)

Magnified

Fig. 26 Streams and springs

Fig. 26

Geographical settings of the Sussita region. For transect T-T' see fig. 32 below.

Segal et al. (2013)

around Hippos Sussita from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 28 Geologic Map of
Fig. 28

Geological map of the Sussita region and main rock formations (Fm.); modified after a Geological Survey, 2008.
- Emr- Eocene Maresha Fm.
- Of- Fiq Fm.
- Os- Sussita Fm.
- Me- En Gev Fm.
- Mh- Hordos Fm.
- Mβl- Lower Basalt Fm.
- Mbi- Bira Fm.
- Pg- Gesher Fm.
- Pβc Cover Basalt
- Al-Alluvium
Segal et al. (2013)
Hippos Sussita from Segal et al. (2013)

Aerial Views

Normal Size

Annotated Aerial View of

Annotated Aerial View of Hippos Sussita

Segal et al. (2013)

Hippos Sussita from Segal et al. (2013)
Hippos-Sussita in Google Earth

Hippos-Sussita

click on image to explore this site on a new tab in Google Earth
Hippos-Sussita on govmap.gov.il

Hippos-Sussita

click on image to explore this site on a new tab in govmap.gov.il

Magnified

Annotated Aerial View of

Annotated Aerial View of Hippos Sussita

Segal et al. (2013)

Hippos Sussita from Segal et al. (2013)

Plans

Site Plans

Normal Size

Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Plan of Hippos Sussita

Used with permission from BibleWalks.com

from BibleWalks.com
Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Hippos: plan of the site.

Stern et. al. (2008)

from Stern et. al. (2008)
Fig. 3 - Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Figure 3

Hippos, a plan with main building complexes and excavation areas

(M. Eisenberg and I. Nakas)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

with excavation areas from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 1 - Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Figure 1

Plan of the site showing the main excavated areas.

Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

with excavation areas from Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 150 Illustration of

Fig. 150

Hippos, a suggested artistic reconstruction of the city during the Roman period and the ancient road leading to the Sussita saddle ridge.

Segal et al. (2013)

a suggested artistic reconstruction of the Hippos Sussita during the Roman period from Segal et al. (2013)

Magnified

Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Plan of Hippos Sussita

Used with permission from BibleWalks.com

from BibleWalks.com
Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Hippos: plan of the site.

Stern et. al. (2008)

from Stern et. al. (2008)
Fig. 3 - Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Figure 3

Hippos, a plan with main building complexes and excavation areas

(M. Eisenberg and I. Nakas)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

with excavation areas from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 1 - Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Figure 1

Plan of the site showing the main excavated areas.

Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

with excavation areas from Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 150 Illustration of

Fig. 150

Hippos, a suggested artistic reconstruction of the city during the Roman period and the ancient road leading to the Sussita saddle ridge.

Segal et al. (2013)

a suggested artistic reconstruction of the Hippos Sussita during the Roman period from Segal et al. (2013)

Area Plans

Various locations

Normal Size

Aerial Photo and plan

Hippos: aerial photograph and plan of the site

Stern et. al. (2008)

of central Hippos from Stern et. al. (2008)
Plan of the Forum,

Plan of the Forum. Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church

Segal and Eisenberg (2007)

Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church from Segal and Eisenberg (2007)
Fig. 9.7 Aerial View
Fig. 9.7

A vertical view towards the northern part of the Hellenistic Compound and the North-West Church built in its centre.
- W — wine production
- B — bread production/cooking
- 0 — olive oil production
(M. Eisenberg).

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
of northern part of the Hellenistic Compound and the North-West Church from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
Fig. 9 - Aerial View

Figure 9

The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model.

Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

of the Cathedral from Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 3 - Aerial Photo

Figure 3

VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HIPPOS CITY CENTER

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of Hippos City Center from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 4 - Aerial Photo

Figure 4

VERTICAL AERIAL OF THE BASILICA AND ITS ENVIRONS

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021)

Magnified

Aerial Photo and plan

Hippos: aerial photograph and plan of the site

Stern et. al. (2008)

of central Hippos from Stern et. al. (2008)
Plan of the Forum,

Plan of the Forum. Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church

Segal and Eisenberg (2007)

Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church from Segal and Eisenberg (2007)
Fig. 9.7 Aerial View
Fig. 9.7

A vertical view towards the northern part of the Hellenistic Compound and the North-West Church built in its centre.
- W — wine production
- B — bread production/cooking
- 0 — olive oil production
(M. Eisenberg).

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
of northern part of the Hellenistic Compound and the North-West Church from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
Fig. 9 - Aerial View

Figure 9

The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model.

Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

of the Cathedral from Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 3 - Aerial Photo

Figure 3

VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HIPPOS CITY CENTER

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of Hippos City Center from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 4 - Aerial Photo

Figure 4

VERTICAL AERIAL OF THE BASILICA AND ITS ENVIRONS

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021)

Northeast Church

Normal Size

Plan of Northeast Church

Northeast church

Stern et. al. (2008)

from Stern et. al. (2008)
Fig. 26 - Plan of the northeast Church

Figure 26

Hippos, North-East Church, schematic plan showing walls and loci

Segal et al (2004)

from Segal et al (2004)

Magnified

Plan of Northeast

Northeast church

Stern et. al. (2008)

Church from Stern et. al. (2008)
Fig. 26 - Plan of

Figure 26

Hippos, North-East Church, schematic plan showing walls and loci

Segal et al (2004)

the northeast Church from Segal et al (2004)

Northwest Church

Normal Size

Fig. 255 Aerial View of

Fig. 255

Northwest Church Complex. Aerial view.

Segal et al. (2013)

the Northwest Church Complex from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 256 General plan of

Fig. 256

General plan of the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls mentioned in the text.

Segal et al. (2013)

the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 16 - Plan of the

Figure 16

plan of of the North-West Church (2000-2004)

Segal et al (2004)

northwest Church from Segal et al (2004)

Magnified

Fig. 255 Aerial View of

Fig. 255

Northwest Church Complex. Aerial view.

Segal et al. (2013)

the Northwest Church Complex from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 256 General plan of

Fig. 256

General plan of the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls mentioned in the text.

Segal et al. (2013)

the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 16 - Plan of the

Figure 16

plan of of the North-West Church (2000-2004)

Segal et al (2004)

northwest Church from Segal et al (2004)

Basilica

Normal Size

Fig. 3 - Aerial Photo

Figure 3

VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HIPPOS CITY CENTER

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of Hippos City Center from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 4 - Aerial Photo

Figure 4

VERTICAL AERIAL OF THE BASILICA AND ITS ENVIRONS

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 5 - Plan of the
Figure 5

THE BASILICA
1. A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES
2. A SCHEMATIC PLAN
(Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)
Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 6 - Aerial Photo

Figure 6

THE BASILICA, AN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH TOWARDS SOUTHWEST. THE ARROW IS MARKING THE CAVITY IN THE BASALT BEDROCK

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica towards the SW from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 7 - Southern part

Figure 7

THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE BASILICA. NOTE THE PREBASILICA STYLOBATE FOUNDATION ON THE BOTTOM AND NARI AND BASALT WALLS IN THE CENTER. A VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 18 - Suggested Reconstruction
Figure 18

HIPPOS’ BASILICA SUGGESTED RECONSTRUCTIONS:
1. SECTION OF THE NORTHERN SIDE
2. LENGTH SECTION
3. SIDE VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN FACADE
(Y. NAKAS)

Eisenberg (2021)
of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 19 - Suggested Reconstruction

Figure 19

HIPPOS’ BASILICA, A SUGGESTED RECONSTRUCTION. VIEW TOWARDS NORTHEAST

(Y. NAKAS)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 20 - Suggested Reconstruction

Figure 20

HIPPOS’ BASILICA, A SUGGESTED RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INTERIOR. VIEW TOWARDS NORTH

(Y. NAKAS)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the interior of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)

Magnified

Fig. 3 - Aerial Photo

Figure 3

VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HIPPOS CITY CENTER

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of Hippos City Center from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 4 - Aerial Photo

Figure 4

VERTICAL AERIAL OF THE BASILICA AND ITS ENVIRONS

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 5 - Plan of the
Figure 5

THE BASILICA
1. A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES
2. A SCHEMATIC PLAN
(Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)
Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 6 - Aerial Photo

Figure 6

THE BASILICA, AN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH TOWARDS SOUTHWEST. THE ARROW IS MARKING THE CAVITY IN THE BASALT BEDROCK

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica towards the SW from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 7 - Southern part

Figure 7

THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE BASILICA. NOTE THE PREBASILICA STYLOBATE FOUNDATION ON THE BOTTOM AND NARI AND BASALT WALLS IN THE CENTER. A VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)

Saddle Necropolis

Normal Size

Fig. 1 - Annotated Aerial
Figure 1

Mt. Sussita and its environs with the three necropoleis and the Saddle Necropolis monuments indicated:
1. funerary podia
2. Lion’s Mausoleum
3. Flowers Mausoleum
4. Burial Cave A
5. sarcophagi field
6. ditch
7. Burial Cave B
drone view towards north (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
View of Hippos-Sussita necropoleis from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 2 - Aerial View

Figure 2

Drone’s view towards west looking at the Lion’s Mausoleum (left), the Flowers Mausoleum (right), and Burial Cave A beneath them (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of Lion’s Mausoleum and the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 3 - Aerial View

Figure 3

The Flowers Mausoleum and the perimeter wall of the Lion’s Mausoleum at the end of excavations; vertical view from the photogrammetric model (photo and modeling M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of Flowers Mausoleum and perimeter wall of the Lion’s Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 5 - architectural fragments

Figure 5

The Flowers Mausoleum northern wall and architectural fragments at its foot during excavations; view towards east (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 8 - Artist's reconstruction

Figure 8

An artistic reconstruction of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis with the funerary podia series and the two mausolea (Y. Nakas and M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

Magnified

Fig. 1 - Annotated Aerial
Figure 1

Mt. Sussita and its environs with the three necropoleis and the Saddle Necropolis monuments indicated:
1. funerary podia
2. Lion’s Mausoleum
3. Flowers Mausoleum
4. Burial Cave A
5. sarcophagi field
6. ditch
7. Burial Cave B
drone view towards north (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
View of Hippos-Sussita necropoleis from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 2 - Aerial View

Figure 2

Drone’s view towards west looking at the Lion’s Mausoleum (left), the Flowers Mausoleum (right), and Burial Cave A beneath them (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of Lion’s Mausoleum and the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 3 - Aerial View

Figure 3

The Flowers Mausoleum and the perimeter wall of the Lion’s Mausoleum at the end of excavations; vertical view from the photogrammetric model (photo and modeling M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of Flowers Mausoleum and perimeter wall of the Lion’s Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 5 - architectural fragments

Figure 5

The Flowers Mausoleum northern wall and architectural fragments at its foot during excavations; view towards east (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 8 - Artist's reconstruction

Figure 8

An artistic reconstruction of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis with the funerary podia series and the two mausolea (Y. Nakas and M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

Photos

Normal Size

Fig. 4 - Column drums

Figure 4

The southeastern side of the Basilica at Hippos. Some of the columns are partly reconstructed, while the drums in the eastern aisle rest in their original position following the 363 CE earthquake. Looking south.

(M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

in Basilica in original position after 363 CE Quake from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 6 - Southern part

Figure 6

Hippos, the southern part of the Southern Bathhouse. On the left is the cold room (frigidarium) and a pool, and to its right a furnace room (praefurnium) that was covered by several meters high refuse dump that does not postdate the late 3rd century CE.

(M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

of southern bathhouse from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 7 - Saddle Propylaeum

Figure 7

Hippos, the Saddle Propylaeum looking northwest. The staircase and the reused pavement (0.51 m above the original gate pavement) were built after the 363 CE earthquake.

(M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 5 - architectural fragments

Figure 5

The Flowers Mausoleum northern wall and architectural fragments at its foot during excavations; view towards east (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 267 Collapsed Mosaic

Fig. 267

Mosaic floor of the gallery [of the Northwest Church] as collapsed on the floor of the southern aisle, at its eastern end.

Segal et al. (2013)

floor in the Northwest Church from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 281 Mosaic repairs

Fig. 281

The mosaic under the arched entrance to the southern pastophorion (the martyrion chapel) with evidence of repairs.

Segal et al. (2013)

in the Northwest Church which may have been a response to seismic damage from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 9.6 Collapsed Columns

Fig. 9.6

The northern portico of the forum with monolithic column shafts (toppled in AD 749) lying on the forum pavers, with the kalybe temple and Sea of Galilee in the far west (M. Eisenberg) JW: Columns not in original post quake position - see Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:n. 26)

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

of the northern portico of the forum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025). Collapse ocurred in the mid-8th century CE.
Fig. 9.9 Umayyad-period

Fig. 9.9

The Umayyad-period structure in the eastern part of the basilica arce. View towards the south. Note the secondary use of the civic basilica architectural fragments at the corner foundations reaching the civic basilica floor level (M. Eisenberg)

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

structure in the eastern part of the basilica arce from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
Fig. 9.12 Collapsed Columns

Fig. 9.12

A vertical extract from a photogrammetric model of the cathedral (M. Eisenberg)

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

of the Cathedral from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
Fig. 9.15 Blocked Doorway

Fig. 9.15

One of the doorways at the Northeast Insula blocked prior to AD 749. View towards the south-west (M. Eisenberg)

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

at the Northeast Insula from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

Magnified

Fig. 4 - Column drums

Figure 4

The southeastern side of the Basilica at Hippos. Some of the columns are partly reconstructed, while the drums in the eastern aisle rest in their original position following the 363 CE earthquake. Looking south.

(M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

in Basilica in original position after 363 CE Quake from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 6 - Southern part

Figure 6

Hippos, the southern part of the Southern Bathhouse. On the left is the cold room (frigidarium) and a pool, and to its right a furnace room (praefurnium) that was covered by several meters high refuse dump that does not postdate the late 3rd century CE.

(M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

of southern bathhouse from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 7 - Saddle Propylaeum

Figure 7

Hippos, the Saddle Propylaeum looking northwest. The staircase and the reused pavement (0.51 m above the original gate pavement) were built after the 363 CE earthquake.

(M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022)
Fig. 5 - architectural fragments

Figure 5

The Flowers Mausoleum northern wall and architectural fragments at its foot during excavations; view towards east (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 267 Collapsed Mosaic

Fig. 267

Mosaic floor of the gallery [of the Northwest Church] as collapsed on the floor of the southern aisle, at its eastern end.

Segal et al. (2013)

floor in the Northwest Church from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 281 Mosaic repairs

Fig. 281

The mosaic under the arched entrance to the southern pastophorion (the martyrion chapel) with evidence of repairs.

Segal et al. (2013)

in the Northwest Church which may have been a response to seismic damage from Segal et al. (2013)
Fig. 9.6 Collapsed Columns

Fig. 9.6

The northern portico of the forum with monolithic column shafts (toppled in AD 749) lying on the forum pavers, with the kalybe temple and Sea of Galilee in the far west (M. Eisenberg) JW: Columns not in original post quake position - see Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:n. 26).

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

of the northern portico of the forum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025). Collapse ocurred in the mid-8th century CE.
Fig. 9.9 Umayyad-period

Fig. 9.9

The Umayyad-period structure in the eastern part of the basilica arce. View towards the south. Note the secondary use of the civic basilica architectural fragments at the corner foundations reaching the civic basilica floor level (M. Eisenberg)

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

structure in the eastern part of the basilica arce from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
Fig. 9.12 Collapsed Columns

Fig. 9.12

A vertical extract from a photogrammetric model of the cathedral (M. Eisenberg)

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

of the Cathedral from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)
Fig. 9.15 Blocked Doorway

Fig. 9.15

One of the doorways at the Northeast Insula blocked prior to AD 749. View towards the south-west (M. Eisenberg)

Click on image to open in a new tab

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

at the Northeast Insula from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

Phasing

Basilica

from Eisenberg (2021:157-162)

Phase	Date	Comments
Pre-basilica Building Phases		Hippos’ Roman basilica stood on naturally almost flat basalt bedrock that extended east of the rectangular temenos of the HLC (Figs. 2 – 6). This area was occupied by other structures before the erection of the basilica in the 1st century CE (Figs. 4 – 5).
A	late 4th – early 2nd century BCE	Scattered pottery sherds of the late 4th century and mainly 3rd century BCE were found in numerous loci above the bedrock, particularly abundant in the northern part of the area, in the west, adjacent to the eastern HLC wall 10, and in the south inside a cavity (L2347) covered by a Phase-D wall (W2232, Figs. 5 – 6). The cavity also produced four out of nine of the coins dated to the 3rd–2nd century BCE from the area of the basilica (Table 1). Phase A represents the earliest remains of settlement at Hippos¹¹. Similar Ptolemaic-period pottery types and coins were recovered in the neighboring HLC probes.¹² Footnotes 11 Excluding the traces of Chalcolithic activity in various areas around the site and the one instance of Iron Age (11th century BCE) pottery discovered in the above mentioned cavity L2347. 12 Eisenberg 2017a, 59 – 64.
B	ca. mid-2nd century BCE	Probes all over the basilica area revealed pottery and a few coins dated to ca. mid-2nd century BCE (Table 1)¹³. Also part of this phase are several plaster installations for liquids, located in the northern side of the area, and probably also two cisterns and three silos (Figs. 4 – 7). The silos and cisterns adapted natural cavities in the basalt bedrock and they were plastered with a thick layer of high-quality white hydraulic plaster. Their function was recognized based on their shape, depth and the analysis of pollen from the plaster. The silos’ plastersamples contained 65% and 54% of cerealis (grain) pollen¹⁴. Some installations were rendered out of use when the eastern HLC wall (W1151) was constructed on top of them. Other installations were blocked not later than Phase D – the Early Roman period¹⁵. Footnotes 13 Kapitaikin 2018, 91 – 92. 14 The data was reported by P. S. Geyer, who took and analyzed the samples in 2015 (not published). 15 Eisenberg 2017a, 63.
C	late 2nd – mid-1st century BCE	This phase represents the activity from the time of construction and use of the HLC temenos walls¹⁶: plaster floors exposed to the east of the HLC that clearly adjoin the eastern temenos wall (W1151), patched plaster floors exposed in the northeast and southern parts of the area, and a tower-like structure (W3054, W3095, W3065)¹⁷ in the northwest corner of the area, on the edge of the cliff, built against the HLC eastern wall (W1151, Figs. 4 – 6). Some of the Phase B silos and cistern continued in use. The important finds that most probably should be assigned to this phase (although they could also be of an earlier date) are three Doric capitals and four engaged drums found reused in buttresses, constructed on the northern cliff edge for support of the basilica (W2278 and W3204, Fig. 8). Additional eroded architectural elements, apparently from the same structure, were salvaged in the same area too. All the ashlars are made of local soft caliche (nari) and bear remnants of stucco. These elements were part of one of the first public buildings at Hippos¹⁸. Footnotes 16 Kapitaikin 2018, 91 – 93. 17 The tower-like structure has an inner nari frame of walls (W3053, W3080, W3063) adjacent to the basalt walls. The function of the structure is unclear, but its dating is suggested by the use of bossed corner ashlars identical to the ones of the HLC walls. 18 Eisenberg 2016, 5; Peleg-Barkat 2017, 150 – 51.
D	last third of the 1st century BCE – early 1st century CE	Several wall foundations in nari and basalt are attributed to this phase. The walls are concentrated in the central southern part of the area and in the west, along the HLC eastern wall (W1151). Some of the walls are cut by the western stylobate of the basilica (W2358, Figs. 5 – 7, 9). Only two or three coins are assigned to this phase (Table 1), but the pottery is abundant, found in almost all the fills inside the cavities in the bedrock, sealed by the basilica’s plaster floors¹⁹. The nature of the structure/s to which these walls belonged is unclear. The most curious is W2227 – a ca. 20 m long basalt wall foundation, which runs parallel to the basilica’s western stylobate (W2358), and at the same time almost parallel to the eastern HLC wall, 2.70 m (in the north) to 3.0 m (in the south) away from it (Figs. 5 – 7). W2227 is ca. 1.0 m wide, built of partially dressed basalt ashlars on the outer faces, with medium-sized basalt stones in the core. This building technique is similar to that used for some other walls in the central southern part of the area. Five rectangular foundations (EPW1–5, some ca. 1.5 x 1.3 m and some ca. 1.7 x 1.4 m) were built adjacent to W2227 at intervals of 1.7 – 2.0 m (Fig. 5). The intervals were filled with reinforcing walls 0.6 m wide. Each of the foundations almost adjoints its corresponding basilica pedestal. The sixth foundation (EPW6) was located 6.5 m north of EPW1, above W3095. These pre-basilica walls and rectangular foundations must have been part of a public building. All efforts to locate additional walls of this structure to the east were in vain. It is tempting to interpret the rectangular foundations as podia of the colonnade of an earlier basilica. Since the foundations abut W2227, this wall could not have been part of the superstructure of the earlier basilica – the earlier basilica western wall would have to be located further west, within the HLC (no such wall was located) or directly on top of the remains of the eastern HLC wall (W1151, ca. 2.9 m away from the speculative podia; but this wall has only three securely identified layers – the original Hellenistic, late-1st-century CE connected to the basilica, and Byzantine). The existence of a pre-basilica public structure is supported by the find of seven fragments of large basalt Ionic capitals, recovered from fills and reused in the foundations of the basilica (B7411; Fig. 10). Based on the diameter of the fully preserved volute, the capital belonged to a column 0.78 m in diameter (for comparison, the basilica columns were 0.80 m in diameter). Footnotes 19 Kapitaikin 2018, 91 – 94. 18 Eisenberg 2016, 5; Peleg-Barkat 2017, 150 – 51.

Dove-Shaped Pendant Earthquake - 361-380s CE

Plans, Drawings, and Aerial Views

Fig. 1 - Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Figure 1

Plan of the site showing the main excavated areas.

Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

with excavation areas from Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 5 - Plan of the
Figure 5

THE BASILICA
1. A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES
2. A SCHEMATIC PLAN
(Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)
Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 5 - Plan of the
Figure 5

THE BASILICA
1. A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES
2. A SCHEMATIC PLAN
(Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)
Basilica and environs from Eisenberg (2021) - magnified
Fig. 6 - Aerial Photo

Figure 6

THE BASILICA, AN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH TOWARDS SOUTHWEST. THE ARROW IS MARKING THE CAVITY IN THE BASALT BEDROCK

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica towards the SW from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 7 - Southern part

Figure 7

THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE BASILICA. NOTE THE PREBASILICA STYLOBATE FOUNDATION ON THE BOTTOM AND NARI AND BASALT WALLS IN THE CENTER. A VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH

(M. EISENBERG)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 18 - Suggested Reconstruction
Figure 18

HIPPOS’ BASILICA SUGGESTED RECONSTRUCTIONS:
1. SECTION OF THE NORTHERN SIDE
2. LENGTH SECTION
3. SIDE VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN FACADE
(Y. NAKAS)

Eisenberg (2021)
of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 19 - Suggested Reconstruction

Figure 19

HIPPOS’ BASILICA, A SUGGESTED RECONSTRUCTION. VIEW TOWARDS NORTHEAST

(Y. NAKAS)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 20 - Suggested Reconstruction

Figure 20

HIPPOS’ BASILICA, A SUGGESTED RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INTERIOR. VIEW TOWARDS NORTH

(Y. NAKAS)

Eisenberg (2021)

of the interior of the Basilica from Eisenberg (2021)

Discussion

References

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

Archaeoseismology at Hippos

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)

The archaeological data from over twenty-four years of field research at Hippos points to two clear earthquake catastrophes — in AD 363 and AD 749. Remains of additional recorded earthquakes, like the one of AD 551, were not yet identified with any certainty.¹⁴ Hippos, and more precisely its cathedral (see below), were the centre of several archaeoseismological studies, showing that the hill formation amplified the earthquake’s magnitude.¹⁵ The last study summarizing the data for Hippos and from around the Sea of Galilee was published in 2018.¹⁶

During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground.¹⁷ Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum, and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse,¹⁸ and perhaps also the odeion,¹⁹ the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus.²⁰ The only skeletal remains clearly related to the AD 363 earthquake damage were found in one spot under the collapsed roofing of the basilica.²¹ Post-AD 363 Hippos was a city very different from its Roman predecessor, full of churches that partly replaced the Roman public complexes.²²

The earthquake on 18 January AD 749, centred along the DST, caused catastrophic damage to the entire region. Its precise extent is still debated, but most researchers agree on its major moment magnitude of over 7.²³

Footnotes

14 The AD 551 earthquake, which originated on the Lebanese coast, is attested in historical sources (Shteinati, Darawcheh, and Moury 2005, 537–39; Russell 1985, 44–46) and occasionally in the archaeoseismological record (Wechsler et al. 2018, 18).

15 Hinzen 2009.

16 Wechsler et al. 2018.

17 For the AD 363 earthquake see, e.g., Russell 1980; Levenson 2013; Wechsler et al. 2018; Zohar, Salamon, and Rubin 2017, as well as Eisenberg and Osband 2024 for the Hippos territorium and beyond.

18 Kowalewska (forthcoming). The Southern Bathhouse was mostly abandoned already some years before the AD 363 earth- quake, but it seems that the shocks collapsed at least some parts of the underfloor heating system. The walls of the bathhouse mostly survived this earthquake and collapsed only much later, in the AD 749 earthquake or after.

19 Segal 2014b; Eisenberg and Segal 2022, 350–51.

20 Eisenberg and Segal 2022, 315–53.

21 Eisenberg 2021a, 1–43; (forthcoming); Darin and May (forth- coming).

22 Eisenberg 2021a, 176, 181.

23 Zohar, Salamon, and Rubin 2017; Russell 1985; Wechsler et al. 2018; Tsafrir and Foerster 1992; Marco et al. 2003; Ambraseys 2005; Nur and Burgess 2008; Ferrario et al. 2020.

The Archaeological Record of the Umayyad Period and the AD 749 Earthquake at Hippos

The City Centre

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:145,147)

Following the AD 363 earthquake, the large area of the collapsed civic basilica (55 x 30 m) to the north-east of the forum was not replaced by any other public construction.²⁴ The forum, also significantly damaged in AD 363, was rearranged and parts of its surrounding porticoes and the plaza continued to function into the Umayyad period with simple constructions (probably shops) built on the Roman-period basalt pavement (Fig. 9.5).²⁵ At least the eastern part of the northern portico and the eastern portico most probably still stood when the AD 749 earthquake hit and toppled their columns at a uniform angle onto the forum pavers (Figs 9.6–9.7).²⁶

The Hellenistic Compound to the north of the forum was completely restructured in the Byzantine period — the North-West Church (NWC, see below) was built on top of the foundations of the Roman temple. From the Late Byzantine–Early Islamic period until the AD 749 destruction, the church was surrounded by installations for wine, bread, and olive oil production.²⁷ The three wine presses attest to the continuance of a dominant Christian presence into the Umayyad period (Fig. 9.7).

Footnotes

24 Eisenberg 2021a; (forthcoming).

25 Mesistrano 2014.

26 Four grey granite column shafts, 4.7 m tall, from the forum colonnades were arranged in a curving line in the middle of the forum as a sheep pen after the town's destruction (Mesistrano 2014, 160). Similar scarcely reused remains without any real construction were noted in a few places over the mount. These shafts and the kalybe temple were the only visible remains in the city centre prior to the 2000s excavations. The kalybe, built of basalt as one block without an inner chamber, survived the AD 363 earthquake and was only partly damaged through the next millennium. During the site's development by the NPA in 2022 most of the column shafts were removed from the plaza and put to the south of the remains of the southern portico.

27 Frankel and Eisenberg 2018.

The Saddle Necropolis

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:154)

The Saddle Necropolis is the most prominent of the city's three necropoleis, and the only one that has been excavated. The funerary monuments mainly concentrate on the eastern side of the saddle up to the ditch in the middle of the saddle (Fig. 9.3). The extensive excavations of the Saddle Necropolis, including rock-cut cist tombs, sarcophagi, two burial caves, a series of funerary podia, and two mausolea, made it evident that it had been completely destroyed in the AD 363 earthquake. No substantial burial activity occurred here afterwards.⁴⁶

Footnotes

46 Eisenberg 2021b; Eisenberg and Kowalewska 2022; 2024; Kowalewska and Eisenberg 20216; 2023.

Eisenberg and Osband (2022)

The Basilica - contains 363 CE earthquake evidence

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022:160)

The basilica, located north of the forum, was the largest roofed building in Hippos' cityscape (56 x 31 m), built at the end of the 1st century CE (Fig. 3). The basilica was almost entirely excavated and published, allowing a clear chronological sequence. It was destroyed in the earthquake of 363 CE, never to be rebuilt, and serves as one of the best large-scale excavated datable examples in Israel for the earthquake. Dating was mainly based on coin finds, the collapse of the structure, skeletal remains beneath the roofing debris and the stratigraphy that showed a floor ca. 380 CE built above the southern part of the basilica debris (not included in Table 1) (Eisenberg 2021a: 162- 173; Eisenberg forthcoming; Segal 2014a). Though most of the basilica was excavated, the amount of finds from daily life is strikingly low, including the absence of fragments of statues that would have stood on the numerous podia. The pottery, wall paintings and stucco unearthed (Kapitaikin 2018; Rozenberg 2018: 335- 344) indicate a similar chronology for the last stages of the basilica activity. Rozenberg dates the wall painting and stucco not later than the 3rd century CE. The structure was intact until 363 CE, but the excavators consider that for some reason it was not at its full function some years before the earthquake as the basilica debris did not include any finds of broken marble statues or any significant amounts of small finds that would attest to a sudden destruction of an active public building (Fig. 4. Eisenberg forthcoming).¹² No other public building was built in its place.

Footnotes

12 There are clear signs of post-363 CE architectural items salvaging, mainly in the northern part of the basilica, but in some parts heavy marble and basalt architectural elements were left as part of the earthquake debris.

The Odeion - dies not contain 363 CE earthquake evidence

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022:161)

The Odeion, located west of the forum (Fig. 3), was built shortly after the basilica in the early 2nd century CE (Eisenberg and Segal 2022: 350- 351; Kapitaikin 2018: 95; Rozenberg 2018: 3443 51; Segal 2014b ).¹⁴ The precise date of abandonment is unclear but occurred within the 4 th century. The building was fully excavated and published. It revealed no clear evidence of the 363 CE destruction and it was flattened to the core of the lowest tier of seating during the 4th century (Fig. 5). The evidence, mainly the lack of any finds in the orchestra and passages, burnt and collapsed debris as well as the absence of roof tiles, suggests that the building was almost fully dismantled before the 363 CE earthquake.¹⁵ The coins above the hyposcaenium floor date up to the end of the 4th century (383-392 CE) but the stage-area strata are mixed with post-odeion activity (Table 2). As with the basilica, no major construction took place in the odeion area after the 4th century.

Footnotes

14 Any doubt that the structure was an odeion and not a "small theater" was eliminated once the entire building was exposed. The building features a stage, very thick walls to accommodate roofing and lacks drainage in the orchestra. It was one of the smallest of its kind in the Roman world. The discovery and excavations of the Hippos theater from 2016 ended any doubts concerning the definition of the structure.

15 The excavators stressed the lack of roof tiles within the odeion debris. Total or almost total lack of roof tiles even in a larger complexes that undoubtedly would have been tile-roofed, apparently because they were carefully removed following the building's destruction, are attested (e.g., the very small fragments of roof tiles in the debris of the large Nysa-Scythopolis basilica following its collapse in the 363 CE earthquake and signs of subsequent salvaging (Di Segni, Foerester, and Tsafrir 1999: 64).

The Saddle Compound- Propylaeum and Theater - contains 363 CE earthquake evidence

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022:164)

An extra muros public compound (170 x 60 m), perhaps a sanctuary, was built along the northwestern part of the saddle that connects Mount Sussita to its surroundings (Fig. 3). The compound was built at the peak of the city's growth in the early 2nd century CE, and was destroyed and largely ceased operation following the 363 CE earthquake. In partial excavation so far, a monumental gate (Propylaeum) with a pool above it, public bathhouse and a theater have been discovered (Eisenberg 2019b: 96-100; Eisenberg and Segal 2022: 351). No rebuilding was attested nor did any new buildings replace the Saddle Compound constructions.

The Saddle Propylaeum - contains 363 CE earthquake evidence

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022:164)

The monumental gate was built at the southern entrance to the Saddle Compound (Fig. 3). Most of the gate area and a purification (?) pool above it were excavated and published (Eisenberg 2019b). The gate was built in the early 2nd century CE and destroyed in the 363 CE earthquake. In the 380s it was very partially reconstructed for dwelling and never rebuilt (Fig. 7). Twenty coins were located in the gate area including the pool above it. Six are dated to 350- 361 CE and two others to the 4th century. Interestingly, none are late Byzantine; the latest coin is dated to 498518 CE. The pottery found in the pool pre-dated the 4th century.²⁰

Footnotes

20 Pottery from the pool was read by V. Lechem and not yet published.

The Saddle Theater - contains 363 CE earthquake evidence

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022:165)

Small-scale excavations at the Saddle Theater, located on the northern edge of the Saddle Compound (Fig. 3) were initiated in 2017 (Eisenberg 2019a; Kowalewska and Eisenberg 2021). Like the other building complexes in the Saddle Compound, the theater was built during the early 2nd century CE and destroyed during the 363 CE earthquake. At least part of the theater was rebuilt in the 6th century, but apparently not for use in its original function.

The Saddle Necropolis - Mausolea and Funerary Podia - contains 363 CE earthquake evidence

from Eisenberg and Osband (2022:165-166)

The Saddle Necropolis stretched for ca. 150 m from the south, where it met the Roman road, to the north, and ended with a defense ditch cut in the middle of the saddle (Fig. 3). It incorporated dozens of limestone and basalt sarcophagi, pit graves cut into the bedrock (mostly undated), a few burial caves accessed from the slopes,²² and a few more substantial funerary architectural creations. Among the latter, two mausolea (the Lion's and the Flowers) and a series of funerary podia were excavated (Eisenberg and Kowalewska 2022: 108-114; forthcoming). All excavated funerary monuments, burial caves and sarcophagi are dated to the Roman period. The funerary architecture construction is dated to the 1st-2nd centuries CE, while their function did not pass the 4th century at the latest, emphasizing the pre-363 CE urban stress.

The Lion's Mausoleum (Fig. 3). Located within the Saddle Necropolis, the Lion's Mausoleum was fully excavated in 2019 (Eisenberg 2021b). The building is almost square (ca. 7.5 m long). The western part of the ground floor survived to its top, 3 m high, while the upper two floors collapsed and filled it. The building was built in the early 2nd century CE and collapsed in 363 CE, except perhaps for its ground floor. As with the other above-mentioned buildings at Hippos, the coins and small finds clearly attest to destruction in 363 CE followed by very brief burial activity in the ground-floor plaster floor in the 380s (Table 6).

The Flowers Mausoleum (Fig. 3). The Flowers Mausoleum (5.5 x 5.5 m) was identified in 2019 to the north of the Lion's Mausoleum and its excavation was completed at the end of 2020. The reading of the pottery from the foundations and the typology of the architectural fragments dates its construction to the late 1st/early 2nd centuries CE and its destruction in the 363 CE earthquake (Eisenberg and Kowalewska 2022, 111- 112; forthcoming).

The Funerary Podia (Fig. 3). The finds indicate that the podia were used from the 1st century CE and went out of use, as did the two nearby mausolea, at the latest during the 4th century CE (Eisenberg and Kowalewska 2022).²⁴

Footnotes

22 Two burial caves at the Saddle Necropolis were excavated from 2020 to 2022 and not yet fully published (Eisenberg and Kowalewska forthcoming). The pottery and coin finds were read and all are dated solely to the Roman period.

24 The pottery, read by M. Osband, corresponds with this reading. The documentation and the lists of finds recovered during excavations are available for open access through OCHRE (the project's database) at http://ochre.lib.uchicago.edu/ochre?uuid=26fl343b-23dl-4l55-85f4-65854e3400eb. (JW:link not working - see References -> Websites for Hippos Sussita at OCHRE)

Eisenberg (2024)

Figures

Fig. 1 - Annotated Aerial
Figure 1

Mt. Sussita and its environs with the three necropoleis and the Saddle Necropolis monuments indicated:
1. funerary podia
2. Lion’s Mausoleum
3. Flowers Mausoleum
4. Burial Cave A
5. sarcophagi field
6. ditch
7. Burial Cave B
drone view towards north (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
View of Hippos-Sussita necropoleis from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 2 - Aerial View

Figure 2

Drone’s view towards west looking at the Lion’s Mausoleum (left), the Flowers Mausoleum (right), and Burial Cave A beneath them (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of Lion’s Mausoleum and the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 3 - Aerial View

Figure 3

The Flowers Mausoleum and the perimeter wall of the Lion’s Mausoleum at the end of excavations; vertical view from the photogrammetric model (photo and modeling M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of Flowers Mausoleum and perimeter wall of the Lion’s Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 5 - architectural fragments

Figure 5

The Flowers Mausoleum northern wall and architectural fragments at its foot during excavations; view towards east (photo M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the Flowers Mausoleum from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)
Fig. 8 - Artist's reconstruction

Figure 8

An artistic reconstruction of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis with the funerary podia series and the two mausolea (Y. Nakas and M. Eisenberg)

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)

Discussion

Abstract

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:371)

The Flowers Mausoleum is the most elaborately decorated funerary structure of the Saddle Necropolis, the most representative of the three known necropoleis of Hippos of the Decapolis. The foundations of the mausoleum, built in the late 1st to early 2nd century AD, have been fully excavated, together with some of its architectural blocks, collapsed during the 363 AD earthquake. The basalt fragments collected until now give evidence of a building composed of five decorative segments, two rectangular and two circular, with a conical roof. The rectangular ground floor was decorated with a particularly interesting Doric frieze of unusually rendered triglyphs and metopes filled with flowers, which give the mausoleum its name. The meticulously sculpted architectural decorations are some of the finest examples executed in basalt, most probably created in a local workshop. The article introduces Hippos’ necropoleis, and gives a preliminary description of the Flowers Mausoleum, considering the regional parallels as well as Hippos’ timeline.

The Necropoleis of Hippos

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:371-372)

Three necropoleis served the city of Hippos (fig. 1)⁶. The Southern Necropolis included dozens of burial caves with a few preserved decorative basalt doors and hundreds of pit graves cut in the soft sandy rock and earth, all robbed out and undated⁷. The little-surveyed Eastern Necropolis, located on a small rocky hill, had multiple pit graves with basalt covering slabs. The most prestigious and the best-researched burial ground is the Saddle Necropolis located along Hippos’ main approach via the saddle.

The Saddle Necropolis stretched for ca. 150 m from the south, where it met the Roman road (the modern site’s parking lot)⁸, to the north, where it ended with a ditch cut in the middle of the saddle (a symbolic border between the necropolis and the polis)⁹. It incorporated dozens of lime stone and basalt sarcophagi, numerous pit graves cut into the bedrock, burial caves accessed from the slopes, and a few more substantial funerary architectural creations. The location of necropoleis along the main roads has parallels not only in Rome, but also locally, most visibly in Tiberias on the western shores of the Sea of Galilee, just opposite Hippos¹⁰.

Footnotes

6 Eisenberg 2017b, 17–19; Zingboym 2018.

7 Eisenberg – Staab 2021.

8 The exact course of the Roman road has not been archaeologically proven, but its presence can be confidently reconstructed based on descriptions of several scholars from the late 19th c., the location of the necropoleis, and several milestones (Pažout – Eisenberg 2021).

9 Eisenberg 2014, 91–96.

10 In a recent overview, Betzer describes the Northern Necropolis that was built along the main roads leading to the city from north and north-west and sums up the various burials: 378 pit graves, 29 sarcophagi, 14 stone doors (apparently from mausolea), remains of 7 mausolea, 4 ossuaries and a single burial cave (Betzer 2021, 85). See also Stepansky 1999, *84–*96. The bedrock at Tiberias is basalt, which may explain the lack of burial caves in contrast to Hippos.

Funerary podia

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373)

A unique series of at least 13 funerary podia was excavated along the eastern side of the saddle road (fig. 1)¹⁶. All the funerary podia were similar in size (ca. 5.5 × 5 m) and originally reached the height of ca. 3.8 m. They were all built in dry masonry of large, well-made nari ashlars with drafted margins and protruding bosses. Their flat tops were designed for the display of freestanding sarcophagi. It seems that they were built by the city itself in the first half of the 1st century AD and sold to its wealthy inhabitants. They probably collapsed in the 363 AD earthquake.

Footnotes

16 Eisenberg – Kowalewska 2022.

Mausolea in the Saddle Necropolis

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373-374)

At least two mausolea distinguished the Saddle Necropolis¹⁷: the Lion’s Mausoleum and the Flowers Mausoleum to its north, both fully excavated (fig. 1–2).

The Lion’s Mausoleum, named after a lion sculpture found in the debris, is located 18 m east of the saddle road¹⁸. What was preserved is the ground floor, covered with a vault and measuring ca. 7.5 × 7.5 m (25 Roman feet). The architectural fragments and two basalt lock boxes indicate that the mausoleum had two more storeys reaching a total estimated height of at least 13 m, including a pine-cone finial above a pyramid-shaped or conical roof. A perimeter wall, measuring ca. 15 × 20 m, surrounded the mausoleum. Based on the small finds and the architectural studies, the mausoleum’s construction was dated to the early 2nd century AD (even though some architectural elements are more characteristic of the 1st c. AD) and its destruction to the 363 AD earthquake. The vaulted ground floor may have survived the earthquake as simple burials dated to the 380s were discovered within its plaster floor.

Footnotes

17 The term »mausoleum« tends to be used very loosely, especially in the scholarly literature pertaining to our region, so we want to include a proper definition here, even if somewhat strict: a mausoleum is a decorative funerary construction of more than one storey above ground.

18 Eisenberg 2021a.

Chronological framework

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:381-382)

At least two mausolea distinguished the Saddle Necropolis¹⁷: the Lion’s Mausoleum and the Flowers Mausoleum to its north, both fully excavated (fig. 1–2).

The Lion’s Mausoleum, named after a lion sculpture found in the debris, is located 18 m east of the saddle road¹⁸. What was preserved is the ground floor, covered with a vault and measuring ca. 7.5 × 7.5 m (25 Roman feet). The architectural fragments and two basalt lock boxes indicate that the mausoleum had two more storeys reaching a total estimated height of at least 13 m, including a pine-cone finial above a pyramid-shaped or conical roof. A perimeter wall, measuring ca. 15 × 20 m, surrounded the mausoleum. Based on the small finds and the architectural studies, the mausoleum’s construction was dated to the early 2nd century AD (even though some architectural elements are more characteristic of the 1st c. AD) and its destruction to the 363 AD earthquake. The vaulted ground floor may have survived the earthquake as simple burials dated to the 380s were discovered within its plaster floor.

Small finds: The excavations of the Flowers Mausoleum revealed no sealed contexts, neither of the construction stage nor in the destruction layer. No coins were found in the foundations and the small number of sherds recovered from the debris and above bedrock were very small and widely dated, from types typical of the 1st century AD up to types of the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.

Raw materials: All the architectural elements of the Flowers Mausoleum are made of basalt and not of the local nari or an imported stone. At Hippos, as well as Gerasa (see above), the use of nari for architectural decorative elements seems typical for the late 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD, and more specifically for the early 1st century BC to the early 1st century AD. The use of basalt for fine architectural sculpture characterizes the large public constructions of the end of the 1st and the 2nd century AD (e.g. the Roman basilica).

Design of the architectural fragments: A preliminary analysis of the design of the Doric architrave and frieze with flowers metopes, the engaged Ionic columns, and the Corinthian modillion cornices (not described) points to the 1st century AD as the preferred date for the mausoleum’s construction.

Mason’s Marks: The assembly masons’ marks noted on some of the stones of the Flowers Mausoleum suggest a dating not later than the early 2nd century AD. Masons’ marks are generally known from the Decapolis only in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD⁴¹.

Altogether, the chronological parameters point to the conclusion that the Flowers Mausoleum was constructed somewhere between the late 1st century AD and the early 2nd century AD. The proposed exact destruction date is AD 363, when a strong earthquake hit Hippos and the whole region.

Footnotes

39 Eisenberg 2021a, 297.

40 Eisenberg – Kowalewska 2022, 16–18.

41 For details on marks from Hippos, see Kowalewska – Eisenberg 2019. For a compilation of regional masons’ marks, see Kowalewska – Eisenberg 2020.

Suggested reconstruction

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:382-383)

At least two mausolea distinguished the Saddle Necropolis¹⁷: the Lion’s Mausoleum and the Flowers Mausoleum to its north, both fully excavated (fig. 1–2).

The Lion’s Mausoleum, named after a lion sculpture found in the debris, is located 18 m east of the saddle road¹⁸. What was preserved is the ground floor, covered with a vault and measuring ca. 7.5 × 7.5 m (25 Roman feet). The architectural fragments and two basalt lock boxes indicate that the mausoleum had two more storeys reaching a total estimated height of at least 13 m, including a pine-cone finial above a pyramid-shaped or conical roof. A perimeter wall, measuring ca. 15 × 20 m, surrounded the mausoleum. Based on the small finds and the architectural studies, the mausoleum’s construction was dated to the early 2nd century AD (even though some architectural elements are more characteristic of the 1st c. AD) and its destruction to the 363 AD earthquake. The vaulted ground floor may have survived the earthquake as simple burials dated to the 380s were discovered within its plaster floor.

Based on the architectural elements at hand, especially the four different types of cornices, we may reconstruct the mausoleum as a structure composed of five segments:

a square ground floor decorated with engaged Ionic columns and Doric frieze with flower metopes, crowned with a Corinthian cornice
a square upper floor with plain cornice
a tholos with a Corinthian cornice
a tholos crowned with a plain cornice
a concave conical roof, probably finished with a finial, which has not yet been found.

Judging by the size of the remaining foundations (5.5 × 5.5 m, that is 15 × 15 Roman feet) and the recovered fragments, and correlating to the larger conical-roof mausolea in nearby regions, the height of the Flowers Mausoleum can be estimated at ca. 14 m⁴²

No clear remains of plaster were found on any of the stones of the Flowers Mausoleum, yet the finds from other basalt pieces at Hippos (most noticeably the Corinthian capitals of the Roman basilica) and the general expectation of colours in Roman architecture suggest that the façades of the mausoleum were fully plastered in white, most probably with additional vivid colours decorating, for example, the flowers. A general artistic proposal of the Saddle Necropolis with its funerary monuments, including a simplified representation of the Flowers Mausoleum, is illustrated in figure 8.

Footnotes

42 First square storey – 5 m, second square storey – 2 m, lower part of the tholos – 2 m, upper part of the tholos – 1 m, and a conical roof including a finial – 4 m. The reconstruction of the height of the shorter square storey and mainly the conical roof is only preliminary and requires further analysis.

Conclusions

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:383)

The necropoleis of Hippos represent a full socioeconomic stratification of burials – from the poorest pit graves to the most lavish mausolea. The ca. 14 m high Flowers Mausoleum was, as far as is known at the current stage of excavations, the most elaborately decorated element of the funerary landscape of the city of Hippos. Its location on the upper part of the saddle, only a few metres from the main road leading to the city gate, made it a prominent mark in the landscape – it advertised not only the family of the deceased buried there but also the splendour of the polis of Hippos throughout the Roman period.

The mausoleum was built at the end of the 1st/early 2nd century AD and destroyed together with the other monuments of the necropolis in the AD 363 earthquake. The choice for this monument was to create a hybrid of all three classical architectural orders – the engaged columns are Ionic, the ground floor frieze is Doric, while some of the cornices have a Corinthian modillion. The unique execution of some parts of these classical orders suggests the work of a local Hippos workshop, which had mastered the art of basalt sculpting close to perfection. It is plausible that the artisans wished to compete with the new trend of exquisitely detailed imports of marble that appeared in the region from the early 2nd century AD and reached Hippos as well. The local work shop was successful in its effort of following the classical canons, but also created an original piece of architectural artistry.

With continued recovery of more architectural fragments, it may one day be possible to partially re-erect one or two of the mausoleum’s façades as one of the most impressive examples of ancient funerary monuments preserved in modern Israel from its Roman provincial past.

Segal et al. (2013)

Hellenistic Sanctuary

Chronological Framework

from Segal et al. (2013:145-146)

A number of probes conducted at various sites within the area of the temple courtyard confirm that in the 3rd century BCE, during the reign of the Ptolemies, a settlement was established here of unknown size and character. It may have been a military outpost or a cultic site and we cannot preclude the possibility there was a settlement here that combined these two functions. Evidence for this is based mainly on pottery and numismatic finds.⁵⁶

The earliest architectural find that was located in the area of the temple courtyard was dated with certainty to the second half of the 2nd century BCE, the period of Seleucid rule. This find was of a several floor sections consisting of irregular flagstones discovered in the southern part of the temple courtyard (figs 65-66, 173).⁵⁷ Yet, whatever historical importance of such a find might be, it cannot indicate the essential nature of the settlement that existed in this place at that time.

The sanctuary, as we know it today, is of a slightly later period and seems to have been built at the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 1st century BCE, that is to say at the end of the Hellenistic period. The four walls that enclose the temple courtyard should be dated to this period. These walls supported the filling that raised the surface level of the courtyard above the plaza extending on the south side of it. In order to relieve the pressure of the filling on the supporting walls, a network of thin walls was set up on their inner sides which created coffer-like structures that indeed provided this relief from the pressure of the fillings.⁵⁸ The sanctuary courtyard was carefully paved of rectangular limestone slabs. We do not know if at this earlier stage of its existence a temple was also erected within it. It may be that instead of a temple there was an altar such as the one that rises over the lower courtyard (terrace) in the Sanctuary of Zeus in Gerasa.⁵⁹

A fairly large number of architectural items such as column bases, column drums, segments of an entablature, as well as Doric and Corinthian capitals, were found in the area of the sanctuary, most of them integrated in secondary use in the walls of the Northwest Church, both in the prayer hall and in the atrium (fig. 174).⁶⁰ The items can be divided into two distinct groups, one of limestone and the other of basalt items. A typological examination makes it clear that the items of limestone were of an earlier period and could be dated to the 2nd and 1 1 centuries BCE. This group includes sections of a Doric frieze with triglyphs and metopes, a Doric capital and a Corinthian capital. None of these items found in secondary use or scattered among the debris give any indication whether they originated from the temple or the altar. The second group of items, all made of basalt, are distinguished for their stylistic uniformity and can be dated to the end of the 1st century BCE or the 1st century CE.

The remains of the temple that can be seen today in the sanctuary, some of them exposed and some buried beneath the walls of the Northwest Church, belong to the tetrastylos prostylos temple erected during the reign of Augustus or his heir Tiberius, i.e. at the end of the 1st century BCE or during the first four decades of the pt century CE.⁶¹ It appears that many of the architectural items made of basalt belong to this temple. The altar erected near the stainvay of the temple is also of that same period.

At the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century a significant change occurred in the design of the sanctuary when its area was reduced to the temple courtyard. The reason for this change was the decision to appropriate the southern plaza of the sanctuary and to replace it with the forum of the city.⁶² The original stairway and the gate at its foot may have been integrated into the formation of the north colonnade of the forum.

The reigning period of Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (193-217 CE) was also a period of florescence and renovation for Hippos. It may therefore be assumed that, like the basilica and the odeion, the Augustan period temple was also restored and that at least some of its renovated decorations were made of marble. Evidence for this can be found in the marble column bases and entablature segments that were also found in secondary use in the walls of the Northwest Church.⁶³

We are unable to determine whether the temple was dismantled at the end of the Roman period or during the Byzantine period. Perhaps it was destroyed, as its neighbor the basilica had been, in the earthquake of 363 CE and was never restored. When the church was built at the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th century, the builders found a wealth of building material which they integrated into the church walls.

Footnotes

56 See the chapter on Military Architecture and the chapter on The Coin Finds.

57 A. Segal, "The Southwest Area of the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2003, p. 13-14, figs 6, 13; idem, "The Hellenistic Compound: Summary of Five Excavation Seasons", Hippos 2004, p. 26-31, figs 11, 50-52; idem, "The Stratigraphic Examination South of the Southern Stylobate in the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2005, p. 25-26, figs 5, 53-55.

58 See above, notes 13 and 14.

59 On the altar on the lower courtyard of the Zeus Sanctuary in Gerasa, see J. Seigne, "Decouvertes recentes sur le sanctuaire de Zeus a Jerash", ADA/ XXXVII (1993), p. 341-351, figs 1-3, pis I-VI; H. Eristov, J. Seigne, "Le Naos Hellenistiquedu sanctuaire de Zeus Olympien a /erash (Jordanie)", Topoi Suppl. 4 (2003), p. 269-298, figs 1-14; P.-L. Gatier etJ. Seigne, "Le Hammana de Zeus a Gerasa", Electrum 11 (2006), p. 171-189, figs 1-6; R. Raja, Urban Development and Regional Identity in the Eastern Roman Provinces, 50 BC-AD 250, Copenhagen 2012, p. 172-175.

60 A. Segal, "The Paved Area of the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2003, p. 14-18, fig. 10 (A); J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Architectural Decoration Presumably Pertaining to the Early Roman Temple", Hippos 2005, p. 48-49, fig. 18. See also M. Greenhalgh, "Spolia: A Definition in Ruins", in R. Brilliant and D. Kinney (eds), Reuse Value: Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Levine, Farnham 2011, p. 75-95.

61 This dating is based on reliable and accurate evidence from the pottery finds unearthed during the stratigraphic probes carried out along the walls of the temple podium by the excavators of the Northwest Church. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Stratigraphic Trench inside the Chancel Area", Hippos 2003, p. 32-33, figs 19, 57-58; idem, "Pre-Church Structures", Hippos 2004, p. 67-68, fig. 25; idem, "Stratigraphic Probes", Hippos 2005, p. 45-48, figs 16-17,77. It is interesting to note in this connection that during the last two decades of the 1st century BCE extensive building projects were constructed at the initiative of King Herod throughout his kingdom and also outside it. Since Hippos had already been included within the kingdom of Herod in 30 BCE, we cannot negate the possibility that Herod wanted to show favor to its inhabitants and financed the building of the temple. Josephus does not mention Hippos as one of the cities that enjoyed the king's largesse but this does not preclude the possibility that Herod was indeed involved with this building project as well. See T. Rajak, "Josephus as Historian of the Herods", in N. Kokkinos ( ed.), The World of Herods, Miinchen 2007, p. 23-34; S. Japp, Die Baupolitik Herodes' des Grossen, Rahden/Westf. 2000, p. 15-48.It is worth mentioning here that at a distance of about 46 km to the north of Hippos, an impressive sanctuary was built in exactly the same period. The reference is to the sanctuary in Omrit near Kibbutz Kfar Szold (in Northern Israel). Although the excavators are not in agreement as to the identity of the site, there is no doubt that this was a cultic site of the Roman period in the center of which there was a temple that in its earlier stage had been Herodian. See A. Overman, J. Olive & M. Nelson, "A Newly Discovered Herodian Temple at Khirbet Omrit in Northern Israel", in N. Kokkinos (ed.), The World of the Herods, Miinchen 2007, p. 177-195; A. Overman and D. Schowalter (eds), The Roman Temple Complex at Horvat Omrit: An interim report, Oxford 2011; M. Bernett, 'Space and Interaction: Narrative and Representation of Power under the Herodians'. in D. Balch and A. Weissenrieder (eds), Contested Spaces: Houses and Temples in Roman Antiquity and the New Testament, Tilbingen 2012, p. 283-309, figs 1-4.

62 See chapters on Urban Plan and City Landscape and on the Forum.

63 In the prayer hall of the Northwest Church, eight marble bases were discovered which the church builders had used to heighten the columns of the colonnade separating the nave from the northern aisle. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "The Northwest Church Complex", Hippos 2001, p. 6-13, figs 27-28, 35. Of special interest is the section of a marble frieze decorated with scrolls of acanthus leaves which, in secondary use, became the base for the chancel screen in the southern aisle of the Northwest Church. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Exploration of the Northwest Church Complex", Hippos 2002, p. 15-28, figs 33-34. According to the impressive level of workmanship of this architectural item, it can apparently be dated to the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century CE. Its proportions, however, encourage us to think that it may have originated from the temple during the Severan stage of its existence.

Forum

Conclusion

from Segal et al. (2013:160)

The excavations in the forum area are still far from completion. Until we excavate the shops that border the forum on the east side and separate it from central bathhouse and until the northeast area of the forum is exposed where the forum, decumanus maximus and basilica come into contact with each other, we cannot determine the general overall shape of the forum and propose its full reconstruction. Nonetheless, we now possess at the end of 12 seasons of excavations sufficient data about the main stages in the existence of the forum, from its beginnings until its final abandonment at the mid 8th century.

The forum plaza was apparently paved at the end of the 1st century CE within the extensive urban construction program that included the paving of the decumanus maximus and the erection of a number of public buildings such as the basilica and the odeion.⁴⁷ The construction of the building complexes around the forum naturally took a long while to complete and at this stage of our research we cannot determine with certainty the order in which the various structures around the paved plaza were built.

The very location of the forum plaza which extends to the south and closely adjoining the south wall of the Hellenistic Sanctuary, confirms that the urban planners worked under certain constraints because they had to take into account the existence of this sanctuary that had stood there before the city was planned. They took advantage of the plaza that already existed south of the temple courtyard of the Hellenistic Sanctuary and simply altered its function, changing it from the forecourt of the sanctuary into a forum.⁴⁸ This decision ensured the preferred location of the forum in the centre of the city and the convenient connection between the two sections of the decumanus maximus and the forum. The basilica that was erected on the northeast side of the forum and adjacent to it created, together with the forum, a central public complex easily accessible from all parts of the city.

As mentioned above, at the first stage of its existence the forum was not surrounded by columns (colonnades).⁴⁹ These were erected only at the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century CE, at the time when Hippos as well as other cities in the Roman East enjoyed a period of florescence and urban renewal.⁵⁰ It seems that at the same time as the three colonnades of the forum were built the decorative gates that marked the eastern and western connections of the forum plaza with the decumanus maxim us were also erected.

The devastating earthquake that occurred in the region in 363 CE did not spare the forum. It may be assumed that the colonnades collapsed and as a result, some of the stylobates were also dismantled. Between the forum plaza and the south wall of the Hellenistic Sanctuary various workshops and stores were set up. This naturally led to the deconstruction of the stairway that once led from the forum to the temple forecourt in the Hellenistic Sanctuary. Presumably, the forum continued to function as the main public plaza in the city until the Umayyad period, even if a considerable part of it had become an area of workshops, stores and even residential quarters. The fatal earthquake of 749 CE destroyed the city but did not complete erase life in the forum. A number of column shafts and fragments of architectural items were arranged in the northeast comer of the forum, turning it into a sheep pen.

Footnotes

47 See the following chapters: Urban Plan and City Landscape, Basilica and Odeion.

48 See the chapter on Hellenistic Sanctuary, n. 62 and the chapter on Urban Plan and City Landscape.

49 See above, n. 30.

50. See the chapter on the Basilica, n. 57.

Basilica

Chronological Framework

from Segal et al. (2013:179-180)

The basilica in Hippos was erected at the end of the 1 st century or the beginning of the 2nd century CE, during the period in which other public buildings in the city were constructed, such as the odeion.⁵⁵ It is reasonable to assume that the forum plaza and the decumanus maximus were also laid out within the same period of time.

The basilica was not built on virgin soil. While excavating the southern part of the nave, a few scanty remains of wall sections were exposed which were sufficient to indicate that before the construction of the basilica some other kind of building had been standing there.⁵⁶

The ceramic finds that were unearthed near the remains of these walls have been dated to the ist century BCE - beginning of the ist century CE. Even if, on the basis of these wall sections, we cannot determine the essential nature of the structure that preceded the erection of the basilica, we cannot negate the possibility that this structure which once stood in the very heart of the city adjacent to the Hellenistic Sanctuary was also a public building, perhaps also a basilica.

In our discussion above, we raised the possibility that the decorative architectural items made of marble that were discovered in the interior space of the basilica and in secondary use in the Northwest Church may indicate that the basilica had undergone renovations during the 3rd century CE, perhaps similar to that undergone in the same period of time by the basilica in Samaria or, for example, by the Large Theatre in Beth Shean/Scythopolis.⁵⁷

The basilica was destroyed in the earthquake of 363 CE and was never reconstructed. During the Byzantine and Umayyad periods various installations as well as residential structures were set up to the south and east of it.⁵⁸ The central and western doorways in the southern wall of the basilica were sealed while the eastern one was left open and to the south of it a dirt track was laid that led from the decumanus maximus northwards. This was probably the thoroughfare that led towards the Umayyad building (a mosque?) that was erected in the basilica area.⁵⁹ Support for this claim can be found in the structure resembling an arched gateway set up near the southeastern corner of the basilica built in a very careless manner from architectural items in secondary use that had originally belonged to both Roman and Byzantine structures.

Footnotes

55 Hippos 2009, p. 31.

56 The reference is to the two walls built of rough stones, each of which has survived to the height of one course only: wall W2096, running in an east-west direction and wall W2203, that runs north-south.

57 The reign of Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (193-217 CE) was a period of florescence and renewal for many cities in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. On the basilica in Samaria, see J. Crowfoot, K. Kenyon, E. Sukenik, Buildings at Samaria, London 1942, p. 55-57, fig. 39; J. Baity, Curia Ordinis, Bruxelles 1990, p. 396-397, 507-509, figs 197 and 248; N. Avigad, "Samaria (City)", in E. Stem (ed.), The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Jerusalem 1993, vol. 4, p. 1308. On the Large Theatre in Beth Shean (Scythopolis), see A. Segal, Theatres in Roman Palestine and Provincia Arabia, Leiden 1995, p. 56-60, figs 49-58. On the reign of Septimius Severus, see A. Birley, The African Emperor: Septimius Severus, London 1988. Another good example of extensive renovations in a public building is the theatre in Caesarea which was erected in 10 BCE during the reign of Herod. The front of the stage building (scaenae frons) was redesigned and decorated with various items in granite and marble. See A. Segal, op. cit., p. 64-69.

58 On the assorted ovens and other installations that were exposed in the area near the southern wall of the basilica, see Hippos 2007, p. 19-22, figs 22-26 (Area I: Oven room).

59 Three out of the four walls of the Umayyad structure have been exposed on their outer sides: the southern one (W2089), the western one (W2090) and the northern one (W2091). It is reasonable to suppose that the eastern wall, which has not yet been exposed, extends to the east of the eastern wall of the basilica. This area, as well as the interior space of the Umayyad structure, has not yet been excavated.

The Northwest Church Complex

Excerpts

from Segal et al. (2013:196-216)

The Northwest Church (NWC) complex, excavated and studied by the Polish team in 2000-2009,¹ is one of the rare instances attested for the region of a church that was still active as such during the Umayyad period. Archaeological contexts sealed by the earthquake of 749 CE provide us with an invaluable record of the church's activity at that time, while the analysis of archaeological material sheds light on both the liturgical functioning of this church and the economic role of its annexes at that late period (fig. 255).

The Northwest Church (figs 255-256) was erected in the centre of the city,² at a place previously occupied by an Early Roman period temenos that was built, to judge from the pottery deposits associated with its foundations, in the Augustan or early Tiberian times (fig. 257).³ The church architects re-used parts of the walls of the cella constructed of large limestone ashlars and those of its precinct wall built of smaller basalt ashlars.

... the church could not have been built before the end of the 5th century; indeed, it is probable that its construction date was during the first half of the 6th century.

... As to the final date of the church, it is well recorded by many destruction deposits clearly connected to the earthquake of 749 CE, which happened while the building was still in use as a place of Christian worship.¹⁵

The development of the Northwest Church presents two main architectural phases that can be divided into at least two sub-phases each, according to the spatial arrangement of the interior and the chronology of floors; they were then followed by a phase of decline.¹⁶ In Phase I (a-b), the church compound was designed as a three-aisled basilica (22.20 30m long and 15.40 m wide, with interior dimensions 20.70 x 13.70m) flanked by side wings and preceded by a spacious square atrium (fig. 262).

... This dating of the modified arrangement of the church in Phase Ila coincides with the introduction of the Great Entrance rite into the liturgy.⁶⁴

... The final phase of the church (Phase III) was the decline of the basilica which must have been the result of some unspecified disaster of an unknown date but which clearly caused serious damage to the nave; it was probably one of the earthquakes which affected this region in the second half of the 7th century (658 CE) or at the beginning of the 8th century (717 CE).¹⁰¹ Indeed, eloquent testimony to the ancient repairs made to the mosaic floor can be seen at the southern pastophorion. Right under the arched entrance to this room, the mosaic bears traces of repairs carried out after it was damaged, probably during an earthquake (fig. 281). The repair is entirely slipshod, with no attention paid to the proper restoration of the geometrical border of the mosaic "carpets" in L223 (the chanceled part of the southern aisle) and L208 (the pastophorion). During this repair, the mosaic cubes that were quite randomly placed back into the damaged floor must have effaced whatever had remained of the original pattern,¹⁰² possibly an inscription referring to a saint (or saints) venerated in this room. Inside the chapel itself, close to the reliquary, another damaged part of the floor was filled in with a layer of buff clay, strongly suggesting that during that specific period the local community lacked means to ensure a higher standard of restoration.¹⁰³ Let us remember that Hippos must have been conquered by the Islamic troops of Shurahbil at the same time as Tiberias, in 634 CE, after which the latter town was established as the capital of the Jordan province (Jund al-Urdunn), while Hippos probably lost its former importance and began to tum into a provincial town.

There followed a final blow given to the church compound by the earthquake of 749 CE; indeed, the latest numismatic find in the church was an Umayyad coin minted in Tiberias and dated to 737-746 CE, discovered in a securely sealed context on the floor of the northern aisle.¹⁰⁴ A number of other important destruction deposits, tightly sealed by the masses of building stone, make it clear that at the moment of the earthquake the basilica was still in use as a place of Christian worship. One exception was the nave and the central chancel which apparently were not repaired after some earlier damage. The extremely poor state of preservation of their floors strongly contrasts with very good state of the aisle floors (fig. 272). During the exploration of the nave, not a single piece of the chancel screens or posts were found, as they must have been removed well before the final destruction of the church. The same applies to the altar of the main chancel of which no traces remain. Furthermore, only a few roof-tile fragments were collected, which means that by 749 CE large parts of the roof must have already collapsed. The destruction of the roof, however, does not seem to have been complete in the western part of the basilica, because a basalt cross, once crowning the top of the roof above the western facade, collapsed only during the final earthquake (fig. 282).¹⁰⁵ This find, pertaining to the mid-8th century, contradicts the common belief about removing the crosses under Moslem pressure.¹⁰⁶ Also the presence of the columns in the eastern portico (unlike the remaining porticoes) of the atrium suggests that the latter still retained its roof-balcony and possibly enabled access to the galleries.

In striking contrast to this were the contents of the aisles that allow for a reconstruction of the liturgical functioning of the church during the final years (decades?) of its existence. There seems to be no doubt that, while the nave was used merely as a kind of an inner atrium (mesaulon?), the cult focused on the aisles. A deposit of broken marbles found in the small northern aisle (fig.283) contained a fragmentary rectangular mensa¹⁰⁷ with its four legs in the form of colonettes, a twisted support (for a phiale containing water for hand-washing? for a lectern?) and a reliquary.¹⁰⁸ The imprints of the mensa legs on the mosaic floor trace the shape of a trapezium instead of a rectangle (fig. 274) and, as about one third of the mensa was never found, there is no doubt that an incomplete tabletop was being used. Under the altar, a reliquary must have stood on a limestone stem-like support, its lower part still in situ, inserted in the mosaic floor. The reliquary has the popular form of a miniature sarcophagus with a circular opening in the centre of the lid and three compartments inside; one of them contained a miniature glass bottle with tiny pieces of bone (fig. 284).¹⁰⁹ In front of the altar, a bronze hanging lamp in the shape of a dove was found, complete with its chains (fig. 285);¹¹⁰ it must have collapsed during the earthquake either from the keystone of the apse's semi-dome or from the lintel of the chancel door. The northern one of the chancel screens and the two post-colonettes were robbed during modern times, apparently when a military trench was dug out across the northern wing of the Northwest Church complex during World War II;¹¹¹ however, the discovery of the precious lamp in situ proves that the destruction deposits on the floor have remained undisturbed.

The southern pastophorion preserved eloquent testimony of its ongoing use as the place for the martyr(s) cult. A radiocarbon dating of a sample of wall plaster from this room has suggested 685-730 CE as the most probable date for the final covering of its walls with plaster; was it connected to any damage caused by the earthquake of 717-718 CE?¹¹² A bronze polykandelon was found in situ under the painted blocks collapsed from the entrance arch (fig. 286); its use at the time of the disastrous earthquake is evidenced by the dense traces of burning and fragments of hrn glass lamps recovered from the context in question.¹¹³ It must have been suspended at the keystone of the entrance arch, across which a thick iron rod was installed, probably to carry the curtains.¹¹⁴ Another proof of reverence were the silver crosses fixed onto the two post-colonettes of the southern chancel.¹¹⁵ Placed on top of the reliquary of pink limestone was another reliquary made of marble (fig. 287), shaped as a miniature sarcophagus (L. 0.255 m, W. 0.160 m, H. 0.l0 m), which was identical to the one found in the northern apse. Two of its three rectangular compartments contained tiny pieces of bones, and in the opening of the lid a long bronze pin was found.¹¹⁶ The latter has provided a clue as to the way in which the saint's relics were becoming the source of eulogia to the faithful: they were touched with the bronze pin in order to transfer the blessing onto objects provided, be they ampullae filled with water, oil or wine, pieces of fabric, or something else.¹¹⁷ It is difficult to tell if the lower (pink limestone) reliquary was by that time emptied of its original contents. All of its three compartments, each with its own lid, contained only reddish brown soil which might in fact have been weathered pink limestone.

However, by 749 CE the marble altar which used to stand above the pink limestone reliquary was already dismantled. Minor parts of its legs were found lying by the western wall of the chapel,¹¹⁸ and other parts of them in the western section of the nave. Moreover, the tabletop was discovered in the western part of the northern aisle covered by a thick layer of pure lime. Apparently, by that time, those elements of the marble furniture which were not considered vital for the functioning of the church were removed out of need to obtain more lime for current repairs of the building. It seems that no altar stood above the reliquaries any longer, although a thick and dense layer of clay was noted during the exploration in the eastern part of the room; this might have pertained to an altar built of dried clay as those used in some churches of Provincia Arabia from the second half of the 7th century onwards.¹¹⁹ If such an altar did exist, however, the reliquaries could not have been entirely encased inside; the upper reliquary clearly remained accessible to the priest administering eulogiae.

To conclude, it seems certain that by the mid-8th century the liturgical space of the Northwest Church was limited to the aisles. We believe that the northern apse can be identified as the place of an eucharistic altar with a reliquary under it and a dove-shaped lamp of bronze hung as an "eternal light" in front of it. The imprints of the altar legs and the emplacement of the support for the reliquary (fig. 274) prove that the altar stood in front of the apse, leaving enough place for the priest to celebrate while facing the congregation.¹²⁰ The southern pastophorion functioned as a martyr(s) chapel, but at the same time it was from there that both the Little and Great Entrances must have started during that very final phase of the church. The marble mensa above the reliquaries (and, after it had been dismantled, perhaps a dried-clay altar?) would have served as a prothesis table. The niche in the northern wall may have been used for keeping not only the Holy Books, but also the Eucharist reserve;¹²¹ situated at the convenient height of 0.95m above the floor level, it may have even functioned as a prothesis niche if an altar or table was no longer available in the room. Finally, in front of both lateral chancels (the northern and the southern one), a modest terracotta lamp with dense traces of burning was found in an identical position attesting to the custom of lighting lamps (and probably candles) by the faithful.

... However, the large number of shards of restorable storage jars of the late "Beisan" type (first half of the 8th century)¹³⁶ leaves no doubt that in the final period the cellar was used in connection with the winery installed in the northern wing of the church. The same probably applies to a small room attached to the outer northern wall of the atrium located between the northern wing's winery and the northern entrance to the atrium.¹³⁷ The winery was active till the very moment before the earthquake; it seems very probable that it belonged to the church (as suggested by the fact that the storage cellar for the wine was apparently located within the church premises and in this late period it was accessible from inside the atrium only), or to the elite of the congregation. Built upon the earlier rooms of the northern annexe, it consisted of two compartments for the storage of grapes (L782, L783) abutting on a narrow service corridor (L780), a treading floor (l775) and a must collecting vat (L776) as well as a large mosaic-paved room (L210W) where the fermentation process of wine took place (fig. 294).¹³⁸

A narrow trench, less than 1.50m wide, was excavated along the western face of the original western wall of the atrium (W799); it revealed the presence of a pavement made of irregular basalt flagstones (F2574) and a channel (L2582), probably for drainage, sloping slightly from north to south (fig. 295).¹³⁹ In all probability, this was the section of another courtyard measuring 11.60m from north to south (while its east-west extent remains unknown), attached to the western side of the atrium in the late period. At the southern end of the trench in question, a doorway was found situated in an east-west wall built against the southwest corner of the atrium. The testimonies to the earthquake of 749 CE as recorded in the Northwest Church complex have also included some human remains, specifically the skull of a young woman found in the shaft of the cellar in the atrium as well as damaged skeletons of an elderly woman and a child discovered in the debris of the central room in the western portico of the atrium.¹⁴⁰

Footnotes

1 The team was directed by Jolanta Mlynarczyk (on behalf of the Research Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw) and by Mariusz Burdajewicz (on behalf of the National Museum in Warsaw). The many students who participated in the dig represented the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, the Conservation Faculty, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, University of Stefan Wyszynski in Warsaw, Catholic University of Lublin, Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. We would like to thank most warmly all the institutions and individuals who provided financial and logistic support for our project, among them the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities who annually assisted the team director with a scholarship. The former Ambassadors of the Republic of Poland to Israel, Dr. Maciej Kozlowski and Dr. Agnieszka Miszewska supported our project in multiple ways. Our research on one of the aspects of the Northwest Church, specifically, its liturgical functioning, was financed by Grant No. lHOl B009 29 of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland (2005-2007).

2 From a topographical description of the churches at Sussita as provided by Ovadiah 1970, 174-178, Nos. 171-174, one would conclude that Northwest Church should be identified as his "Church a" (No. 171, pl. 69); however, neither the description of visible remains nor the sketch plan match the church in question.

3 For remains of the temple, see J. Mlynarczyk and M. Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 67-68, fig. 25; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 53.

15 For the conclusive evidence, see Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 31-32.

16 For the phasing of the church, see Mlynarczyk 2008a, p. 149-169.

64 This is believed to have happened about the reign of Justin II (565-578 CE), cf. Crowfoot 1938, p. 51.

101 Ognibeni 2002, 112, mentions earthquakes of 658 and 717 or 718 CE as having caused the damage done to the West Church in Pella of the Decapolis. There is little doubt that the same earthquakes must have inflicted similar damage to the buildings on Sussita.

102. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 26; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, figs 78-79.

103. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 61, fig. 77.

104. A. Berman, Hippos 2001, no. 31.

105. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 33-34, fig. 63. For a parallel cross found at the Northeast Church, see M. Schuler, Hippos 2003, p. 41, fig. 71, and for a stone cross from Khirbet el-Beyudat in the Lower Jordan Valley, see Hizmi 1993, p. 158.

106. Records discussed by Ognibeni 2002, p. 130-132. Crosses occur also on the gable roofs of churches depicted on the mosaic in the lower church at Quwaysmah laid in 718/719, cf. Piccirillo1997, fig. 454.

107. The altar pertains to type F according to the typology of altars by Chalkia 1991, p. 54, F:It 2.

108. About this find: Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 71; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48-50.

109. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48, n. 54. For this form of the reliquary in the churches of Palaestina II (example of Pella, East Church) and Arabia, see Michel 2001, p. 75-77.

110. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2001, p. 9, fig. 40; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 50, pl. 11.

lll. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 39.

112 Northwest Church, see n. 101 above.

113. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 27, fig. 44; Burdajewicz and Mlynarczyk 2006, p. 28, ii. 14.

114. For "eternal light" and curtains in front of the martyrs chapel, see Pena 2000, p. 52.

115. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2002, p. 19; Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 47-48 and pl. 8.

116. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 26, fig. 47; Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48, pl. 9.

117. Burdajewicz and Mlynarczyk 2006, p. 25; a similar way of obtaining the eulogia might have been used in the East Church at Pella, cf. Michel 2001, p. 122, fig. 37. Examples of receiving the blessing by touching the holy relics (a practice more rare in the East than in the West) are quoted by Pena 2000, p. 70-71 (for the Antioch region?) and p. 74-75 (for Chalcedon). On hagiasma and eulogia, see Festugiere 1962, notes 149-150.

118. Initially misinterpreted as pertaining to two different altars, cf. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 27, fig. 49.

119. Michel 2001, p. 62-68, fig. 34: b-c; Duval 2003, p. 66.

120. Cf. Duval 2003, p. 108-110.

121. Lassus 1947, p. 195.

136. Mlynarczyk (Pottery Report), Hippos 2007, p. 96.

137. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2007, p. 64-65, figs 100-102.

138. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 36-35, figs 65-72; Mlynarczyk 2008b.

139. footnote is missing

140. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2006, p. 54; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz., Hippos 2007, p. 62; E. Deutsch, Hippos 2007, p. 97.

The Northeast Church and Northeast Insula Project

The Phasing of the NIP (Northeast Insula Project)

from Segal et al. (2013:239-241)

Work on the Northeast Insula Project began with excavation of the Northeast Church. Probes beneath the floor levels of the complex consistently show ceramic assemblages dating no later than the late 5th or early 6th centuries. The Northeast Church was most likely built during that time frame. But the church was clearly situated within the pre-existing street grid of the city and may have incorporated walls of a previous building (W512b and W554) or set some of its wall over foundations of earlier ones ( e.g., W541). The apse of the church did break the line of Cardo 3N and required reworking of W1230/1267 to incorporate the peristyle house into the larger church compound. Possibly a pre-existing home once occupied the site of the church (see domestic remains under the south hall and in the plaza to its south; Cistern A may have served a peristyle court).

The Northeast Church was apparently built as a memorial church housing two tombs in its chancel: a masonry tomb holding a coffin with three individuals and a sarcophagus for a revered elderly woman. In this original phase, the entire church (chancel, nave, aisles, and western portico) were carpeted in mosaics. Each stylobate had four columns.

In secondary phasing, major changes came to the NEC. In the west, the portico was paved with flagstones, benches were added on the west side of WSl l, gates were installed at each end of the portico, the Gamma building complex was constructed, and Cardo 2N was repaved. Within the domus the nave received a second geometric floor. Repairs to other floors are notable in the north aisle and in the skeuophylakion. The level of the chancel was raised with a floor of irregular stone tiles into which loculi for reliquaries were inserted and a synthronon was added. At this time a sarcophagus was inserted into the masonry tomb on top of the previous burial. In the aisles, benches were added to the north and south walls. Since the north benches were made of corbels, identical corbels were used in the north wall, two additional columns were added to the north stylobate, and the intercolumnation was changed from areostyle to systyle, we surmise that major damage was done to the church that required significant reconstruction. It is reasonable to suggest that much of this secondary phasing was of necessity done concurrently. The quality of the reconstruction is such as to suggest extreme poverty on the part of the community supporting the NEC. We would therefore surmise that the addition of the sarcophagus to the masonry tomb and the extraction of relics from the tomb of the elderly woman served as funding sources for the reconstruction.

There are some hints as to the dating of this secondary phasing. As noted earlier, the late 6th-century date of the mosaics at Kursi (585 CE) and in the baptistery at Hippos (591 CE) suggest a similar date for the upper geometric floor (F589) of the Northeast Church. "Textual documentation ... suggests that a disastrous earthquake on July 9, 551, wrought a path of destruction from the three provinces of Palestine through at least the province of Syria 11."⁶⁵ Petra was never rebuilt after that earthquake. Perhaps damage from it led to renovations of the Northeast Church culminating in the geometric floor. Alternatively, a section of wall plaster from behind the synthronon was dated by C-14 to approximately 675 CE.⁶⁶ If this plastering reflects the secondary phase repairs, its date aligns with literary reports on one or two major earthquakes in Palestine in 659/660 CE. According to the Chronographia of Theophanes: "a great earthquake throughout Palestine and Syria had given cause for an extensive collapse of the buildings of the East."⁶⁷ The extensive 7th century reconstruction in the Monastery of St. Euthymius followed that earthquake.

JW: An incomplete copy means some of the text in the following paragraph and a half is incorrectly transcribed.

Hippos itself would be destroyed by a major earthquake in 749 CE, after which it was never re-occupied as a city. However, prior to that earthquake, liturgical rites ceased in the Northeast Church. All doors to the domus were intentionally sealed, except the entrance to the south aisle that gave access to the tomb of the elderly woman. Burials stopped. Reliquaries were removed. A crude wall was built around the exposed sarcophagus of the woman. A bench was installed inside the southwest entrance, and the North Lateral (?) and Medial Chambers were converted to domestic use (guard?). The church became a mausoleum and was little used or abandoned by the earthquake of 749 CE.

What once appeared to be a small memorial (?) church situated between Cardo 2 North and Cardo 3 North, after subsequent excavation of surrounding spaces now appears to be the north-westerly component of a much larger complex (Fig. 323). To the north of the church we now entertain the possibility of a a two-story structure. Access to the second story would have come via the staircase next (?) to W521. W555 may have been added to W? to help support the second story. Doorways providing access to this structure were also sealed. To the east is a peristyle house. The south door jamb in W1267 of that house was incorporated into the wall of the apse and thus constructed at the same time.⁶⁸ This doorway also was intentionally blocked as was the exterior doorway to the storage room of the house in W1230. We hypothesize that this house reached its "fulfillment" as a monastery and was sealed off when the church and its related rooms were likewise sealed.⁶⁹ Magdalino has argued that "many, if not most, urban and suburban churches and monasteries were converted lay οικοι."⁷⁰ A monastery "in more ways than one was the alter ego of the secular οικς. Far from being a negation of the extended household ... the religious foundation was the household's ultimate fulfillment .... The foundation and endowment of a family monastery was a sound economic investment, capable of bringing materials as well as spiritual benefits to the founder and those of his [or her] descendants who inherited proprietary rights to the establishment."⁷¹

The appearance of pagan elements among the small finds from the house, especially the Tyche and the maenad, could argue against such a hypothesis. But counter arguments are possible. The maenad may be defaced, depriving it of any numinous power and religious significance. The Tyche may be little more than a symbol of civic pride and classical heritage. Although we cannot yet with certainty date the peristyle house, elements (architectural, ceramic, and artistic) do suggest that the peristyle house was earlier that the church. If so, we deem it a possibility that this home of a prominent family at Hippos became the starting point of an urban monastery that eventually took over a neighboring home to the west, removed most of it, and built the Northeast Church, incorporating its apse into a reconstructed western wall of the house.

While this hypothesis is suggestive for future work, significant additional excavation is necessary before we can say with any certainty that this peristyle house actually found its fulfillment as an urban monastery that then was expanded to construct the Northeast Church.

Footnotes

64 For a parallel example of a place of incubation, see the discussion of the basilica at Dor along with pertinent citations from Greek and early Christian healing sources ... JW: rest of footnote missing in my copy

65 K. Russell, "The Earthquake Chronology of Palestine and Northwest Arabia from the 2nd through the mid-8th Century A.O.", Bulletin of the American Schools of Or:, Research 260 (1985), p. 45.

66 Hippos 2006, p. 84.

67 Russell, op. cit., p. 47.

68 Hippos 2008, p. 45.

69 Hippos 2009, p. 71.

70 P. Magdalino, "The Byzantine Aristocratic Oikos", in M. Angold (ed.), The Byzantine Aristocracy IX to XIII Centuries, Oxford 1984, p. 94.

71 JW: this footnote is missing in my copy

Notes by JW

The 363 CE earthquake appears to have led to widespread destruction in Hippos Sussita. Segal et al. (2013:160) suggest that colonnades likely collapsed in the forum and Eisenberg and Osband (2022) report 363 CE earthquake evidence in the Basilica, at the Propylaeum and Theater of the Saddle Compound, and in the Saddle Necropolis. In the Saddle Necropolis, Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024) uncovered evidence of foundation damage that appears to date to the 363 CE event. Foundation damage suggests high levels of local intensity. The Basilica contains the clearest archaeoseismic evidence which Eisenberg (2021:171-173) describe as follows:

The destruction of the basilica was caused by the 363 CE earthquake, as evident by the coins (Table 1) and the pottery⁵¹ from the fills directly above the basilica floor and the floor of room III. The latest of the trapped coins date to 361/2 CE. The recovered wall painting and stucco fragments date from the 1st century BCE until the 3rd century CE, with most pieces (including the in-situ ones) assigned to the 2nd-3rd century CE⁵². Interestingly, none of the fragments are dated to the 4th century CE. Moreover, the basilica debris did not include broken marble statues or significant amount of any small finds that could attest to a sudden destruction of an active public building. Consequently, it seems that the basilica was not maintained and fully active for some years before the 363 CE earthquake⁵³. The sole evidence for a sudden disaster is the find of parts of skeletons of at least four humans that were buried under the collapsed roof in the northern part of the nave⁵⁴. Two of the almost intact skeletons belonged to an adult male and a young female. The female was found with an iron nail (most probably from the roof ) stuck in her knee bones and a dove-shaped pendant resting between her neck bones. The pendant (B7769) is one of most luxurious pieces of jewelry found to date in Hippos, made of pure gold and semi-precious stones⁵⁵.

Following the earthquake, the basilica was never rebuilt, nor was the area reused for any significant public structure. The southern part of the basilica debris was covered with floors dated to the 380s CE, constructed ca. 1 m above the basilica floor. Most of the basilica’s architectural fragments, especially from the northern and central parts, were looted and reused in the nearby Byzantine building. During the Umayyad period, additional structures were built on top of the debris, and one building even penetrated through the basilica’s southern walls and reused many of the basilica’s architectural fragments (Figs. 4 – 6).

Footnotes

51 Kapitaikin 2018, 95 – 96, and there for additonal references.

52 Rozenberg 2018.

53 An urban decline is generally noticeable in Hippos from the end of the 3rd-early 4th century CE. At this time the Southern Bathhouse was abandoned and, not later than 363, the odeion, the Saddle Compound and its theater and the mausolea of the Saddle Necropolis were destroyed, never to be rebuilt (Eisenberg 2019a, 376).

54 The physical anthropology unpublished report concerning the skeletons was prepared in 2014 by Y. Abramov and I. Hershkovitz of the Tel Aviv University.

55 Eisenberg 2017b, 17, Fig. 15.

The 1st Northwest Church Earthquake - 7th or Early 8th century CE

Discussion

References

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

The Archaeological Record of the Umayyad Period and the AD 749 Earthquake at Hippos

The North-West Church (NWC)

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:151-152)

In the second half of the fifth century the NWC was built inside the Hellenistic Compound reusing some of the Roman temple foundations (Figs 9.3; 9.7). The church complex was almost fully excavated and published.³⁶ The church is the second largest and most prominent, after the cathedral, built in the centre of the city above what used to be a pagan sanctuary. The church had several renovation phases during the Byzantine period and its final collapse is precisely dated to the AD 749 earthquake by multiple finds, especially the assemblage of fully restorable vessels from the diakonikon. During the last phase of use, dated to the second half of the seventh and the early eighth centuries, a clear decline is noticeable in several of the church spaces, including careless repairs to the mosaic floors, lack of some of the church furniture, and simple blockage of some of the entrances.³⁷ The possibility was raised that some of the damage was a consequence of one of the earthquakes prior to AD 749, e.g. in AD 658 and AD 717.³⁸ Besides the above-mentioned wine and olive oil production and storage activity in the church complex, the atrium at this stage was used mainly for grain processing, as evident from the finds of grain mills and iron parts of a threshing sledge.

A small number of roof tiles were collected from the church debris, which further prompted the suggestion that some parts of the roof had collapsed prior to AD 749 and were not rebuilt, and only a small part of the church was in active use until AD 749. A large basalt cross acroterion was found in the AD 749 debris in the western part of the church, indicating that the main part of the roof stood until then. Moreover, the cross is proof that there was no need to conceal prominent Christian symbols during the Umayyad period.³⁹ A similar cross acroterion was found in the NEC (see below).

The only skeletal remains related to the AD 749 earthquake at Hippos were recovered from the NWC. The skeletons of an adult woman and a child, as well as the skull of a young woman, were found in the atrium, all buried under the earthquake debris.⁴⁰

The last phase of the church complex was summarized by the Polish archaeologists who carried out the excavations in this area as the “reduction of the liturgical space and the expansion of the domestic-activity area.”⁴¹

Footnotes

36 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014.

37 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 210–12.

38 Russell 1985, 46–47; Sbeinati, Darawcheh, and Mourtada 2005, 361–62.

39 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 211.

40 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 216; Jastrzębska 2018, 76.

41 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 216.

Segal et al. (2013)

Hellenistic Sanctuary

Chronological Framework

from Segal et al. (2013:145-146)

A number of probes conducted at various sites within the area of the temple courtyard confirm that in the 3rd century BCE, during the reign of the Ptolemies, a settlement was established here of unknown size and character. It may have been a military outpost or a cultic site and we cannot preclude the possibility there was a settlement here that combined these two functions. Evidence for this is based mainly on pottery and numismatic finds.⁵⁶

The earliest architectural find that was located in the area of the temple courtyard was dated with certainty to the second half of the 2nd century BCE, the period of Seleucid rule. This find was of a several floor sections consisting of irregular flagstones discovered in the southern part of the temple courtyard (figs 65-66, 173).⁵⁷ Yet, whatever historical importance of such a find might be, it cannot indicate the essential nature of the settlement that existed in this place at that time.

The sanctuary, as we know it today, is of a slightly later period and seems to have been built at the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 1st century BCE, that is to say at the end of the Hellenistic period. The four walls that enclose the temple courtyard should be dated to this period. These walls supported the filling that raised the surface level of the courtyard above the plaza extending on the south side of it. In order to relieve the pressure of the filling on the supporting walls, a network of thin walls was set up on their inner sides which created coffer-like structures that indeed provided this relief from the pressure of the fillings.⁵⁸ The sanctuary courtyard was carefully paved of rectangular limestone slabs. We do not know if at this earlier stage of its existence a temple was also erected within it. It may be that instead of a temple there was an altar such as the one that rises over the lower courtyard (terrace) in the Sanctuary of Zeus in Gerasa.⁵⁹

A fairly large number of architectural items such as column bases, column drums, segments of an entablature, as well as Doric and Corinthian capitals, were found in the area of the sanctuary, most of them integrated in secondary use in the walls of the Northwest Church, both in the prayer hall and in the atrium (fig. 174).⁶⁰ The items can be divided into two distinct groups, one of limestone and the other of basalt items. A typological examination makes it clear that the items of limestone were of an earlier period and could be dated to the 2nd and 1 1 centuries BCE. This group includes sections of a Doric frieze with triglyphs and metopes, a Doric capital and a Corinthian capital. None of these items found in secondary use or scattered among the debris give any indication whether they originated from the temple or the altar. The second group of items, all made of basalt, are distinguished for their stylistic uniformity and can be dated to the end of the 1st century BCE or the 1st century CE.

The remains of the temple that can be seen today in the sanctuary, some of them exposed and some buried beneath the walls of the Northwest Church, belong to the tetrastylos prostylos temple erected during the reign of Augustus or his heir Tiberius, i.e. at the end of the 1st century BCE or during the first four decades of the pt century CE.⁶¹ It appears that many of the architectural items made of basalt belong to this temple. The altar erected near the stainvay of the temple is also of that same period.

At the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century a significant change occurred in the design of the sanctuary when its area was reduced to the temple courtyard. The reason for this change was the decision to appropriate the southern plaza of the sanctuary and to replace it with the forum of the city.⁶² The original stairway and the gate at its foot may have been integrated into the formation of the north colonnade of the forum.

The reigning period of Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (193-217 CE) was also a period of florescence and renovation for Hippos. It may therefore be assumed that, like the basilica and the odeion, the Augustan period temple was also restored and that at least some of its renovated decorations were made of marble. Evidence for this can be found in the marble column bases and entablature segments that were also found in secondary use in the walls of the Northwest Church.⁶³

We are unable to determine whether the temple was dismantled at the end of the Roman period or during the Byzantine period. Perhaps it was destroyed, as its neighbor the basilica had been, in the earthquake of 363 CE and was never restored. When the church was built at the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th century, the builders found a wealth of building material which they integrated into the church walls.

Footnotes

56 See the chapter on Military Architecture and the chapter on The Coin Finds.

57 A. Segal, "The Southwest Area of the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2003, p. 13-14, figs 6, 13; idem, "The Hellenistic Compound: Summary of Five Excavation Seasons", Hippos 2004, p. 26-31, figs 11, 50-52; idem, "The Stratigraphic Examination South of the Southern Stylobate in the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2005, p. 25-26, figs 5, 53-55.

58 See above, notes 13 and 14.

59 On the altar on the lower courtyard of the Zeus Sanctuary in Gerasa, see J. Seigne, "Decouvertes recentes sur le sanctuaire de Zeus a Jerash", ADA/ XXXVII (1993), p. 341-351, figs 1-3, pis I-VI; H. Eristov, J. Seigne, "Le Naos Hellenistiquedu sanctuaire de Zeus Olympien a /erash (Jordanie)", Topoi Suppl. 4 (2003), p. 269-298, figs 1-14; P.-L. Gatier etJ. Seigne, "Le Hammana de Zeus a Gerasa", Electrum 11 (2006), p. 171-189, figs 1-6; R. Raja, Urban Development and Regional Identity in the Eastern Roman Provinces, 50 BC-AD 250, Copenhagen 2012, p. 172-175.

60 A. Segal, "The Paved Area of the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2003, p. 14-18, fig. 10 (A); J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Architectural Decoration Presumably Pertaining to the Early Roman Temple", Hippos 2005, p. 48-49, fig. 18. See also M. Greenhalgh, "Spolia: A Definition in Ruins", in R. Brilliant and D. Kinney (eds), Reuse Value: Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Levine, Farnham 2011, p. 75-95.

61 This dating is based on reliable and accurate evidence from the pottery finds unearthed during the stratigraphic probes carried out along the walls of the temple podium by the excavators of the Northwest Church. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Stratigraphic Trench inside the Chancel Area", Hippos 2003, p. 32-33, figs 19, 57-58; idem, "Pre-Church Structures", Hippos 2004, p. 67-68, fig. 25; idem, "Stratigraphic Probes", Hippos 2005, p. 45-48, figs 16-17,77. It is interesting to note in this connection that during the last two decades of the 1st century BCE extensive building projects were constructed at the initiative of King Herod throughout his kingdom and also outside it. Since Hippos had already been included within the kingdom of Herod in 30 BCE, we cannot negate the possibility that Herod wanted to show favor to its inhabitants and financed the building of the temple. Josephus does not mention Hippos as one of the cities that enjoyed the king's largesse but this does not preclude the possibility that Herod was indeed involved with this building project as well. See T. Rajak, "Josephus as Historian of the Herods", in N. Kokkinos ( ed.), The World of Herods, Miinchen 2007, p. 23-34; S. Japp, Die Baupolitik Herodes' des Grossen, Rahden/Westf. 2000, p. 15-48.It is worth mentioning here that at a distance of about 46 km to the north of Hippos, an impressive sanctuary was built in exactly the same period. The reference is to the sanctuary in Omrit near Kibbutz Kfar Szold (in Northern Israel). Although the excavators are not in agreement as to the identity of the site, there is no doubt that this was a cultic site of the Roman period in the center of which there was a temple that in its earlier stage had been Herodian. See A. Overman, J. Olive & M. Nelson, "A Newly Discovered Herodian Temple at Khirbet Omrit in Northern Israel", in N. Kokkinos (ed.), The World of the Herods, Miinchen 2007, p. 177-195; A. Overman and D. Schowalter (eds), The Roman Temple Complex at Horvat Omrit: An interim report, Oxford 2011; M. Bernett, 'Space and Interaction: Narrative and Representation of Power under the Herodians'. in D. Balch and A. Weissenrieder (eds), Contested Spaces: Houses and Temples in Roman Antiquity and the New Testament, Tilbingen 2012, p. 283-309, figs 1-4.

62 See chapters on Urban Plan and City Landscape and on the Forum.

63 In the prayer hall of the Northwest Church, eight marble bases were discovered which the church builders had used to heighten the columns of the colonnade separating the nave from the northern aisle. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "The Northwest Church Complex", Hippos 2001, p. 6-13, figs 27-28, 35. Of special interest is the section of a marble frieze decorated with scrolls of acanthus leaves which, in secondary use, became the base for the chancel screen in the southern aisle of the Northwest Church. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Exploration of the Northwest Church Complex", Hippos 2002, p. 15-28, figs 33-34. According to the impressive level of workmanship of this architectural item, it can apparently be dated to the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century CE. Its proportions, however, encourage us to think that it may have originated from the temple during the Severan stage of its existence.

Forum

Conclusion

from Segal et al. (2013:160)

The excavations in the forum area are still far from completion. Until we excavate the shops that border the forum on the east side and separate it from central bathhouse and until the northeast area of the forum is exposed where the forum, decumanus maximus and basilica come into contact with each other, we cannot determine the general overall shape of the forum and propose its full reconstruction. Nonetheless, we now possess at the end of 12 seasons of excavations sufficient data about the main stages in the existence of the forum, from its beginnings until its final abandonment at the mid 8th century.

The forum plaza was apparently paved at the end of the 1st century CE within the extensive urban construction program that included the paving of the decumanus maximus and the erection of a number of public buildings such as the basilica and the odeion.⁴⁷ The construction of the building complexes around the forum naturally took a long while to complete and at this stage of our research we cannot determine with certainty the order in which the various structures around the paved plaza were built.

The very location of the forum plaza which extends to the south and closely adjoining the south wall of the Hellenistic Sanctuary, confirms that the urban planners worked under certain constraints because they had to take into account the existence of this sanctuary that had stood there before the city was planned. They took advantage of the plaza that already existed south of the temple courtyard of the Hellenistic Sanctuary and simply altered its function, changing it from the forecourt of the sanctuary into a forum.⁴⁸ This decision ensured the preferred location of the forum in the centre of the city and the convenient connection between the two sections of the decumanus maximus and the forum. The basilica that was erected on the northeast side of the forum and adjacent to it created, together with the forum, a central public complex easily accessible from all parts of the city.

As mentioned above, at the first stage of its existence the forum was not surrounded by columns (colonnades).⁴⁹ These were erected only at the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century CE, at the time when Hippos as well as other cities in the Roman East enjoyed a period of florescence and urban renewal.⁵⁰ It seems that at the same time as the three colonnades of the forum were built the decorative gates that marked the eastern and western connections of the forum plaza with the decumanus maxim us were also erected.

The devastating earthquake that occurred in the region in 363 CE did not spare the forum. It may be assumed that the colonnades collapsed and as a result, some of the stylobates were also dismantled. Between the forum plaza and the south wall of the Hellenistic Sanctuary various workshops and stores were set up. This naturally led to the deconstruction of the stairway that once led from the forum to the temple forecourt in the Hellenistic Sanctuary. Presumably, the forum continued to function as the main public plaza in the city until the Umayyad period, even if a considerable part of it had become an area of workshops, stores and even residential quarters. The fatal earthquake of 749 CE destroyed the city but did not complete erase life in the forum. A number of column shafts and fragments of architectural items were arranged in the northeast comer of the forum, turning it into a sheep pen.

Footnotes

47 See the following chapters: Urban Plan and City Landscape, Basilica and Odeion.

48 See the chapter on Hellenistic Sanctuary, n. 62 and the chapter on Urban Plan and City Landscape.

49 See above, n. 30.

50. See the chapter on the Basilica, n. 57.

Basilica

Chronological Framework

from Segal et al. (2013:179-180)

The basilica in Hippos was erected at the end of the 1 st century or the beginning of the 2nd century CE, during the period in which other public buildings in the city were constructed, such as the odeion.⁵⁵ It is reasonable to assume that the forum plaza and the decumanus maximus were also laid out within the same period of time.

The basilica was not built on virgin soil. While excavating the southern part of the nave, a few scanty remains of wall sections were exposed which were sufficient to indicate that before the construction of the basilica some other kind of building had been standing there.⁵⁶

The ceramic finds that were unearthed near the remains of these walls have been dated to the ist century BCE - beginning of the ist century CE. Even if, on the basis of these wall sections, we cannot determine the essential nature of the structure that preceded the erection of the basilica, we cannot negate the possibility that this structure which once stood in the very heart of the city adjacent to the Hellenistic Sanctuary was also a public building, perhaps also a basilica.

In our discussion above, we raised the possibility that the decorative architectural items made of marble that were discovered in the interior space of the basilica and in secondary use in the Northwest Church may indicate that the basilica had undergone renovations during the 3rd century CE, perhaps similar to that undergone in the same period of time by the basilica in Samaria or, for example, by the Large Theatre in Beth Shean/Scythopolis.⁵⁷

The basilica was destroyed in the earthquake of 363 CE and was never reconstructed. During the Byzantine and Umayyad periods various installations as well as residential structures were set up to the south and east of it.⁵⁸ The central and western doorways in the southern wall of the basilica were sealed while the eastern one was left open and to the south of it a dirt track was laid that led from the decumanus maximus northwards. This was probably the thoroughfare that led towards the Umayyad building (a mosque?) that was erected in the basilica area.⁵⁹ Support for this claim can be found in the structure resembling an arched gateway set up near the southeastern corner of the basilica built in a very careless manner from architectural items in secondary use that had originally belonged to both Roman and Byzantine structures.

Footnotes

55 Hippos 2009, p. 31.

56 The reference is to the two walls built of rough stones, each of which has survived to the height of one course only: wall W2096, running in an east-west direction and wall W2203, that runs north-south.

57 The reign of Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (193-217 CE) was a period of florescence and renewal for many cities in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. On the basilica in Samaria, see J. Crowfoot, K. Kenyon, E. Sukenik, Buildings at Samaria, London 1942, p. 55-57, fig. 39; J. Baity, Curia Ordinis, Bruxelles 1990, p. 396-397, 507-509, figs 197 and 248; N. Avigad, "Samaria (City)", in E. Stem (ed.), The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Jerusalem 1993, vol. 4, p. 1308. On the Large Theatre in Beth Shean (Scythopolis), see A. Segal, Theatres in Roman Palestine and Provincia Arabia, Leiden 1995, p. 56-60, figs 49-58. On the reign of Septimius Severus, see A. Birley, The African Emperor: Septimius Severus, London 1988. Another good example of extensive renovations in a public building is the theatre in Caesarea which was erected in 10 BCE during the reign of Herod. The front of the stage building (scaenae frons) was redesigned and decorated with various items in granite and marble. See A. Segal, op. cit., p. 64-69.

58 On the assorted ovens and other installations that were exposed in the area near the southern wall of the basilica, see Hippos 2007, p. 19-22, figs 22-26 (Area I: Oven room).

59 Three out of the four walls of the Umayyad structure have been exposed on their outer sides: the southern one (W2089), the western one (W2090) and the northern one (W2091). It is reasonable to suppose that the eastern wall, which has not yet been exposed, extends to the east of the eastern wall of the basilica. This area, as well as the interior space of the Umayyad structure, has not yet been excavated.

The Northwest Church Complex

Excerpts

from Segal et al. (2013:196-216)

The Northwest Church (NWC) complex, excavated and studied by the Polish team in 2000-2009,¹ is one of the rare instances attested for the region of a church that was still active as such during the Umayyad period. Archaeological contexts sealed by the earthquake of 749 CE provide us with an invaluable record of the church's activity at that time, while the analysis of archaeological material sheds light on both the liturgical functioning of this church and the economic role of its annexes at that late period (fig. 255).

The Northwest Church (figs 255-256) was erected in the centre of the city,² at a place previously occupied by an Early Roman period temenos that was built, to judge from the pottery deposits associated with its foundations, in the Augustan or early Tiberian times (fig. 257).³ The church architects re-used parts of the walls of the cella constructed of large limestone ashlars and those of its precinct wall built of smaller basalt ashlars.

... the church could not have been built before the end of the 5th century; indeed, it is probable that its construction date was during the first half of the 6th century.

... As to the final date of the church, it is well recorded by many destruction deposits clearly connected to the earthquake of 749 CE, which happened while the building was still in use as a place of Christian worship.¹⁵

The development of the Northwest Church presents two main architectural phases that can be divided into at least two sub-phases each, according to the spatial arrangement of the interior and the chronology of floors; they were then followed by a phase of decline.¹⁶ In Phase I (a-b), the church compound was designed as a three-aisled basilica (22.20 30m long and 15.40 m wide, with interior dimensions 20.70 x 13.70m) flanked by side wings and preceded by a spacious square atrium (fig. 262).

... This dating of the modified arrangement of the church in Phase Ila coincides with the introduction of the Great Entrance rite into the liturgy.⁶⁴

... The final phase of the church (Phase III) was the decline of the basilica which must have been the result of some unspecified disaster of an unknown date but which clearly caused serious damage to the nave; it was probably one of the earthquakes which affected this region in the second half of the 7th century (658 CE) or at the beginning of the 8th century (717 CE).¹⁰¹ Indeed, eloquent testimony to the ancient repairs made to the mosaic floor can be seen at the southern pastophorion. Right under the arched entrance to this room, the mosaic bears traces of repairs carried out after it was damaged, probably during an earthquake (fig. 281). The repair is entirely slipshod, with no attention paid to the proper restoration of the geometrical border of the mosaic "carpets" in L223 (the chanceled part of the southern aisle) and L208 (the pastophorion). During this repair, the mosaic cubes that were quite randomly placed back into the damaged floor must have effaced whatever had remained of the original pattern,¹⁰² possibly an inscription referring to a saint (or saints) venerated in this room. Inside the chapel itself, close to the reliquary, another damaged part of the floor was filled in with a layer of buff clay, strongly suggesting that during that specific period the local community lacked means to ensure a higher standard of restoration.¹⁰³ Let us remember that Hippos must have been conquered by the Islamic troops of Shurahbil at the same time as Tiberias, in 634 CE, after which the latter town was established as the capital of the Jordan province (Jund al-Urdunn), while Hippos probably lost its former importance and began to tum into a provincial town.

There followed a final blow given to the church compound by the earthquake of 749 CE; indeed, the latest numismatic find in the church was an Umayyad coin minted in Tiberias and dated to 737-746 CE, discovered in a securely sealed context on the floor of the northern aisle.¹⁰⁴ A number of other important destruction deposits, tightly sealed by the masses of building stone, make it clear that at the moment of the earthquake the basilica was still in use as a place of Christian worship. One exception was the nave and the central chancel which apparently were not repaired after some earlier damage. The extremely poor state of preservation of their floors strongly contrasts with very good state of the aisle floors (fig. 272). During the exploration of the nave, not a single piece of the chancel screens or posts were found, as they must have been removed well before the final destruction of the church. The same applies to the altar of the main chancel of which no traces remain. Furthermore, only a few roof-tile fragments were collected, which means that by 749 CE large parts of the roof must have already collapsed. The destruction of the roof, however, does not seem to have been complete in the western part of the basilica, because a basalt cross, once crowning the top of the roof above the western facade, collapsed only during the final earthquake (fig. 282).¹⁰⁵ This find, pertaining to the mid-8th century, contradicts the common belief about removing the crosses under Moslem pressure.¹⁰⁶ Also the presence of the columns in the eastern portico (unlike the remaining porticoes) of the atrium suggests that the latter still retained its roof-balcony and possibly enabled access to the galleries.

In striking contrast to this were the contents of the aisles that allow for a reconstruction of the liturgical functioning of the church during the final years (decades?) of its existence. There seems to be no doubt that, while the nave was used merely as a kind of an inner atrium (mesaulon?), the cult focused on the aisles. A deposit of broken marbles found in the small northern aisle (fig.283) contained a fragmentary rectangular mensa¹⁰⁷ with its four legs in the form of colonettes, a twisted support (for a phiale containing water for hand-washing? for a lectern?) and a reliquary.¹⁰⁸ The imprints of the mensa legs on the mosaic floor trace the shape of a trapezium instead of a rectangle (fig. 274) and, as about one third of the mensa was never found, there is no doubt that an incomplete tabletop was being used. Under the altar, a reliquary must have stood on a limestone stem-like support, its lower part still in situ, inserted in the mosaic floor. The reliquary has the popular form of a miniature sarcophagus with a circular opening in the centre of the lid and three compartments inside; one of them contained a miniature glass bottle with tiny pieces of bone (fig. 284).¹⁰⁹ In front of the altar, a bronze hanging lamp in the shape of a dove was found, complete with its chains (fig. 285);¹¹⁰ it must have collapsed during the earthquake either from the keystone of the apse's semi-dome or from the lintel of the chancel door. The northern one of the chancel screens and the two post-colonettes were robbed during modern times, apparently when a military trench was dug out across the northern wing of the Northwest Church complex during World War II;¹¹¹ however, the discovery of the precious lamp in situ proves that the destruction deposits on the floor have remained undisturbed.

The southern pastophorion preserved eloquent testimony of its ongoing use as the place for the martyr(s) cult. A radiocarbon dating of a sample of wall plaster from this room has suggested 685-730 CE as the most probable date for the final covering of its walls with plaster; was it connected to any damage caused by the earthquake of 717-718 CE?¹¹² A bronze polykandelon was found in situ under the painted blocks collapsed from the entrance arch (fig. 286); its use at the time of the disastrous earthquake is evidenced by the dense traces of burning and fragments of hrn glass lamps recovered from the context in question.¹¹³ It must have been suspended at the keystone of the entrance arch, across which a thick iron rod was installed, probably to carry the curtains.¹¹⁴ Another proof of reverence were the silver crosses fixed onto the two post-colonettes of the southern chancel.¹¹⁵ Placed on top of the reliquary of pink limestone was another reliquary made of marble (fig. 287), shaped as a miniature sarcophagus (L. 0.255 m, W. 0.160 m, H. 0.l0 m), which was identical to the one found in the northern apse. Two of its three rectangular compartments contained tiny pieces of bones, and in the opening of the lid a long bronze pin was found.¹¹⁶ The latter has provided a clue as to the way in which the saint's relics were becoming the source of eulogia to the faithful: they were touched with the bronze pin in order to transfer the blessing onto objects provided, be they ampullae filled with water, oil or wine, pieces of fabric, or something else.¹¹⁷ It is difficult to tell if the lower (pink limestone) reliquary was by that time emptied of its original contents. All of its three compartments, each with its own lid, contained only reddish brown soil which might in fact have been weathered pink limestone.

However, by 749 CE the marble altar which used to stand above the pink limestone reliquary was already dismantled. Minor parts of its legs were found lying by the western wall of the chapel,¹¹⁸ and other parts of them in the western section of the nave. Moreover, the tabletop was discovered in the western part of the northern aisle covered by a thick layer of pure lime. Apparently, by that time, those elements of the marble furniture which were not considered vital for the functioning of the church were removed out of need to obtain more lime for current repairs of the building. It seems that no altar stood above the reliquaries any longer, although a thick and dense layer of clay was noted during the exploration in the eastern part of the room; this might have pertained to an altar built of dried clay as those used in some churches of Provincia Arabia from the second half of the 7th century onwards.¹¹⁹ If such an altar did exist, however, the reliquaries could not have been entirely encased inside; the upper reliquary clearly remained accessible to the priest administering eulogiae.

To conclude, it seems certain that by the mid-8th century the liturgical space of the Northwest Church was limited to the aisles. We believe that the northern apse can be identified as the place of an eucharistic altar with a reliquary under it and a dove-shaped lamp of bronze hung as an "eternal light" in front of it. The imprints of the altar legs and the emplacement of the support for the reliquary (fig. 274) prove that the altar stood in front of the apse, leaving enough place for the priest to celebrate while facing the congregation.¹²⁰ The southern pastophorion functioned as a martyr(s) chapel, but at the same time it was from there that both the Little and Great Entrances must have started during that very final phase of the church. The marble mensa above the reliquaries (and, after it had been dismantled, perhaps a dried-clay altar?) would have served as a prothesis table. The niche in the northern wall may have been used for keeping not only the Holy Books, but also the Eucharist reserve;¹²¹ situated at the convenient height of 0.95m above the floor level, it may have even functioned as a prothesis niche if an altar or table was no longer available in the room. Finally, in front of both lateral chancels (the northern and the southern one), a modest terracotta lamp with dense traces of burning was found in an identical position attesting to the custom of lighting lamps (and probably candles) by the faithful.

... However, the large number of shards of restorable storage jars of the late "Beisan" type (first half of the 8th century)¹³⁶ leaves no doubt that in the final period the cellar was used in connection with the winery installed in the northern wing of the church. The same probably applies to a small room attached to the outer northern wall of the atrium located between the northern wing's winery and the northern entrance to the atrium.¹³⁷ The winery was active till the very moment before the earthquake; it seems very probable that it belonged to the church (as suggested by the fact that the storage cellar for the wine was apparently located within the church premises and in this late period it was accessible from inside the atrium only), or to the elite of the congregation. Built upon the earlier rooms of the northern annexe, it consisted of two compartments for the storage of grapes (L782, L783) abutting on a narrow service corridor (L780), a treading floor (l775) and a must collecting vat (L776) as well as a large mosaic-paved room (L210W) where the fermentation process of wine took place (fig. 294).¹³⁸

A narrow trench, less than 1.50m wide, was excavated along the western face of the original western wall of the atrium (W799); it revealed the presence of a pavement made of irregular basalt flagstones (F2574) and a channel (L2582), probably for drainage, sloping slightly from north to south (fig. 295).¹³⁹ In all probability, this was the section of another courtyard measuring 11.60m from north to south (while its east-west extent remains unknown), attached to the western side of the atrium in the late period. At the southern end of the trench in question, a doorway was found situated in an east-west wall built against the southwest corner of the atrium. The testimonies to the earthquake of 749 CE as recorded in the Northwest Church complex have also included some human remains, specifically the skull of a young woman found in the shaft of the cellar in the atrium as well as damaged skeletons of an elderly woman and a child discovered in the debris of the central room in the western portico of the atrium.¹⁴⁰

Footnotes

1 The team was directed by Jolanta Mlynarczyk (on behalf of the Research Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw) and by Mariusz Burdajewicz (on behalf of the National Museum in Warsaw). The many students who participated in the dig represented the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, the Conservation Faculty, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, University of Stefan Wyszynski in Warsaw, Catholic University of Lublin, Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. We would like to thank most warmly all the institutions and individuals who provided financial and logistic support for our project, among them the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities who annually assisted the team director with a scholarship. The former Ambassadors of the Republic of Poland to Israel, Dr. Maciej Kozlowski and Dr. Agnieszka Miszewska supported our project in multiple ways. Our research on one of the aspects of the Northwest Church, specifically, its liturgical functioning, was financed by Grant No. lHOl B009 29 of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland (2005-2007).

2 From a topographical description of the churches at Sussita as provided by Ovadiah 1970, 174-178, Nos. 171-174, one would conclude that Northwest Church should be identified as his "Church a" (No. 171, pl. 69); however, neither the description of visible remains nor the sketch plan match the church in question.

3 For remains of the temple, see J. Mlynarczyk and M. Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 67-68, fig. 25; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 53.

15 For the conclusive evidence, see Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 31-32.

16 For the phasing of the church, see Mlynarczyk 2008a, p. 149-169.

64 This is believed to have happened about the reign of Justin II (565-578 CE), cf. Crowfoot 1938, p. 51.

101 Ognibeni 2002, 112, mentions earthquakes of 658 and 717 or 718 CE as having caused the damage done to the West Church in Pella of the Decapolis. There is little doubt that the same earthquakes must have inflicted similar damage to the buildings on Sussita.

102. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 26; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, figs 78-79.

103. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 61, fig. 77.

104. A. Berman, Hippos 2001, no. 31.

105. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 33-34, fig. 63. For a parallel cross found at the Northeast Church, see M. Schuler, Hippos 2003, p. 41, fig. 71, and for a stone cross from Khirbet el-Beyudat in the Lower Jordan Valley, see Hizmi 1993, p. 158.

106. Records discussed by Ognibeni 2002, p. 130-132. Crosses occur also on the gable roofs of churches depicted on the mosaic in the lower church at Quwaysmah laid in 718/719, cf. Piccirillo1997, fig. 454.

107. The altar pertains to type F according to the typology of altars by Chalkia 1991, p. 54, F:It 2.

108. About this find: Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 71; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48-50.

109. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48, n. 54. For this form of the reliquary in the churches of Palaestina II (example of Pella, East Church) and Arabia, see Michel 2001, p. 75-77.

110. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2001, p. 9, fig. 40; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 50, pl. 11.

lll. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 39.

112 Northwest Church, see n. 101 above.

113. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 27, fig. 44; Burdajewicz and Mlynarczyk 2006, p. 28, ii. 14.

114. For "eternal light" and curtains in front of the martyrs chapel, see Pena 2000, p. 52.

115. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2002, p. 19; Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 47-48 and pl. 8.

116. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 26, fig. 47; Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48, pl. 9.

117. Burdajewicz and Mlynarczyk 2006, p. 25; a similar way of obtaining the eulogia might have been used in the East Church at Pella, cf. Michel 2001, p. 122, fig. 37. Examples of receiving the blessing by touching the holy relics (a practice more rare in the East than in the West) are quoted by Pena 2000, p. 70-71 (for the Antioch region?) and p. 74-75 (for Chalcedon). On hagiasma and eulogia, see Festugiere 1962, notes 149-150.

118. Initially misinterpreted as pertaining to two different altars, cf. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 27, fig. 49.

119. Michel 2001, p. 62-68, fig. 34: b-c; Duval 2003, p. 66.

120. Cf. Duval 2003, p. 108-110.

121. Lassus 1947, p. 195.

136. Mlynarczyk (Pottery Report), Hippos 2007, p. 96.

137. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2007, p. 64-65, figs 100-102.

138. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 36-35, figs 65-72; Mlynarczyk 2008b.

139. footnote is missing

140. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2006, p. 54; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz., Hippos 2007, p. 62; E. Deutsch, Hippos 2007, p. 97.

The Northeast Church and Northeast Insula Project

The Phasing of the NIP (Northeast Insula Project)

from Segal et al. (2013:239-241)

Work on the Northeast Insula Project began with excavation of the Northeast Church. Probes beneath the floor levels of the complex consistently show ceramic assemblages dating no later than the late 5th or early 6th centuries. The Northeast Church was most likely built during that time frame. But the church was clearly situated within the pre-existing street grid of the city and may have incorporated walls of a previous building (W512b and W554) or set some of its wall over foundations of earlier ones ( e.g., W541). The apse of the church did break the line of Cardo 3N and required reworking of W1230/1267 to incorporate the peristyle house into the larger church compound. Possibly a pre-existing home once occupied the site of the church (see domestic remains under the south hall and in the plaza to its south; Cistern A may have served a peristyle court).

The Northeast Church was apparently built as a memorial church housing two tombs in its chancel: a masonry tomb holding a coffin with three individuals and a sarcophagus for a revered elderly woman. In this original phase, the entire church (chancel, nave, aisles, and western portico) were carpeted in mosaics. Each stylobate had four columns.

In secondary phasing, major changes came to the NEC. In the west, the portico was paved with flagstones, benches were added on the west side of WSl l, gates were installed at each end of the portico, the Gamma building complex was constructed, and Cardo 2N was repaved. Within the domus the nave received a second geometric floor. Repairs to other floors are notable in the north aisle and in the skeuophylakion. The level of the chancel was raised with a floor of irregular stone tiles into which loculi for reliquaries were inserted and a synthronon was added. At this time a sarcophagus was inserted into the masonry tomb on top of the previous burial. In the aisles, benches were added to the north and south walls. Since the north benches were made of corbels, identical corbels were used in the north wall, two additional columns were added to the north stylobate, and the intercolumnation was changed from areostyle to systyle, we surmise that major damage was done to the church that required significant reconstruction. It is reasonable to suggest that much of this secondary phasing was of necessity done concurrently. The quality of the reconstruction is such as to suggest extreme poverty on the part of the community supporting the NEC. We would therefore surmise that the addition of the sarcophagus to the masonry tomb and the extraction of relics from the tomb of the elderly woman served as funding sources for the reconstruction.

There are some hints as to the dating of this secondary phasing. As noted earlier, the late 6th-century date of the mosaics at Kursi (585 CE) and in the baptistery at Hippos (591 CE) suggest a similar date for the upper geometric floor (F589) of the Northeast Church. "Textual documentation ... suggests that a disastrous earthquake on July 9, 551, wrought a path of destruction from the three provinces of Palestine through at least the province of Syria 11."⁶⁵ Petra was never rebuilt after that earthquake. Perhaps damage from it led to renovations of the Northeast Church culminating in the geometric floor. Alternatively, a section of wall plaster from behind the synthronon was dated by C-14 to approximately 675 CE.⁶⁶ If this plastering reflects the secondary phase repairs, its date aligns with literary reports on one or two major earthquakes in Palestine in 659/660 CE. According to the Chronographia of Theophanes: "a great earthquake throughout Palestine and Syria had given cause for an extensive collapse of the buildings of the East."⁶⁷ The extensive 7th century reconstruction in the Monastery of St. Euthymius followed that earthquake.

JW: An incomplete copy means some of the text in the following paragraph and a half is incorrectly transcribed.

Hippos itself would be destroyed by a major earthquake in 749 CE, after which it was never re-occupied as a city. However, prior to that earthquake, liturgical rites ceased in the Northeast Church. All doors to the domus were intentionally sealed, except the entrance to the south aisle that gave access to the tomb of the elderly woman. Burials stopped. Reliquaries were removed. A crude wall was built around the exposed sarcophagus of the woman. A bench was installed inside the southwest entrance, and the North Lateral (?) and Medial Chambers were converted to domestic use (guard?). The church became a mausoleum and was little used or abandoned by the earthquake of 749 CE.

What once appeared to be a small memorial (?) church situated between Cardo 2 North and Cardo 3 North, after subsequent excavation of surrounding spaces now appears to be the north-westerly component of a much larger complex (Fig. 323). To the north of the church we now entertain the possibility of a a two-story structure. Access to the second story would have come via the staircase next (?) to W521. W555 may have been added to W? to help support the second story. Doorways providing access to this structure were also sealed. To the east is a peristyle house. The south door jamb in W1267 of that house was incorporated into the wall of the apse and thus constructed at the same time.⁶⁸ This doorway also was intentionally blocked as was the exterior doorway to the storage room of the house in W1230. We hypothesize that this house reached its "fulfillment" as a monastery and was sealed off when the church and its related rooms were likewise sealed.⁶⁹ Magdalino has argued that "many, if not most, urban and suburban churches and monasteries were converted lay οικοι."⁷⁰ A monastery "in more ways than one was the alter ego of the secular οικς. Far from being a negation of the extended household ... the religious foundation was the household's ultimate fulfillment .... The foundation and endowment of a family monastery was a sound economic investment, capable of bringing materials as well as spiritual benefits to the founder and those of his [or her] descendants who inherited proprietary rights to the establishment."⁷¹

The appearance of pagan elements among the small finds from the house, especially the Tyche and the maenad, could argue against such a hypothesis. But counter arguments are possible. The maenad may be defaced, depriving it of any numinous power and religious significance. The Tyche may be little more than a symbol of civic pride and classical heritage. Although we cannot yet with certainty date the peristyle house, elements (architectural, ceramic, and artistic) do suggest that the peristyle house was earlier that the church. If so, we deem it a possibility that this home of a prominent family at Hippos became the starting point of an urban monastery that eventually took over a neighboring home to the west, removed most of it, and built the Northeast Church, incorporating its apse into a reconstructed western wall of the house.

While this hypothesis is suggestive for future work, significant additional excavation is necessary before we can say with any certainty that this peristyle house actually found its fulfillment as an urban monastery that then was expanded to construct the Northeast Church.

Footnotes

64 For a parallel example of a place of incubation, see the discussion of the basilica at Dor along with pertinent citations from Greek and early Christian healing sources ... JW: rest of footnote missing in my copy

65 K. Russell, "The Earthquake Chronology of Palestine and Northwest Arabia from the 2nd through the mid-8th Century A.O.", Bulletin of the American Schools of Or:, Research 260 (1985), p. 45.

66 Hippos 2006, p. 84.

67 Russell, op. cit., p. 47.

68 Hippos 2008, p. 45.

69 Hippos 2009, p. 71.

70 P. Magdalino, "The Byzantine Aristocratic Oikos", in M. Angold (ed.), The Byzantine Aristocracy IX to XIII Centuries, Oxford 1984, p. 94.

71 JW: this footnote is missing in my copy

Notes by JW

Segal et al. (2013:210) suggest that the Northwest Church suffered damage in a 7th or early 8th century CE earthquake.

The final phase of the church (Phase III) was the decline of the basilica which must have been the result of some unspecified disaster of an unknown date but which clearly caused serious damage to the nave; it was probably one of the earthquakes which affected this region in the second half of the 7th century (658 CE) or at the beginning of the 8th century (717 CE).¹⁰¹ Indeed, eloquent testimony to the ancient repairs made to the mosaic floor can be seen at the southern pastophorion. Right under the arched entrance to this room, the mosaic bears traces of repairs carried out after it was damaged, probably during an earthquake (fig. 281).

Footnotes

101 Ognibeni 2002, 112, mentions earthquakes of 658 and 717 or 718 CE as having caused the damage done to the West Church in Pella of the Decapolis. There is little doubt that the same earthquakes must have inflicted similar damage to the buildings on Sussita.

Although Segal et al. (2013:210) suggested the the 717 CE Earthquake as a possible candidate, the epicenter of this event was likely too far away to have caused such damage. The Jordan Valley Quake(s) of 659/660 CE, however, is a plausible candidate as is an earthquake unreported in currently extant historical records.

The 2nd Northwest Church Earthquake - mid 8th century CE

Plans and Aerial Views

Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Plan of Hippos Sussita

Used with permission from BibleWalks.com

from BibleWalks.com
Fig. 16 - Plan of the northwest Church

Figure 16

plan of of the North-West Church (2000-2004)

Segal et al (2004)

from Segal et al (2004)
Fig. 9 - Aerial View of the Cathedral

Figure 9

The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model.

Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

from Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

Discussion

References

Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)

Introduction

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:141,144)

Antiochia Hippos (Sussita in Aramaic), one of the poleis of the Decapolis, is located 2 km east of the shores of the Sea of Galilee, in modern Israel. Situated on Mt Sussita, which rises to about 350 m above the lake, the city was cut off from its surroundings by three streams and could only be accessed through a saddle in the southeast and a winding path in the west¹. The city's main construction materials were the two local stones: basalt and a soft calcrete/caliche (nari).²

Antiochia Hippos was founded after the Battle of Paneion (c. 199 BCE), either by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 BCE), or more likely by Antiochus III the Great (222–187 BCE).³ After Pompey's conquest in 64 BCE, the city was incorporated into Provincia Syria. It flourished throughout the Roman period as the only polis located directly adjacent to the Sea of Galilee on its eastern side, with a territorium extending across the southern Golan.⁴

As early as 359 CE, Hippos had become the seat of a bishop. During the Byzantine period, the city retained its importance within the province of Palaestina Secunda and at least seven churches were built within its walls.⁵ In 635 CE, following the victory of the Muslim army at the Battle of Fihl (Pella), Hippos likely surrendered without resistance and signed a treaty with the new Muslim authority along with Tiberias and other nearby towns.⁶ The decisive defeat of the Byzantines in the Battle of the Yarmuk in 636 CE brought Hippos and the entire region under Islamic rule and administration.⁷ Bilād al-Shām (Greater Syria) was divided into military districts. The Byzantine Palaestina Secunda became Jund al-Urdunn with thirteen subdistricts (kurah/kuwar), among them Susiya (Sussita/Hippos).⁸ The exact boundaries and status of the new Susiya district are unknown, but it is assumed that initially the Byzantine territorium of Hippos was retained. Over time, however, it lost importance and was likely absorbed into the al-Jawlan (Golan) region of Jund Dimashq.⁹ Afiq (Apheca), east of Hippos, gained importance in this period, situated at a strategic junction between Damascus and Tiberias, at the entrance to the pass descending along Wadi Afik (ʿAqabat Fiq) toward the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.¹⁰ Tiberias, on the western side of the lake, became the new capital, replacing Scythopolis (Baysan)¹¹. The rise of Early Islamic Tiberias and Afik¹² overshadowed their neighbor, Hippos.

On 18 January 749 CE, just before the end of Umayyad rule, Hippos was severely damaged by an earthquake, together with many other settlements in the region. The earthquake damage was never repaired—the site was abandoned instead. The 749 CE disaster is among the best-documented and studied historical earthquakes in the region along the Dead Sea Transform (DST), and the archaeological data from Hippos and its territorium can now be added to this picture.

Hippos has been excavated continuously since 2000 by the Hippos Excavations Project affiliated with the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa¹³. The extensive scale of excavations across the city’s perimeter allows a comprehensive summary of the Umayyad-period building activity, the 749 CE earthquake damage, and the site’s eventual abandonment.

Footnotes

1  Eisenberg 2014, 91–97. In Hippos the saddle is the raised area that connects Mt Sussita with the south- western hills of the Golan Heights.

2  For the geological and geomorphological setting of the site see Shtober-Zisii 2011.

3  Eisenberg 2017.

4  Pazout and Eisenberg 2021; Pazout, Eisenberg, and Osband 2024.

5  Eisenberg, Iermolin, and Shalev 2018, 7–79. For the historical geography of Hippos see Dvorjetski 2014. For a decline in the Late Roman period see Eisenberg and Osband 2024.

6  In this paper the term ‘Umayyad period’ is used to describe the time from the Muslim conquest until the end of the caliphate in AD 750 without sub-dividing it into the rule of the Rashidun and Umayyads.

7  Gil 1992, 43–47; Elad 1999, 67–69.

8  Gil 1992, 111–12.

9  Elad 1999, 69–72.

10  Walmsley 1987, 104, 213, 257, 277, 296; Elad 1999, 72–73.

11  For Baysan during the Early Islamic period and the results of the AD 749 earthquake see Mazor and Atrash in this volume and Tsafrir and Foerster 1997.

12  Assis 2018; Ilanai 2012.

13  Excavations were headed by A. Segal and M. Eisenberg in 2000–2011, by M. Eisenberg in 2012–2015, and by M. Eisenberg and A. Kowalewska since 2016. For the history of research see Segal 2014a. For an overview of the recent excavations see Eisenberg 2019 and for an updated overview of the cityscape see Eisenberg and Segal 2022. Sussita (Hippos) National Park is managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (NPA). A full list of publications is available on the expedition’s website. [accessed 2 February 2024].

Archaeoseismology at Hippos

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)

The archaeological data from over twenty-four years of field research at Hippos points to two clear earthquake catastrophes — in AD 363 and AD 749. Remains of additional recorded earthquakes, like the one of AD 551, were not yet identified with any certainty.¹⁴ Hippos, and more precisely its cathedral (see below), were the centre of several archaeoseismological studies, showing that the hill formation amplified the earthquake’s magnitude.¹⁵ The last study summarizing the data for Hippos and from around the Sea of Galilee was published in 2018.¹⁶

During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground.¹⁷ Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum, and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse,¹⁸ and perhaps also the odeion,¹⁹ the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus.²⁰ The only skeletal remains clearly related to the AD 363 earthquake damage were found in one spot under the collapsed roofing of the basilica.²¹ Post-AD 363 Hippos was a city very different from its Roman predecessor, full of churches that partly replaced the Roman public complexes.²²

The earthquake on 18 January AD 749, centred along the DST, caused catastrophic damage to the entire region. Its precise extent is still debated, but most researchers agree on its major moment magnitude of over 7.²³

Footnotes

14 The AD 551 earthquake, which originated on the Lebanese coast, is attested in historical sources (Shteinati, Darawcheh, and Moury 2005, 537–39; Russell 1985, 44–46) and occasionally in the archaeoseismological record (Wechsler et al. 2018, 18).

15 Hinzen 2009.

16 Wechsler et al. 2018.

17 For the AD 363 earthquake see, e.g., Russell 1980; Levenson 2013; Wechsler et al. 2018; Zohar, Salamon, and Rubin 2017, as well as Eisenberg and Osband 2024 for the Hippos territorium and beyond.

18 Kowalewska (forthcoming). The Southern Bathhouse was mostly abandoned already some years before the AD 363 earth- quake, but it seems that the shocks collapsed at least some parts of the underfloor heating system. The walls of the bathhouse mostly survived this earthquake and collapsed only much later, in the AD 749 earthquake or after.

19 Segal 2014b; Eisenberg and Segal 2022, 350–51.

20 Eisenberg and Segal 2022, 315–53.

21 Eisenberg 2021a, 1–43; (forthcoming); Darin and May (forth- coming).

22 Eisenberg 2021a, 176, 181.

23 Zohar, Salamon, and Rubin 2017; Russell 1985; Wechsler et al. 2018; Tsafrir and Foerster 1992; Marco et al. 2003; Ambraseys 2005; Nur and Burgess 2008; Ferrario et al. 2020.

The Archaeological Record of the Umayyad Period and the AD 749 Earthquake at Hippos

Introduction

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:145)

After twenty-four years of excavations, there have been no finds attesting to rebuilding or long-term settlement activity at Hippos after AD 749. The Umayyad-period remains generally follow the trend of decline started in the Late Byzantine period. There are no new well-built constructions, that is, structures that used quarried (and not rubble) stone and quality binding material, were symmetric, and had sturdy foundations. These remains, described below, were not always preserved after excavations. The low quality of construction makes them almost impossible to stabilize and conserve, so some parts were removed for safety concerns, while others were partly dismantled as part of the archaeological process.

The City Centre

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:145,147)

Following the AD 363 earthquake, the large area of the collapsed civic basilica (55 x 30 m) to the north-east of the forum was not replaced by any other public construction.²⁴ The forum, also significantly damaged in AD 363, was rearranged and parts of its surrounding porticoes and the plaza continued to function into the Umayyad period with simple constructions (probably shops) built on the Roman-period basalt pavement (Fig. 9.5).²⁵ At least the eastern part of the northern portico and the eastern portico most probably still stood when the AD 749 earthquake hit and toppled their columns at a uniform angle onto the forum pavers (Figs 9.6–9.7).²⁶

The Hellenistic Compound to the north of the forum was completely restructured in the Byzantine period — the North-West Church (NWC, see below) was built on top of the foundations of the Roman temple. From the Late Byzantine–Early Islamic period until the AD 749 destruction, the church was surrounded by installations for wine, bread, and olive oil production.²⁷ The three wine presses attest to the continuance of a dominant Christian presence into the Umayyad period (Fig. 9.7).

Footnotes

24 Eisenberg 2021a; (forthcoming).

25 Mesistrano 2014.

26 Four grey granite column shafts, 4.7 m tall, from the forum colonnades were arranged in a curving line in the middle of the forum as a sheep pen after the town's destruction (Mesistrano 2014, 160). Similar scarcely reused remains without any real construction were noted in a few places over the mount. These shafts and the kalybe temple were the only visible remains in the city centre prior to the 2000s excavations. The kalybe, built of basalt as one block without an inner chamber, survived the AD 363 earthquake and was only partly damaged through the next millennium. During the site's development by the NPA in 2022 most of the column shafts were removed from the plaza and put to the south of the remains of the southern portico.

27 Frankel and Eisenberg 2018.

Umayyad-Period Construction above and to the South of the Civic Basilica Ruins

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:147,149)

Some Early Islamic-period constructions were evident in parts of the area where previously the civic basilica stood and farther south towards the decumanus maximus. They were composed of walls constructed of small to medium basalt and nari field stones, reused basalt and nari ashlars stuck in the walls randomly, and reused architectural fragments of the basilica, mainly visible in the foundations (Figs 9.8–9.10).

The most prominent of these Umayyad-period structures was built above the middle of the basilica's eastern aisle and eastern wall (Fig. 9.9).²⁸ The full width of the building was excavated (7 m north–south) with an estimated length of 7.5 m (west–east). The walls are 0.8 m wide, preserved to a height of 1.9 m from their foundations on the bedrock. Speculation that it might be a mosque could not be proven by the excavations. The building was destroyed in AD 749.²⁹

Some of the Early Islamic walls' foundations in this area were based on previous solid Roman or Byzantine constructions, some were dug down to the basalt bedrock for stability, while some remained "floating" even though a solid Roman-period construction was less than half a metre deeper (W1007, Fig. 9.10).

A series of ten clay ovens (tannur) for baking (diameter between 1.2 and 1.8 m) were constructed in the Early Islamic period over the remains of the southern part of the basilica, basilica entrance hall, and the northern forum portico (Fig. 9.11). They were destroyed in the AD 749 earthquake.³⁰

Footnotes

28 Eisenberg (forthcoming).

29 The lack of identified remains of a mosque does not mean that one did not exist. The remains of early, non-monumental mosques are often hard to recognize. For the definition of a mosque in the archaeological record and the chronological debate see Nol 2023, in particular 88–89.

30 Eisenberg (forthcoming); Segal 2007. 20-22, figs 22-26. For a recent discussion on the terminology and definitions of ovens and other cooking installations of the period see Nol 2022. 136-40. Nothing was found in these ovens that would suggest they were used for purposes other than baking and general cooking.

City Churches

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:149)

Seven churches have been recognized so far at Hippos (Fig. 9.3). Five of them were fully or partly excavated and two were identified in surveys. It is very plausible that more churches are still to be found. All excavated churches were built in the mid-fifth to sixth centuries, and all except for the Martyrion of Theodoros (South- West Church/'Burnt Church') continued to function (although not always fully) during the Early Islamic period. The Martyrion of Theodoros, in the westernmost part of the city, was probably burnt during the Persian invasion in AD 614 and not rebuilt.³¹ The nearby Western Living Quarters, described below, continued into the Umayyad period (see below).

Footnotes

31 Staab and Eisenberg 2020; 202-t; Staab, Kowalewska. and Eisenberg 2022; Kowalcwska and Eisenberg 2021a.

The Cathedral

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:149,151)

The largest of the city churches, identified as the cathedral, was built to the south of the decumanus maximus 70 m east of the forum (Fig. 9.3). The cathedral was the main building excavated in the 1950s by the Israeli Department of Antiquity as part of the salvage excavations at the site. To the north of the mono-apsidal cathedral with an atrium stood a large tri-apsidal photisterion hall with a baptismal font. Though no final report was released,³³ the inscriptions in the photisterion were fully published and the construction was dated according to them to AD 591.³³

In 2021 and early 2022 the southern aisle of the cathedral and the eastern portico of the atrium were excavated by the Hippos Excavations Project. The excavation was initiated and mostly sponsored by the NPA, as part of the development of the national park.³⁴ The new excavations allowed for a better understanding of the complex, its construction phases, and liturgical spaces. It was made clear that the datable inscriptions bearing the year AD 590/591 date the last known renovation phase when the mosaic floor of the photisterion was laid and probably the opus sectile floor of the cathedral but not the full construction of the church complex. Probes in the cathedral and atrium made it clear that there are two earlier building phases for the church, the first over 0.5 m lower than the last opus sectile floor, reaching the bottom of the pedestals upon which the cathedral's columns were erected. At the last major renovation phase (AD 590/591) the floor already reached the upper part of these pedestals, concealing them almost entirely.

All the architectural fragments of the cathedral that were made of fine limestone, marble, and granite are reused Roman-period pieces. The church continued to serve in some capacity until the AD 749 earthquake, although in the Late Umayyad period the atrium was mostly overbuilt by simple housing units. The clear testimonies to the AD 749 earthquake are not only the symmetrically toppled 4.7 m long granite and marble column shafts found lying on the opus sectile floor in the 1950s excavations, but also the finds made in the recent digs (Fig. 9.12). An additional liturgical space (baptistery chapel/photisterion?) with a baptismal font enclosed with marble screens was found south of the southern wall of the cathedral. A collection of scattered church furniture was found on the opus sectile floor of this hall, under what seems to be the AD 749 earthquake collapse of the roof and the walls. Among this furniture was a large bronze candelabrum, a marble vessel with three hemispheric spaces for liquids, and a 42 kg marble reliquarium (the largest of its kind to be found in Israel, recovered empty of any relics).

The new excavations provided an opportunity for photogrammetric documentation (Fig. 9.12), which allowed for a more accurate calculation of the orientation of the fallen column shafts in relation to the nearby wall, instead of 10° inaccuracy margins of calculations to the absolute north.³⁵ The six westernmost shafts of the northern row are oriented at angles of 36°–53° to the northern cathedral wall, while the three shafts within the bema lie at angles of 67°, 52°, and 57° (Fig. 9.13). As K.-G. Hinzen (2009) suggested based on 3D quantitative approach models, the variations in the angle of collapse between the columns may have been caused by other pieces of the surrounding architecture, e.g., the entablature above the columns.

Footnotes

33 Epstein and Tzaleris 1991.

34 For the preliminary results see Kowalewska and Eisenberg 2023.

35 Hinzen 2009.

The North-West Church (NWC)

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:151-152)

In the second half of the fifth century the NWC was built inside the Hellenistic Compound reusing some of the Roman temple foundations (Figs 9.3; 9.7). The church complex was almost fully excavated and published.³⁶ The church is the second largest and most prominent, after the cathedral, built in the centre of the city above what used to be a pagan sanctuary. The church had several renovation phases during the Byzantine period and its final collapse is precisely dated to the AD 749 earthquake by multiple finds, especially the assemblage of fully restorable vessels from the diakonikon. During the last phase of use, dated to the second half of the seventh and the early eighth centuries, a clear decline is noticeable in several of the church spaces, including careless repairs to the mosaic floors, lack of some of the church furniture, and simple blockage of some of the entrances.³⁷ The possibility was raised that some of the damage was a consequence of one of the earthquakes prior to AD 749, e.g. in AD 658 and AD 717.³⁸ Besides the above-mentioned wine and olive oil production and storage activity in the church complex, the atrium at this stage was used mainly for grain processing, as evident from the finds of grain mills and iron parts of a threshing sledge.

A small number of roof tiles were collected from the church debris, which further prompted the suggestion that some parts of the roof had collapsed prior to AD 749 and were not rebuilt, and only a small part of the church was in active use until AD 749. A large basalt cross acroterion was found in the AD 749 debris in the western part of the church, indicating that the main part of the roof stood until then. Moreover, the cross is proof that there was no need to conceal prominent Christian symbols during the Umayyad period.³⁹ A similar cross acroterion was found in the NEC (see below).

The only skeletal remains related to the AD 749 earthquake at Hippos were recovered from the NWC. The skeletons of an adult woman and a child, as well as the skull of a young woman, were found in the atrium, all buried under the earthquake debris.⁴⁰

The last phase of the church complex was summarized by the Polish archaeologists who carried out the excavations in this area as the “reduction of the liturgical space and the expansion of the domestic-activity area.”⁴¹

Footnotes

36 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014.

37 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 210–12.

38 Russell 1985, 46–47; Sbeinati, Darawcheh, and Mourtada 2005, 361–62.

39 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 211.

40 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 216; Jastrzębska 2018, 76.

41 Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2014, 216.

The North-East Insula and Church (NIP and NEC)

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:152,154)

The insula and the church within it are situated to the north of the decumanus maximus, c. 45 m north-east of the forum (Fig. 9.3). The NEC is a small mono-apsidal church, built into an existing insula in the late fifth to early sixth centuries AD next to the so-called Peristyle House, an urban villa of the Early Byzantine period. The rest of the insula is taken up by simple courtyards and rooms that surround them, some fairly well built, with secondary use of basalt ashlars and paving stones (Figs 9.14–9.15). A basalt cross acroterion, similar to the above-mentioned one in the NWC, was found in the western debris of the church, which means that most of its roof was still standing in AD 749.⁴²

There is clear evidence for the AD 749 destruction in all the NIP spaces, but most of the insula had been abandoned by then, with some of the passages blocked (Fig. 9.15). The church had also been abandoned before the earthquake, and in the last phase it was full of poorly executed fixes to the floors and the wall plaster. The US expedition partners that excavated the church describe its last phase of use as follows: "The church became a mausoleum and was little used or abandoned by the earthquake of 749 AD."⁴³

Footnotes

42 Schuler 2014, 231

43 Schuler 2014, 240.

The Northern Neighborhood around the Modern Building

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:154)

Some 50 m east of the NEC, two squares were excavated in 2020 in the vicinity of one of the modern buildings, constructed in the 1950s by the Israel Defense Forces. Despite the small scale of exploration in this area and poor state of preservation due to modern construction damage, the finds indicate that the last phases of this residential neighbourhood should be dated to the Late Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. A curious find made here was a basalt drum of the water supply system of the city, reused as the mouth of a cistern in one of the courtyards together with reused Roman paving stones (Kowalewska and Eisenberg 2021b). The reused pipe fragment, together with its surrounding paving stones, indicate that the mouth of the cistern was fixed up after the water supply system pipe had been plun- dered and consequently that this neighbourhood was inhabited after there was no aqueduct to supply water to the settlement. The excavations have not revealed whether the neighbourhood had been abandoned before AD 749 or not.

The Southern Bathhouse and the Neighborhood

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:154)

A large public bathhouse on the southern slopes below the forum ceased to function before the AD 363 earth quake, but most of its walls and vaults survived the quake. Towards the end of the fourth century AD, the hypocaustum chambers and the western service area were filled up and levelled and new simple floors were built on top. Despite extensive excavations, it is unknown what activities took place in these reused halls. The floors were almost entirely devoid of any finds (besides some shards dated to the Byzantine period), indicating that the halls were abandoned before the collapse of the roofing (but there is no material to date the collapse). The southernmost edge of the reused bathhouse spaces preserved traces of a wide wall made of rubble, which was probably part of the city wall. It too could not be precisely dated.

Datable finds were recovered from one of the western service halls (which was reused as a rubbish dump) and from two probes dug among the simple poor- quality walls adjacent to the bathhouse walls from the north and north-west. This, seemingly residential, neighbourhood, built in the fifth to sixth centuries AD on top of unexcavated Roman-period remains, had been emptied around the beginning of the Umayyad period (mid-seventh century AD), at the same time as the above-mentioned rubbish dump was in use⁴⁴. During most of the Early Islamic period this area was largely abandoned.

Footnotes

44 Kowalewska; Lechem (forthcoming)

The Western Living Quarters

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:154)

In 2011–2012 part of an insula in the south-western quarter of the city, c. 12 m north of the Martyrion of Theodoros, was excavated (Fig. 9.3). The junction of two streets was exposed together with a neighbouring courtyard building with a series of small rectangular rooms, all of visibly low-quality construction (Figs 9.16– 9.17). All this area was abandoned some years before the earthquake, around the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century AD.⁴⁵ The nearby Martyrion of Theodoros was already burnt and abandoned in the early seventh century, prior to the Muslim conquest. It seems that when the AD 749 earthquake hit, all this area had been completely abandoned, similarly to the area of the Southern Bathhouse.

Footnotes

45 Kapitaikin 2018, 101-03; Osband and Eisenberg 2018, 214.

The Saddle Necropolis

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:154)

The Saddle Necropolis is the most prominent of the city's three necropoleis, and the only one that has been excavated. The funerary monuments mainly concentrate on the eastern side of the saddle up to the ditch in the middle of the saddle (Fig. 9.3). The extensive excavations of the Saddle Necropolis, including rock-cut cist tombs, sarcophagi, two burial caves, a series of funerary podia, and two mausolea, made it evident that it had been completely destroyed in the AD 363 earthquake. No substantial burial activity occurred here afterwards.⁴⁶

Footnotes

46 Eisenberg 2021b; Eisenberg and Kowalewska 2022; 2024; Kowalewska and Eisenberg 20216; 2023.

The City's Water Supply System

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:156)

Late Byzantine/Early Islamic-period pottery was recovered in the area of the Saddle Necropolis only directly east of the series of funerary podia, where the trench of the basalt pressure water pipe was cut (Fig. 9.18). The pipe and its supplying aqueducts were constructed in the Early Roman period (Tsuk 2018) and extensively renovated at the end of the fourth– beginning of the fifth centuries AD, as is evident from coins recovered from the concrete that secured the basalt pipe in its trench.⁴⁷ The trench next to the podia was found mostly empty, with only one displaced intact pipe drum and a few other small broken pieces. This correlates well with the fact that in the Umayyad period, the pipe segments were partly removed and reused in the Berenice aqueduct that supplied water to the caliph’s winter palace (qasr of al-Sinnabra) at Tel Bet Yerah.⁴⁸ The palace was built and occupied by Muʿāwiya and ʿAbd al-Malik (AD 640–705), which means that Hippos had no water supply system as early as the second half of the seventh century AD. The lack of a sufficient water supply on the hill was surely one of the reasons for the town’s progressing decline. It seems most plausible that the pipe had already been disused due to unrepaired aqueduct damage at the time it was removed, but deliberate destruction cannot be entirely ruled out.

Footnotes

47 Eisenberg and Kowalewska 2022, 121–22.

48 Alexandre 2017; Gluhak 2017.

Inscriptions

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:156-157)

Three inscriptions in Arabic have been located so far at Hippos. An almost fully deciphered and published inscription was found on a broken grey granite mono lithic column shaft lying next to its pedestal along the southern side of the decumanus maximus, next to a passage towards the cathedral's atrium. The inscription has seven lines engraved shallowly on the lower part of the shaft in an angular, primitive, provincial script of the early eighth century AD.⁴⁹ It reads:

O, Allah! forgive [?] al-[one word deleted] [...] son of [one word deleted] such forgiveness that does not excuse sin. Amen! And again Amen! O Lord of the Universe, O Lord of Moses and the Lord of Harim. And the mercy of Allah should be [bestowed] on whomever says Amen.

The names of the person for whom this inscription was written, and the name of his father were deliberately destroyed. Based on the angle of writing, it seems that the inscription was carved when the shaft was already lying down. As far as archaeological evidence goes, the inscription should be dated to after AD 749, yet the epigraphist assigned it to c. 100/717–132/749, at the latest, which would mean that the town was mostly in ruins some time before the AD 749 earthquake. Another problem with such an early dating of this inscription would be the disparity between the Arabic texts and the predominantly Christian make-up of the inhabitants.

Two additional inscriptions were found engraved shallowly on the two faces of a basalt pedestal found fallen on the paving of the decumanus maximus, 43 m east of the former inscription. A full interpretation has not yet been offered but preliminary readings, made by M. Sharon, indicate that the inscriptions were almost identical, written as invocations similar to the first inscription.

Footnotes

49 Sharon 2006.

Coins

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:157)

The coins collected at Hippos until the end of 2023 (Table 9.1) show very clearly that there was no post- Umayyad settlement at the site. There are only seventeen Ayyubid to Ottoman coins (most coming from outside the city walls), while ninety-four coins date to the Umayyad period (out of a total of 2072 identifiable coins found at Hippos).

Soon after Tabariya was made the Umayyad capital of Jund al-Urdunn, its mint became one of the most important in the region.⁵⁰ It is therefore not surprising that of the twenty-seven Early Islamic coins for which the mint is known, twenty-four came from the Tabariya mint, five were from Dimashq, and only two from Baysan.

Footnotes

50 Avni 2014, 71–93; Bone 2000, 53, 150, 305–312; 2007, 47–77.

Pottery

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:157)

Early Islamic pottery is present in every area of excavations at Hippos, although in some it is only a topsoil find. This is not surprising, considering the time span of over one hundred years and the fact that this was the last (the uppermost) settlement activity at the site. The pottery types typical of each period of Hippos settlement, including the Umayyad period, are summarized by Osband and Eisenberg.⁵¹ The Early Islamic pottery at Hippos is composed mainly of local wares, with only a small number of imported vessels. The Abbasid and Mamluk pottery is represented only by lone shards found in a couple of spots.⁵²

Footnotes

51 Osband and Eisenberg 2018, 214, 256–275, pls 9–10.5; and also in Kapitaikin 2018, including a subdivision to the early phases and the late seventh century to AD 749 pottery.

52 The only spot on the hill where later pottery was correlated to any architecture is a twin grave above the eastern city gate. A small number of Abbasid and Mamluk-period pottery sherds were found (Segal and Eisenberg 2004, 37–39).

Glass

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:157)

The 2000-2011 glass finds from Hippos, summarized by M. Burdajewicz, include some Umayyad types of vessels, while no post-Umayyad shards are reported.⁵³

Footnotes

53 Burdajewicz 2018.

Settlement Decline in the Hippos territorium

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:158)

Several villages within the Hippos territorium (krirat Susiya) have been excavated and published to the extent that allows further conclusions (Fig. 9.1). The results of survey data show a clear decline during the Early Islamic period with only eight out of eighteen settlements continuing from the Umayyad to the Abbasid period in the southern Golan.⁵⁴

Afiq/Fiq
The site, situated on the Golan ridge 3.8 km east of Hippos, has been surveyed and explored by small-scale salvage excavations. The village expanded in size during the Umayyad period, but in the Abbasid period a sharp decline was attested.⁵⁵

Kursi
The site, identified with the location of the “Miracle of the Swine,” is located c. 5 km north of Hippos. Its large church and the surrounding monastery/village were abandoned after the AD 749 earthquake.⁵⁶

Deir Aziz
The site is located c. 11 km north-east of Hippos. The excavated synagogue and the spring area were both built in the sixth century AD. The synagogue suffered to some degree in the AD 749 earthquake, but was restored and continued in use, although perhaps reduced in size and with a changed function, in the Abbasid period (ninth century).⁵⁷

Umm el-Qanatir
The site, located c. 11 km north-east of Hippos and just 2.9 km from Deir Aziz, boasts an excavated synagogue, spring compound, and surrounding dwellings. The excavators believe that the synagogue was partly destroyed before the AD 749 earthquake but continued to be used (although the inhabitants of the village had no means to restore it). The synagogue, spring house, and dwellings were hit by the AD 749 earthquake and ceased functioning altogether.⁵⁸

Horvat Kanaf
The site, located c. 11 km north-east of Hippos and 2.5 km from Deir Aziz, has an exposed synagogue and has been explored in several surveys. Z. U. Ma'oz concluded that the village reached its peak in the late fifth–early sixth centuries, was damaged by the AD 551 earthquake and rebuilt after it, but was abandoned before the end of the Byzantine period. The surveys, however, do report some Early Islamic-period finds at the site.⁵⁹

Khisfin
The site, located c. 15 km south-east of Hippos, has excavated churches and burials and several surveys have been conducted there. This large Byzantine village had seemingly been damaged during the seventh century (?) and continued to the Early Islamic period, although without the churches. Both Early and Late Islamic sources show that this village was an important stop along the main Mamluk road.⁶⁰

Footnotes

54 Hartal 2012.

55 Assis 2018; Gregg and Urman 1996, 27–44; Hartal 2012; Hartal and Ben Efraim 2012a.

56 Tzaferis 1983.

57 Ben David and Osband 2020; Hartal and Ben Efraim 2012b; Midoz and Ben David 2006; Zingboym 2011.

58 Ben David and Zingboym 2014; Dray, Gonen, and Ben David 2017; Wechsler and others 2009.

59 Hartal and Ben Efraim 2012c; Midoz 1993.

60 Cohen and Talshir 1999; Hartal and Ben Efraim 2012d.

The Location of the Afiq Pass

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:158-159)

One other issue that relates directly to Hippos of the Umayyad period is the location of the Afiq Pass (Aqabat Fiq), a place mentioned in several Early Islamic written sources.⁶¹ Although the sources post-date the end of the Umayyads, they are most probably based on earlier traditions of stories that circulated in the Umayyad period. One of the most curious is the account from Ibn Hanbal (AD 780–855) about al-Dajjal = Antichrist:

“The Antichrist will roam the earth as far as Medina, but he will not be permitted to enter [that city] […] From there he will roam until he reaches the country of Shamm. Jesus will then descend and by his hand Allah will kill the Antichrist near Aqabat Afiq.”⁶²

The same is mentioned by Abu Ghalib:

'I was walking with Nawf until I arrived to 'Aqabat al-Fiq. Said (Nawf): this is the place in which the Messiah will kill al-Dajjal.'⁶³

Another tradition places Jesus in a monastery (Deir Fiq or a-Deir al-'Aswad) at the lower part of the pass (and yet another mentions a spring next to the monastery), as recounted by Al-Shabushti (tenth century):

This monastery is at the back of 'Aqabat Afiq, in an area situated between it and the lake of Tiberias, in a mountain, adjacent to the mountain pass, dug in the stone. The monastery is populated by those in it, and by those Christians that visit it; this is due to its esteemed place in their eyes while others besides them come to it for pleasure and drinking wine. The Christians claim that it is the first monastery built for Christianity, and that the Messiah, may God pray on him, used to find in it shelter and from it he called the apostles; there is a stone in it, and it was mentioned that the Messiah used to sit on it. And whoever entered this place broke a piece from this stone, in order to be blessed by it. This monastery was built in the place in the name of the Messiah, peace be on him.⁶⁴

Most scholars nowadays identify the pass with el-(Aqabeh), located 10 km south from the village of Afiq, where the main Mamluk road that crossed the Golan descended towards the south of the Sea of Galilee, next to Kefar Zemah. However, G. Schumacher,⁶⁵ and later also M. Avi-Yonah,⁶⁶ map a road that passes from Mt Sussita's saddle up to Afiq through the wadi. As already mentioned by A. Pazout⁶⁷ in his study of the Roman road network of the southern Golan, in the Early Islamic period Aqabat Fiq should be identified with the road passing next to Hippos and not with the pass farther south used in the Mamluk period.⁶⁸

Without getting into a full discussion, a new find is presented below to add in favour of this identification. While no remains earlier than the Ayyubid/Mamluk- period khan have been found by the el-(Aqabeh)⁶⁹, suitable remains that connect to the accounts of the above-mentioned sources were identified in Wadi Afiq, first by G. Schumacher⁷⁰ and then during a survey carried out by the authors and their team in 2016. On a slope just 250 m east of the Mt Sussita's saddle, a concentration of buildings was found, one of them including a wall with a well-cut nari ashlar decorated with a large cross carved in relief (a monastery?). Moreover, right next to it in the wadi a mosaic floor of a pool that collected water from the spring above it has been found.

Footnotes

63 Elad 1999, 75.

64 Elad 1999, 75.

65 Schumacher 1888, map between pp. 194–95.

66 Avi-Yonah 1984, 88.

67 Paiout 2019, 253 n. 140.

68 Although M. Sharon (1966, 369) identifies the pass with el-Aqabeh, he recounts a passage from Yaqut that describes 'Aqabat Fiq as two miles long, with the village of Fiq standing at its entrance — a genuine characteristic of the road passing through Wadi Afiq.

69 Sharon 2004, 215–19.

70 Khurbet el-Medan in Schumacher 1SSS. 191 and plan between pp. 19-4-95.

Hippos as Evidence of Umayyad Urban Decline

from Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:159-160)

The presentation of the main excavation areas where the Umayyad-period fortunes of Hippos can be clearly traced shows no destruction or population switch attributable to the Muslim conquest of c. AD 635 (Christians continued to live in the town, displaying their symbols openly⁷¹ and making their wine), but a gradual change, for which there is no better word than decline, is very evident and continued from the previous period. It is visible in the poor quality of construction — no newly quarried stone is used but rather the town makes do with rubble found around, held together with poor-quality binding materials. This trend had already begun in the Byzantine period, but at least then there was a wealth of public constructions and renovations (at least seven churches full of mosaics and imported liturgical marbles), which so far have not been identified for the Umayyad period. While the full extent of the mount’s top was inhabited in the sixth century AD, in the Late Byzantine and the Umayyad period more and more of the town’s space was gradually abandoned (first the southern slopes around the bathhouse, then the western neighbourhood and the insulae in the north-east) — people took with them or robbed everything that could be carried, mostly leaving behind things that they could not transport easily (e.g., basalt grinding implements), and closed off the entrances that they did not expect to need in the foreseeable future. The population, reduced in number and impoverished, no longer had the resources to maintain the three (at least) surviving churches, but at least two (the cathedral and the NWC) were not fully abandoned until the AD 749 earthquake. One of the definite blows that negatively influenced the town’s population must have been the termination of the water supply system, which should be dated to the Late Byzantine (early seventh century) or more probably to the beginning of the Early Islamic period. The prominent remains used in the Umayyad period are the main square (what was left of the forum paving and its surrounding porticoes) as well as the surrounding agricultural industry (mainly wine and bread production, accompanied by olive oil making). All this came to an end in the AD 749 earthquake, after which Mt Sussita was only a source of ready stone (for those who made the effort to bring it down from the hilltop) and eventually animal pasture.

Prior to the modern research identification of Hippos as Mt Sussita, various other locations were offered, among them the ruins of the village Susiyeh, along the road to Fiq to the east of Hippos. During G. Schumacher’s survey (1880s) the village had already been deserted, and the ruins of Hippos were known as Qalʿat el-Ḥusn (Fortress of the Horse)⁷². The Aramaic name of the city and its region, Sussita, was adopted in Early Islamic times as Susiya⁷³. Later, when the city was lying in ruins after the AD 749 earthquake, the city’s official name, Hippos, was forgotten and instead the Semitic name Susiya was adopted either for its ruins, the village Susiyeh to the east, or as a name of the sub-district. These later mentions of Susiya prompted some scholars to claim that the town Hippos/Susiya was still settled in the Abbasid period, if not later⁷⁴. This was used to include Hippos/Susiya in the list of continuing settlements, whose urban space changed to reflect early Islamic standards⁷⁵, an interpretation not supported by the archaeological data collected in the field. Not only did the settlement not continue into the Abbasid period, but as far as we can tell, it had lost its urban character by any standards long before AD 749.

The definition of what constitutes a city, town, or large village in the Early Islamic period varies between publications and seems to depend more on the perspective of the author than any set of criteria. Among the obstacles to a concrete definition of the Early Islamic city are the lack of eighth- to ninth-century historical sources and the collective treatment of the eighth- to twelfth-century realities, often without breaking them up into separate and very different situations. H. Nol⁷⁶ has recently picked up this debate with an overview of relevant historical sources combined with up-to-date archaeological data from central Israel, emphasizing how hard it is to reach any conclusions among the many opinions and contradictory archaeological examples. In connection with Nol’s conclusions, it is important to draw attention to the fact that Susiya/Hippos was never a Muslim settlement but rather a continuing Christian settlement under Muslim rule. As such, it should not be assumed that the same provisions were given to it as to the cities inhabited by and built for Muslims, e.g., a fortification wall, a mosque, or a hammam. Being only a subregional capital, Susiya/Hippos had possibly not even reached the status of a city (madīna). Considering this regional perspective and the nature of the proven archaeological remains described above, it seems more fitting to define the Umayyad-period settlement on Mt Sussita as qarya — a town (kome).⁷⁷

The final argument that exposes the changes in Hippos and in the region as decline is what happened after the AD 749 earthquake. Although previous earthquakes, like the one in AD 363, had hit with a similar force, the AD 749 quake is the only one that caused a complete abandonment of the town of Hippos as well as many other towns and villages. This fact by itself is a clear testimony to the complete weakening of the region and its settlements, and the decline of its population at the end of Umayyad rule.

Footnotes

71 The only evidence of concealment of Christian symbols was identified on an official (?) weight found in the North-West Church. The cross has been covered with a dark paste to keep the item in use possibly in official administrative business (Eisenberg, Iermolin, and Shaky 2018).

72 Schumacher 1888, 194–206, 244.

73 Dvorjetski 2014, 43–44.

74 For example. Avni 2014, 93, 360, who questions its abandonment following AD 749; Elad 1999, 72: 'Its position as an important city is still evident during the 3/9 century

75 Avni 2014; Walmsley 2007.

76 Nol 2022, 243–71.

77 For the complexity of the terms within the Islamic sources and their understanding in various regions and periods see Nol 2022, 243–71, esp. table 7.3.

Segal et al. (2013)

Hellenistic Sanctuary

Chronological Framework

from Segal et al. (2013:145-146)

A number of probes conducted at various sites within the area of the temple courtyard confirm that in the 3rd century BCE, during the reign of the Ptolemies, a settlement was established here of unknown size and character. It may have been a military outpost or a cultic site and we cannot preclude the possibility there was a settlement here that combined these two functions. Evidence for this is based mainly on pottery and numismatic finds.⁵⁶

The earliest architectural find that was located in the area of the temple courtyard was dated with certainty to the second half of the 2nd century BCE, the period of Seleucid rule. This find was of a several floor sections consisting of irregular flagstones discovered in the southern part of the temple courtyard (figs 65-66, 173).⁵⁷ Yet, whatever historical importance of such a find might be, it cannot indicate the essential nature of the settlement that existed in this place at that time.

The sanctuary, as we know it today, is of a slightly later period and seems to have been built at the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 1st century BCE, that is to say at the end of the Hellenistic period. The four walls that enclose the temple courtyard should be dated to this period. These walls supported the filling that raised the surface level of the courtyard above the plaza extending on the south side of it. In order to relieve the pressure of the filling on the supporting walls, a network of thin walls was set up on their inner sides which created coffer-like structures that indeed provided this relief from the pressure of the fillings.⁵⁸ The sanctuary courtyard was carefully paved of rectangular limestone slabs. We do not know if at this earlier stage of its existence a temple was also erected within it. It may be that instead of a temple there was an altar such as the one that rises over the lower courtyard (terrace) in the Sanctuary of Zeus in Gerasa.⁵⁹

A fairly large number of architectural items such as column bases, column drums, segments of an entablature, as well as Doric and Corinthian capitals, were found in the area of the sanctuary, most of them integrated in secondary use in the walls of the Northwest Church, both in the prayer hall and in the atrium (fig. 174).⁶⁰ The items can be divided into two distinct groups, one of limestone and the other of basalt items. A typological examination makes it clear that the items of limestone were of an earlier period and could be dated to the 2nd and 1 1 centuries BCE. This group includes sections of a Doric frieze with triglyphs and metopes, a Doric capital and a Corinthian capital. None of these items found in secondary use or scattered among the debris give any indication whether they originated from the temple or the altar. The second group of items, all made of basalt, are distinguished for their stylistic uniformity and can be dated to the end of the 1st century BCE or the 1st century CE.

The remains of the temple that can be seen today in the sanctuary, some of them exposed and some buried beneath the walls of the Northwest Church, belong to the tetrastylos prostylos temple erected during the reign of Augustus or his heir Tiberius, i.e. at the end of the 1st century BCE or during the first four decades of the pt century CE.⁶¹ It appears that many of the architectural items made of basalt belong to this temple. The altar erected near the stainvay of the temple is also of that same period.

At the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century a significant change occurred in the design of the sanctuary when its area was reduced to the temple courtyard. The reason for this change was the decision to appropriate the southern plaza of the sanctuary and to replace it with the forum of the city.⁶² The original stairway and the gate at its foot may have been integrated into the formation of the north colonnade of the forum.

The reigning period of Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (193-217 CE) was also a period of florescence and renovation for Hippos. It may therefore be assumed that, like the basilica and the odeion, the Augustan period temple was also restored and that at least some of its renovated decorations were made of marble. Evidence for this can be found in the marble column bases and entablature segments that were also found in secondary use in the walls of the Northwest Church.⁶³

We are unable to determine whether the temple was dismantled at the end of the Roman period or during the Byzantine period. Perhaps it was destroyed, as its neighbor the basilica had been, in the earthquake of 363 CE and was never restored. When the church was built at the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th century, the builders found a wealth of building material which they integrated into the church walls.

Footnotes

56 See the chapter on Military Architecture and the chapter on The Coin Finds.

57 A. Segal, "The Southwest Area of the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2003, p. 13-14, figs 6, 13; idem, "The Hellenistic Compound: Summary of Five Excavation Seasons", Hippos 2004, p. 26-31, figs 11, 50-52; idem, "The Stratigraphic Examination South of the Southern Stylobate in the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2005, p. 25-26, figs 5, 53-55.

58 See above, notes 13 and 14.

59 On the altar on the lower courtyard of the Zeus Sanctuary in Gerasa, see J. Seigne, "Decouvertes recentes sur le sanctuaire de Zeus a Jerash", ADA/ XXXVII (1993), p. 341-351, figs 1-3, pis I-VI; H. Eristov, J. Seigne, "Le Naos Hellenistiquedu sanctuaire de Zeus Olympien a /erash (Jordanie)", Topoi Suppl. 4 (2003), p. 269-298, figs 1-14; P.-L. Gatier etJ. Seigne, "Le Hammana de Zeus a Gerasa", Electrum 11 (2006), p. 171-189, figs 1-6; R. Raja, Urban Development and Regional Identity in the Eastern Roman Provinces, 50 BC-AD 250, Copenhagen 2012, p. 172-175.

60 A. Segal, "The Paved Area of the Hellenistic Compound", Hippos 2003, p. 14-18, fig. 10 (A); J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Architectural Decoration Presumably Pertaining to the Early Roman Temple", Hippos 2005, p. 48-49, fig. 18. See also M. Greenhalgh, "Spolia: A Definition in Ruins", in R. Brilliant and D. Kinney (eds), Reuse Value: Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Levine, Farnham 2011, p. 75-95.

61 This dating is based on reliable and accurate evidence from the pottery finds unearthed during the stratigraphic probes carried out along the walls of the temple podium by the excavators of the Northwest Church. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Stratigraphic Trench inside the Chancel Area", Hippos 2003, p. 32-33, figs 19, 57-58; idem, "Pre-Church Structures", Hippos 2004, p. 67-68, fig. 25; idem, "Stratigraphic Probes", Hippos 2005, p. 45-48, figs 16-17,77. It is interesting to note in this connection that during the last two decades of the 1st century BCE extensive building projects were constructed at the initiative of King Herod throughout his kingdom and also outside it. Since Hippos had already been included within the kingdom of Herod in 30 BCE, we cannot negate the possibility that Herod wanted to show favor to its inhabitants and financed the building of the temple. Josephus does not mention Hippos as one of the cities that enjoyed the king's largesse but this does not preclude the possibility that Herod was indeed involved with this building project as well. See T. Rajak, "Josephus as Historian of the Herods", in N. Kokkinos ( ed.), The World of Herods, Miinchen 2007, p. 23-34; S. Japp, Die Baupolitik Herodes' des Grossen, Rahden/Westf. 2000, p. 15-48.It is worth mentioning here that at a distance of about 46 km to the north of Hippos, an impressive sanctuary was built in exactly the same period. The reference is to the sanctuary in Omrit near Kibbutz Kfar Szold (in Northern Israel). Although the excavators are not in agreement as to the identity of the site, there is no doubt that this was a cultic site of the Roman period in the center of which there was a temple that in its earlier stage had been Herodian. See A. Overman, J. Olive & M. Nelson, "A Newly Discovered Herodian Temple at Khirbet Omrit in Northern Israel", in N. Kokkinos (ed.), The World of the Herods, Miinchen 2007, p. 177-195; A. Overman and D. Schowalter (eds), The Roman Temple Complex at Horvat Omrit: An interim report, Oxford 2011; M. Bernett, 'Space and Interaction: Narrative and Representation of Power under the Herodians'. in D. Balch and A. Weissenrieder (eds), Contested Spaces: Houses and Temples in Roman Antiquity and the New Testament, Tilbingen 2012, p. 283-309, figs 1-4.

62 See chapters on Urban Plan and City Landscape and on the Forum.

63 In the prayer hall of the Northwest Church, eight marble bases were discovered which the church builders had used to heighten the columns of the colonnade separating the nave from the northern aisle. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "The Northwest Church Complex", Hippos 2001, p. 6-13, figs 27-28, 35. Of special interest is the section of a marble frieze decorated with scrolls of acanthus leaves which, in secondary use, became the base for the chancel screen in the southern aisle of the Northwest Church. See J. Mlynarczyk, M. Burdajewicz, "Exploration of the Northwest Church Complex", Hippos 2002, p. 15-28, figs 33-34. According to the impressive level of workmanship of this architectural item, it can apparently be dated to the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century CE. Its proportions, however, encourage us to think that it may have originated from the temple during the Severan stage of its existence.

Forum

Conclusion

from Segal et al. (2013:160)

The excavations in the forum area are still far from completion. Until we excavate the shops that border the forum on the east side and separate it from central bathhouse and until the northeast area of the forum is exposed where the forum, decumanus maximus and basilica come into contact with each other, we cannot determine the general overall shape of the forum and propose its full reconstruction. Nonetheless, we now possess at the end of 12 seasons of excavations sufficient data about the main stages in the existence of the forum, from its beginnings until its final abandonment at the mid 8th century.

The forum plaza was apparently paved at the end of the 1st century CE within the extensive urban construction program that included the paving of the decumanus maximus and the erection of a number of public buildings such as the basilica and the odeion.⁴⁷ The construction of the building complexes around the forum naturally took a long while to complete and at this stage of our research we cannot determine with certainty the order in which the various structures around the paved plaza were built.

The very location of the forum plaza which extends to the south and closely adjoining the south wall of the Hellenistic Sanctuary, confirms that the urban planners worked under certain constraints because they had to take into account the existence of this sanctuary that had stood there before the city was planned. They took advantage of the plaza that already existed south of the temple courtyard of the Hellenistic Sanctuary and simply altered its function, changing it from the forecourt of the sanctuary into a forum.⁴⁸ This decision ensured the preferred location of the forum in the centre of the city and the convenient connection between the two sections of the decumanus maximus and the forum. The basilica that was erected on the northeast side of the forum and adjacent to it created, together with the forum, a central public complex easily accessible from all parts of the city.

As mentioned above, at the first stage of its existence the forum was not surrounded by columns (colonnades).⁴⁹ These were erected only at the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century CE, at the time when Hippos as well as other cities in the Roman East enjoyed a period of florescence and urban renewal.⁵⁰ It seems that at the same time as the three colonnades of the forum were built the decorative gates that marked the eastern and western connections of the forum plaza with the decumanus maxim us were also erected.

The devastating earthquake that occurred in the region in 363 CE did not spare the forum. It may be assumed that the colonnades collapsed and as a result, some of the stylobates were also dismantled. Between the forum plaza and the south wall of the Hellenistic Sanctuary various workshops and stores were set up. This naturally led to the deconstruction of the stairway that once led from the forum to the temple forecourt in the Hellenistic Sanctuary. Presumably, the forum continued to function as the main public plaza in the city until the Umayyad period, even if a considerable part of it had become an area of workshops, stores and even residential quarters. The fatal earthquake of 749 CE destroyed the city but did not complete erase life in the forum. A number of column shafts and fragments of architectural items were arranged in the northeast comer of the forum, turning it into a sheep pen.

Footnotes

47 See the following chapters: Urban Plan and City Landscape, Basilica and Odeion.

48 See the chapter on Hellenistic Sanctuary, n. 62 and the chapter on Urban Plan and City Landscape.

49 See above, n. 30.

50. See the chapter on the Basilica, n. 57.

Basilica

Chronological Framework

from Segal et al. (2013:179-180)

The basilica in Hippos was erected at the end of the 1 st century or the beginning of the 2nd century CE, during the period in which other public buildings in the city were constructed, such as the odeion.⁵⁵ It is reasonable to assume that the forum plaza and the decumanus maximus were also laid out within the same period of time.

The basilica was not built on virgin soil. While excavating the southern part of the nave, a few scanty remains of wall sections were exposed which were sufficient to indicate that before the construction of the basilica some other kind of building had been standing there.⁵⁶

The ceramic finds that were unearthed near the remains of these walls have been dated to the ist century BCE - beginning of the ist century CE. Even if, on the basis of these wall sections, we cannot determine the essential nature of the structure that preceded the erection of the basilica, we cannot negate the possibility that this structure which once stood in the very heart of the city adjacent to the Hellenistic Sanctuary was also a public building, perhaps also a basilica.

In our discussion above, we raised the possibility that the decorative architectural items made of marble that were discovered in the interior space of the basilica and in secondary use in the Northwest Church may indicate that the basilica had undergone renovations during the 3rd century CE, perhaps similar to that undergone in the same period of time by the basilica in Samaria or, for example, by the Large Theatre in Beth Shean/Scythopolis.⁵⁷

The basilica was destroyed in the earthquake of 363 CE and was never reconstructed. During the Byzantine and Umayyad periods various installations as well as residential structures were set up to the south and east of it.⁵⁸ The central and western doorways in the southern wall of the basilica were sealed while the eastern one was left open and to the south of it a dirt track was laid that led from the decumanus maximus northwards. This was probably the thoroughfare that led towards the Umayyad building (a mosque?) that was erected in the basilica area.⁵⁹ Support for this claim can be found in the structure resembling an arched gateway set up near the southeastern corner of the basilica built in a very careless manner from architectural items in secondary use that had originally belonged to both Roman and Byzantine structures.

Footnotes

55 Hippos 2009, p. 31.

56 The reference is to the two walls built of rough stones, each of which has survived to the height of one course only: wall W2096, running in an east-west direction and wall W2203, that runs north-south.

57 The reign of Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (193-217 CE) was a period of florescence and renewal for many cities in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. On the basilica in Samaria, see J. Crowfoot, K. Kenyon, E. Sukenik, Buildings at Samaria, London 1942, p. 55-57, fig. 39; J. Baity, Curia Ordinis, Bruxelles 1990, p. 396-397, 507-509, figs 197 and 248; N. Avigad, "Samaria (City)", in E. Stem (ed.), The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Jerusalem 1993, vol. 4, p. 1308. On the Large Theatre in Beth Shean (Scythopolis), see A. Segal, Theatres in Roman Palestine and Provincia Arabia, Leiden 1995, p. 56-60, figs 49-58. On the reign of Septimius Severus, see A. Birley, The African Emperor: Septimius Severus, London 1988. Another good example of extensive renovations in a public building is the theatre in Caesarea which was erected in 10 BCE during the reign of Herod. The front of the stage building (scaenae frons) was redesigned and decorated with various items in granite and marble. See A. Segal, op. cit., p. 64-69.

58 On the assorted ovens and other installations that were exposed in the area near the southern wall of the basilica, see Hippos 2007, p. 19-22, figs 22-26 (Area I: Oven room).

59 Three out of the four walls of the Umayyad structure have been exposed on their outer sides: the southern one (W2089), the western one (W2090) and the northern one (W2091). It is reasonable to suppose that the eastern wall, which has not yet been exposed, extends to the east of the eastern wall of the basilica. This area, as well as the interior space of the Umayyad structure, has not yet been excavated.

The Northwest Church Complex

Excerpts

from Segal et al. (2013:196-216)

The Northwest Church (NWC) complex, excavated and studied by the Polish team in 2000-2009,¹ is one of the rare instances attested for the region of a church that was still active as such during the Umayyad period. Archaeological contexts sealed by the earthquake of 749 CE provide us with an invaluable record of the church's activity at that time, while the analysis of archaeological material sheds light on both the liturgical functioning of this church and the economic role of its annexes at that late period (fig. 255).

The Northwest Church (figs 255-256) was erected in the centre of the city,² at a place previously occupied by an Early Roman period temenos that was built, to judge from the pottery deposits associated with its foundations, in the Augustan or early Tiberian times (fig. 257).³ The church architects re-used parts of the walls of the cella constructed of large limestone ashlars and those of its precinct wall built of smaller basalt ashlars.

... the church could not have been built before the end of the 5th century; indeed, it is probable that its construction date was during the first half of the 6th century.

... As to the final date of the church, it is well recorded by many destruction deposits clearly connected to the earthquake of 749 CE, which happened while the building was still in use as a place of Christian worship.¹⁵

The development of the Northwest Church presents two main architectural phases that can be divided into at least two sub-phases each, according to the spatial arrangement of the interior and the chronology of floors; they were then followed by a phase of decline.¹⁶ In Phase I (a-b), the church compound was designed as a three-aisled basilica (22.20 30m long and 15.40 m wide, with interior dimensions 20.70 x 13.70m) flanked by side wings and preceded by a spacious square atrium (fig. 262).

... This dating of the modified arrangement of the church in Phase Ila coincides with the introduction of the Great Entrance rite into the liturgy.⁶⁴

... The final phase of the church (Phase III) was the decline of the basilica which must have been the result of some unspecified disaster of an unknown date but which clearly caused serious damage to the nave; it was probably one of the earthquakes which affected this region in the second half of the 7th century (658 CE) or at the beginning of the 8th century (717 CE).¹⁰¹ Indeed, eloquent testimony to the ancient repairs made to the mosaic floor can be seen at the southern pastophorion. Right under the arched entrance to this room, the mosaic bears traces of repairs carried out after it was damaged, probably during an earthquake (fig. 281). The repair is entirely slipshod, with no attention paid to the proper restoration of the geometrical border of the mosaic "carpets" in L223 (the chanceled part of the southern aisle) and L208 (the pastophorion). During this repair, the mosaic cubes that were quite randomly placed back into the damaged floor must have effaced whatever had remained of the original pattern,¹⁰² possibly an inscription referring to a saint (or saints) venerated in this room. Inside the chapel itself, close to the reliquary, another damaged part of the floor was filled in with a layer of buff clay, strongly suggesting that during that specific period the local community lacked means to ensure a higher standard of restoration.¹⁰³ Let us remember that Hippos must have been conquered by the Islamic troops of Shurahbil at the same time as Tiberias, in 634 CE, after which the latter town was established as the capital of the Jordan province (Jund al-Urdunn), while Hippos probably lost its former importance and began to tum into a provincial town.

There followed a final blow given to the church compound by the earthquake of 749 CE; indeed, the latest numismatic find in the church was an Umayyad coin minted in Tiberias and dated to 737-746 CE, discovered in a securely sealed context on the floor of the northern aisle.¹⁰⁴ A number of other important destruction deposits, tightly sealed by the masses of building stone, make it clear that at the moment of the earthquake the basilica was still in use as a place of Christian worship. One exception was the nave and the central chancel which apparently were not repaired after some earlier damage. The extremely poor state of preservation of their floors strongly contrasts with very good state of the aisle floors (fig. 272). During the exploration of the nave, not a single piece of the chancel screens or posts were found, as they must have been removed well before the final destruction of the church. The same applies to the altar of the main chancel of which no traces remain. Furthermore, only a few roof-tile fragments were collected, which means that by 749 CE large parts of the roof must have already collapsed. The destruction of the roof, however, does not seem to have been complete in the western part of the basilica, because a basalt cross, once crowning the top of the roof above the western facade, collapsed only during the final earthquake (fig. 282).¹⁰⁵ This find, pertaining to the mid-8th century, contradicts the common belief about removing the crosses under Moslem pressure.¹⁰⁶ Also the presence of the columns in the eastern portico (unlike the remaining porticoes) of the atrium suggests that the latter still retained its roof-balcony and possibly enabled access to the galleries.

In striking contrast to this were the contents of the aisles that allow for a reconstruction of the liturgical functioning of the church during the final years (decades?) of its existence. There seems to be no doubt that, while the nave was used merely as a kind of an inner atrium (mesaulon?), the cult focused on the aisles. A deposit of broken marbles found in the small northern aisle (fig.283) contained a fragmentary rectangular mensa¹⁰⁷ with its four legs in the form of colonettes, a twisted support (for a phiale containing water for hand-washing? for a lectern?) and a reliquary.¹⁰⁸ The imprints of the mensa legs on the mosaic floor trace the shape of a trapezium instead of a rectangle (fig. 274) and, as about one third of the mensa was never found, there is no doubt that an incomplete tabletop was being used. Under the altar, a reliquary must have stood on a limestone stem-like support, its lower part still in situ, inserted in the mosaic floor. The reliquary has the popular form of a miniature sarcophagus with a circular opening in the centre of the lid and three compartments inside; one of them contained a miniature glass bottle with tiny pieces of bone (fig. 284).¹⁰⁹ In front of the altar, a bronze hanging lamp in the shape of a dove was found, complete with its chains (fig. 285);¹¹⁰ it must have collapsed during the earthquake either from the keystone of the apse's semi-dome or from the lintel of the chancel door. The northern one of the chancel screens and the two post-colonettes were robbed during modern times, apparently when a military trench was dug out across the northern wing of the Northwest Church complex during World War II;¹¹¹ however, the discovery of the precious lamp in situ proves that the destruction deposits on the floor have remained undisturbed.

The southern pastophorion preserved eloquent testimony of its ongoing use as the place for the martyr(s) cult. A radiocarbon dating of a sample of wall plaster from this room has suggested 685-730 CE as the most probable date for the final covering of its walls with plaster; was it connected to any damage caused by the earthquake of 717-718 CE?¹¹² A bronze polykandelon was found in situ under the painted blocks collapsed from the entrance arch (fig. 286); its use at the time of the disastrous earthquake is evidenced by the dense traces of burning and fragments of hrn glass lamps recovered from the context in question.¹¹³ It must have been suspended at the keystone of the entrance arch, across which a thick iron rod was installed, probably to carry the curtains.¹¹⁴ Another proof of reverence were the silver crosses fixed onto the two post-colonettes of the southern chancel.¹¹⁵ Placed on top of the reliquary of pink limestone was another reliquary made of marble (fig. 287), shaped as a miniature sarcophagus (L. 0.255 m, W. 0.160 m, H. 0.l0 m), which was identical to the one found in the northern apse. Two of its three rectangular compartments contained tiny pieces of bones, and in the opening of the lid a long bronze pin was found.¹¹⁶ The latter has provided a clue as to the way in which the saint's relics were becoming the source of eulogia to the faithful: they were touched with the bronze pin in order to transfer the blessing onto objects provided, be they ampullae filled with water, oil or wine, pieces of fabric, or something else.¹¹⁷ It is difficult to tell if the lower (pink limestone) reliquary was by that time emptied of its original contents. All of its three compartments, each with its own lid, contained only reddish brown soil which might in fact have been weathered pink limestone.

However, by 749 CE the marble altar which used to stand above the pink limestone reliquary was already dismantled. Minor parts of its legs were found lying by the western wall of the chapel,¹¹⁸ and other parts of them in the western section of the nave. Moreover, the tabletop was discovered in the western part of the northern aisle covered by a thick layer of pure lime. Apparently, by that time, those elements of the marble furniture which were not considered vital for the functioning of the church were removed out of need to obtain more lime for current repairs of the building. It seems that no altar stood above the reliquaries any longer, although a thick and dense layer of clay was noted during the exploration in the eastern part of the room; this might have pertained to an altar built of dried clay as those used in some churches of Provincia Arabia from the second half of the 7th century onwards.¹¹⁹ If such an altar did exist, however, the reliquaries could not have been entirely encased inside; the upper reliquary clearly remained accessible to the priest administering eulogiae.

To conclude, it seems certain that by the mid-8th century the liturgical space of the Northwest Church was limited to the aisles. We believe that the northern apse can be identified as the place of an eucharistic altar with a reliquary under it and a dove-shaped lamp of bronze hung as an "eternal light" in front of it. The imprints of the altar legs and the emplacement of the support for the reliquary (fig. 274) prove that the altar stood in front of the apse, leaving enough place for the priest to celebrate while facing the congregation.¹²⁰ The southern pastophorion functioned as a martyr(s) chapel, but at the same time it was from there that both the Little and Great Entrances must have started during that very final phase of the church. The marble mensa above the reliquaries (and, after it had been dismantled, perhaps a dried-clay altar?) would have served as a prothesis table. The niche in the northern wall may have been used for keeping not only the Holy Books, but also the Eucharist reserve;¹²¹ situated at the convenient height of 0.95m above the floor level, it may have even functioned as a prothesis niche if an altar or table was no longer available in the room. Finally, in front of both lateral chancels (the northern and the southern one), a modest terracotta lamp with dense traces of burning was found in an identical position attesting to the custom of lighting lamps (and probably candles) by the faithful.

... However, the large number of shards of restorable storage jars of the late "Beisan" type (first half of the 8th century)¹³⁶ leaves no doubt that in the final period the cellar was used in connection with the winery installed in the northern wing of the church. The same probably applies to a small room attached to the outer northern wall of the atrium located between the northern wing's winery and the northern entrance to the atrium.¹³⁷ The winery was active till the very moment before the earthquake; it seems very probable that it belonged to the church (as suggested by the fact that the storage cellar for the wine was apparently located within the church premises and in this late period it was accessible from inside the atrium only), or to the elite of the congregation. Built upon the earlier rooms of the northern annexe, it consisted of two compartments for the storage of grapes (L782, L783) abutting on a narrow service corridor (L780), a treading floor (l775) and a must collecting vat (L776) as well as a large mosaic-paved room (L210W) where the fermentation process of wine took place (fig. 294).¹³⁸

A narrow trench, less than 1.50m wide, was excavated along the western face of the original western wall of the atrium (W799); it revealed the presence of a pavement made of irregular basalt flagstones (F2574) and a channel (L2582), probably for drainage, sloping slightly from north to south (fig. 295).¹³⁹ In all probability, this was the section of another courtyard measuring 11.60m from north to south (while its east-west extent remains unknown), attached to the western side of the atrium in the late period. At the southern end of the trench in question, a doorway was found situated in an east-west wall built against the southwest corner of the atrium. The testimonies to the earthquake of 749 CE as recorded in the Northwest Church complex have also included some human remains, specifically the skull of a young woman found in the shaft of the cellar in the atrium as well as damaged skeletons of an elderly woman and a child discovered in the debris of the central room in the western portico of the atrium.¹⁴⁰

Footnotes

1 The team was directed by Jolanta Mlynarczyk (on behalf of the Research Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw) and by Mariusz Burdajewicz (on behalf of the National Museum in Warsaw). The many students who participated in the dig represented the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, the Conservation Faculty, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, University of Stefan Wyszynski in Warsaw, Catholic University of Lublin, Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. We would like to thank most warmly all the institutions and individuals who provided financial and logistic support for our project, among them the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities who annually assisted the team director with a scholarship. The former Ambassadors of the Republic of Poland to Israel, Dr. Maciej Kozlowski and Dr. Agnieszka Miszewska supported our project in multiple ways. Our research on one of the aspects of the Northwest Church, specifically, its liturgical functioning, was financed by Grant No. lHOl B009 29 of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland (2005-2007).

2 From a topographical description of the churches at Sussita as provided by Ovadiah 1970, 174-178, Nos. 171-174, one would conclude that Northwest Church should be identified as his "Church a" (No. 171, pl. 69); however, neither the description of visible remains nor the sketch plan match the church in question.

3 For remains of the temple, see J. Mlynarczyk and M. Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 67-68, fig. 25; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 53.

15 For the conclusive evidence, see Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 31-32.

16 For the phasing of the church, see Mlynarczyk 2008a, p. 149-169.

64 This is believed to have happened about the reign of Justin II (565-578 CE), cf. Crowfoot 1938, p. 51.

101 Ognibeni 2002, 112, mentions earthquakes of 658 and 717 or 718 CE as having caused the damage done to the West Church in Pella of the Decapolis. There is little doubt that the same earthquakes must have inflicted similar damage to the buildings on Sussita.

102. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 26; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, figs 78-79.

103. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 61, fig. 77.

104. A. Berman, Hippos 2001, no. 31.

105. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 33-34, fig. 63. For a parallel cross found at the Northeast Church, see M. Schuler, Hippos 2003, p. 41, fig. 71, and for a stone cross from Khirbet el-Beyudat in the Lower Jordan Valley, see Hizmi 1993, p. 158.

106. Records discussed by Ognibeni 2002, p. 130-132. Crosses occur also on the gable roofs of churches depicted on the mosaic in the lower church at Quwaysmah laid in 718/719, cf. Piccirillo1997, fig. 454.

107. The altar pertains to type F according to the typology of altars by Chalkia 1991, p. 54, F:It 2.

108. About this find: Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2004, p. 71; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48-50.

109. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48, n. 54. For this form of the reliquary in the churches of Palaestina II (example of Pella, East Church) and Arabia, see Michel 2001, p. 75-77.

110. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2001, p. 9, fig. 40; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 50, pl. 11.

lll. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 39.

112 Northwest Church, see n. 101 above.

113. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 27, fig. 44; Burdajewicz and Mlynarczyk 2006, p. 28, ii. 14.

114. For "eternal light" and curtains in front of the martyrs chapel, see Pena 2000, p. 52.

115. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2002, p. 19; Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 47-48 and pl. 8.

116. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 26, fig. 47; Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz 2005, p. 48, pl. 9.

117. Burdajewicz and Mlynarczyk 2006, p. 25; a similar way of obtaining the eulogia might have been used in the East Church at Pella, cf. Michel 2001, p. 122, fig. 37. Examples of receiving the blessing by touching the holy relics (a practice more rare in the East than in the West) are quoted by Pena 2000, p. 70-71 (for the Antioch region?) and p. 74-75 (for Chalcedon). On hagiasma and eulogia, see Festugiere 1962, notes 149-150.

118. Initially misinterpreted as pertaining to two different altars, cf. Mtynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2003, p. 27, fig. 49.

119. Michel 2001, p. 62-68, fig. 34: b-c; Duval 2003, p. 66.

120. Cf. Duval 2003, p. 108-110.

121. Lassus 1947, p. 195.

136. Mlynarczyk (Pottery Report), Hippos 2007, p. 96.

137. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2007, p. 64-65, figs 100-102.

138. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2005, p. 36-35, figs 65-72; Mlynarczyk 2008b.

139. footnote is missing

140. Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz, Hippos 2006, p. 54; Mlynarczyk and Burdajewicz., Hippos 2007, p. 62; E. Deutsch, Hippos 2007, p. 97.

The Northeast Church and Northeast Insula Project

The Phasing of the NIP (Northeast Insula Project)

from Segal et al. (2013:239-241)

Work on the Northeast Insula Project began with excavation of the Northeast Church. Probes beneath the floor levels of the complex consistently show ceramic assemblages dating no later than the late 5th or early 6th centuries. The Northeast Church was most likely built during that time frame. But the church was clearly situated within the pre-existing street grid of the city and may have incorporated walls of a previous building (W512b and W554) or set some of its wall over foundations of earlier ones ( e.g., W541). The apse of the church did break the line of Cardo 3N and required reworking of W1230/1267 to incorporate the peristyle house into the larger church compound. Possibly a pre-existing home once occupied the site of the church (see domestic remains under the south hall and in the plaza to its south; Cistern A may have served a peristyle court).

The Northeast Church was apparently built as a memorial church housing two tombs in its chancel: a masonry tomb holding a coffin with three individuals and a sarcophagus for a revered elderly woman. In this original phase, the entire church (chancel, nave, aisles, and western portico) were carpeted in mosaics. Each stylobate had four columns.

In secondary phasing, major changes came to the NEC. In the west, the portico was paved with flagstones, benches were added on the west side of WSl l, gates were installed at each end of the portico, the Gamma building complex was constructed, and Cardo 2N was repaved. Within the domus the nave received a second geometric floor. Repairs to other floors are notable in the north aisle and in the skeuophylakion. The level of the chancel was raised with a floor of irregular stone tiles into which loculi for reliquaries were inserted and a synthronon was added. At this time a sarcophagus was inserted into the masonry tomb on top of the previous burial. In the aisles, benches were added to the north and south walls. Since the north benches were made of corbels, identical corbels were used in the north wall, two additional columns were added to the north stylobate, and the intercolumnation was changed from areostyle to systyle, we surmise that major damage was done to the church that required significant reconstruction. It is reasonable to suggest that much of this secondary phasing was of necessity done concurrently. The quality of the reconstruction is such as to suggest extreme poverty on the part of the community supporting the NEC. We would therefore surmise that the addition of the sarcophagus to the masonry tomb and the extraction of relics from the tomb of the elderly woman served as funding sources for the reconstruction.

There are some hints as to the dating of this secondary phasing. As noted earlier, the late 6th-century date of the mosaics at Kursi (585 CE) and in the baptistery at Hippos (591 CE) suggest a similar date for the upper geometric floor (F589) of the Northeast Church. "Textual documentation ... suggests that a disastrous earthquake on July 9, 551, wrought a path of destruction from the three provinces of Palestine through at least the province of Syria 11."⁶⁵ Petra was never rebuilt after that earthquake. Perhaps damage from it led to renovations of the Northeast Church culminating in the geometric floor. Alternatively, a section of wall plaster from behind the synthronon was dated by C-14 to approximately 675 CE.⁶⁶ If this plastering reflects the secondary phase repairs, its date aligns with literary reports on one or two major earthquakes in Palestine in 659/660 CE. According to the Chronographia of Theophanes: "a great earthquake throughout Palestine and Syria had given cause for an extensive collapse of the buildings of the East."⁶⁷ The extensive 7th century reconstruction in the Monastery of St. Euthymius followed that earthquake.

JW: An incomplete copy means some of the text in the following paragraph and a half is incorrectly transcribed.

Hippos itself would be destroyed by a major earthquake in 749 CE, after which it was never re-occupied as a city. However, prior to that earthquake, liturgical rites ceased in the Northeast Church. All doors to the domus were intentionally sealed, except the entrance to the south aisle that gave access to the tomb of the elderly woman. Burials stopped. Reliquaries were removed. A crude wall was built around the exposed sarcophagus of the woman. A bench was installed inside the southwest entrance, and the North Lateral (?) and Medial Chambers were converted to domestic use (guard?). The church became a mausoleum and was little used or abandoned by the earthquake of 749 CE.

What once appeared to be a small memorial (?) church situated between Cardo 2 North and Cardo 3 North, after subsequent excavation of surrounding spaces now appears to be the north-westerly component of a much larger complex (Fig. 323). To the north of the church we now entertain the possibility of a a two-story structure. Access to the second story would have come via the staircase next (?) to W521. W555 may have been added to W? to help support the second story. Doorways providing access to this structure were also sealed. To the east is a peristyle house. The south door jamb in W1267 of that house was incorporated into the wall of the apse and thus constructed at the same time.⁶⁸ This doorway also was intentionally blocked as was the exterior doorway to the storage room of the house in W1230. We hypothesize that this house reached its "fulfillment" as a monastery and was sealed off when the church and its related rooms were likewise sealed.⁶⁹ Magdalino has argued that "many, if not most, urban and suburban churches and monasteries were converted lay οικοι."⁷⁰ A monastery "in more ways than one was the alter ego of the secular οικς. Far from being a negation of the extended household ... the religious foundation was the household's ultimate fulfillment .... The foundation and endowment of a family monastery was a sound economic investment, capable of bringing materials as well as spiritual benefits to the founder and those of his [or her] descendants who inherited proprietary rights to the establishment."⁷¹

The appearance of pagan elements among the small finds from the house, especially the Tyche and the maenad, could argue against such a hypothesis. But counter arguments are possible. The maenad may be defaced, depriving it of any numinous power and religious significance. The Tyche may be little more than a symbol of civic pride and classical heritage. Although we cannot yet with certainty date the peristyle house, elements (architectural, ceramic, and artistic) do suggest that the peristyle house was earlier that the church. If so, we deem it a possibility that this home of a prominent family at Hippos became the starting point of an urban monastery that eventually took over a neighboring home to the west, removed most of it, and built the Northeast Church, incorporating its apse into a reconstructed western wall of the house.

While this hypothesis is suggestive for future work, significant additional excavation is necessary before we can say with any certainty that this peristyle house actually found its fulfillment as an urban monastery that then was expanded to construct the Northeast Church.

Footnotes

64 For a parallel example of a place of incubation, see the discussion of the basilica at Dor along with pertinent citations from Greek and early Christian healing sources ... JW: rest of footnote missing in my copy

65 K. Russell, "The Earthquake Chronology of Palestine and Northwest Arabia from the 2nd through the mid-8th Century A.O.", Bulletin of the American Schools of Or:, Research 260 (1985), p. 45.

66 Hippos 2006, p. 84.

67 Russell, op. cit., p. 47.

68 Hippos 2008, p. 45.

69 Hippos 2009, p. 71.

70 P. Magdalino, "The Byzantine Aristocratic Oikos", in M. Angold (ed.), The Byzantine Aristocracy IX to XIII Centuries, Oxford 1984, p. 94.

71 JW: this footnote is missing in my copy

Segal et al. (2003)

North-West Church (NWC) Complex

5. Stratigraphical trench inside the chancel area

from Segal, A., et al. (2003:32-34)
Fig. 19
supervisors: Mr. Marek Wozniak and Ms. Joanna Then

A stratigraphical trench 1.35 m. wide was opened inside the main chancel (Loc. 205), on the entire length of the east-west axis of the bema (Figs. 25, 56). The 6th-century mosaic floor of the bema was destroyed so profoundly that only its substructure was left in place, in the form of a layer of small lime stones. Ca. 15-20 cm. below it, a level surface has been identified made of earth mixed with mortar and gravels. Although no mosaic cubes were actually found with it, it is possible that this was the bedding for an earlier pavement of the bema. This bedding (?) rests upon a levelling layer ca. 25 cm. thick under which there are well-preserved remains of an earlier floor (F 255). The floor, with a thin utilization and/or destruction deposit upon it (pieces of charred wood, rooftile fragments, animal bones, a few sherds of the Roman-period cooking pottery) and sloping to the west, resembles by its quality the floor of the diakonikon rooms (F 225, F 230). On the east, F 255 abuts on the western wall of the apsis (W 256) which is covered with white plaster down to the level of the floor (Fig. 57). One may assume that the two features (F 255 and W 256) existed during the same period, apparently pre-dating the construction of the church.

Two trial pits were made below F 255: one in the eastern, and another in the western part of the trench (Fig. 56). The eastern pit revealed a large breach (ca. 90 x 65 cm) in the floor abutting on W 256, probably made during the church period in order to inspect and repair an earlier water conduit (Loc. 257). This is a channel running north-south, built of small stones thickly revetted with mortar containing a lot of ashes, and covered with basalt slabs. The bottom of the channel is ca. 55 cm. below F 255 to which it appears to be chronologically connected (Fig. 57). Upon the eastern side of the channel there rests the foundation of W 256.

All along the northern profile of the trench, an east-west wall (W 258) is visible, constructed of semi-dressed and irregular basalt stones. It had been levelled before the channel was built (Figs. 56, 58). The walking level pertaining to this wall can be seen in the section as a simple earthen floor, roughly corresponding to the extant top of the levelled wall (Fig. 56, foreground) and to the layer of charred wood visible ca. 14-15 cm below the bottom of the channel. Judging from rather insignificant ceramic finds, W 258 and its floor appear to date back to the Early Roman period (see Pottery Report 2003).

No other floor earlier than that has been identified in the trench. However, in the southern section of the east trial pit a big carefully dressed block of limestone (H. 50, W. 53 cm) can be seen (Fig. 58, on the right), resting on the bedrock the cavities of which were filled in with small stones. No doubt, this is the earliest testimony so far to the architectural activity at the NWC area.

Jolanta Mlynarczyk, Mariusz Burdajewicz

Dove-Shaped Pendant Earthquake - 361-380s CE

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description
Collapsed Walls and re-used building elements	Basilica Figure 5 THE BASILICA A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES A SCHEMATIC PLAN (Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG) Eisenberg (2021)		fallen architectural fragment - Wechsler et al, 2018 Most of the basilica’s architectural fragments, especially from the northern and central parts, were looted and reused in the nearby Byzantine building. - Eisenberg (2021:171-173)
Collapsed Roof	Northern part of the nave of the Basilica Figure 5 THE BASILICA A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES A SCHEMATIC PLAN (Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG) Eisenberg (2021)		The sole evidence for a sudden disaster is the find of parts of skeletons of at least four humans that were buried under the collapsed roof in the northern part of the nave. Two of the almost intact skeletons belonged to an adult male and a young female. The female was found with an iron nail (most probably from the roof ) stuck in her knee bones and a dove-shaped pendant resting between her neck bones. - Eisenberg (2021:171-173)
Human Remains	Northern part of the nave of the Basilica Figure 5 THE BASILICA A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES A SCHEMATIC PLAN (Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG) Eisenberg (2021)		The sole evidence for a sudden disaster is the find of parts of skeletons of at least four humans that were buried under the collapsed roof in the northern part of the nave. Two of the almost intact skeletons belonged to an adult male and a young female. The female was found with an iron nail (most probably from the roof ) stuck in her knee bones and a dove-shaped pendant resting between her neck bones. - Eisenberg (2021:171-173)
Foundation Damage	Saddle Necroplis (Lion and Flower Mausoleum) Figure 1 Mt. Sussita and its environs with the three necropoleis and the Saddle Necropolis monuments indicated: funerary podia Lion’s Mausoleum Flowers Mausoleum Burial Cave A sarcophagi field ditch Burial Cave B drone view towards north (photo M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024) Figure 2 Drone’s view towards west looking at the Lion’s Mausoleum (left), the Flowers Mausoleum (right), and Burial Cave A beneath them (photo M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024) Figure 8 An artistic reconstruction of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis with the funerary podia series and the two mausolea (Y. Nakas and M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)	Figure 5 The Flowers Mausoleum northern wall and architectural fragments at its foot during excavations; view towards east (photo M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)	The foundations of the mausoleum, built in the late 1st to early 2nd century AD, have been fully excavated, together with some of its architectural blocks, collapsed during the 363 AD earthquake. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:371) A unique series of at least 13 funerary podia was excavated along the eastern side of the saddle road. ... They probably collapsed in the 363 AD earthquake. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373) Based on the small finds and the architectural studies, the mausoleum’s construction was dated to the early 2nd century AD (even though some architectural elements are more characteristic of the 1st c. AD) and its destruction to the 363 AD earthquake. The vaulted ground floor may have survived the earthquake as simple burials dated to the 380s were discovered within its plaster floor. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373-374) Based on the small finds and the architectural studies, the mausoleum’s [Lion Mausoluem] construction was dated to the early 2nd century AD (even though some architectural elements are more characteristic of the 1st c. AD) and its destruction to the 363 AD earthquake. The vaulted ground floor may have survived the earthquake as simple burials dated to the 380s were discovered within its plaster floor. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373-374) The proposed exact destruction date [of the Flower Mausaleum] is AD 363, when a strong earthquake hit Hippos and the whole region. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:381-382) The [Lion and Flowers] mausoleum was built at the end of the 1st/early 2nd century AD and destroyed together with the other monuments of the necropolis in the AD 363 earthquake - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:383)
Collapsed colonnade?	Forum Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		The devastating earthquake that occurred in the region in 363 CE did not spare the forum. It may be assumed that the colonnades collapsed and as a result, some of the stylobates were also dismantled. - Segal et al. (2013:160)
Collapsed Walls	the propylaeum, and the theatre of the Saddle Compound Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)
Damaged Hypocausta	the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse Figure 1 Plan of the site showing the main excavated areas. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)
Collapsed Walls?	Odeion Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)
Collapsed Walls?	Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)
Collapsed Walls?	porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)

The 1st Northwest Church Earthquake - 7th or Early 8th century CE

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description
Displaced walls? Dented Floors ?	Nave of the Northwest Church Fig. 256 General plan of the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls mentioned in the text. Segal et al. (2013)	Fig. 281 Fig. 281 The mosaic under the arched entrance to the southern pastophorion (the martyrion chapel) with evidence of repairs. Segal et al. (2013)	The final phase of the church (Phase III) was the decline of the basilica which must have been the result of some unspecified disaster of an unknown date but which clearly caused serious damage to the nave; it was probably one of the earthquakes which affected this region in the second half of the 7th century (658 CE) or at the beginning of the 8th century (717 CE). Indeed, eloquent testimony to the ancient repairs made to the mosaic floor can be seen at the southern pastophorion. Right under the arched entrance to this room, the mosaic bears traces of repairs carried out after it was damaged, probably during an earthquake (fig. 281). - Segal et al. (2013:210)

The 2nd Northwest Church Earthquake - mid 8th century CE

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description
Tilted and displaced walls (tilted and displaced to the west)	Wall W1386 in the area east of the Hellenistic Compound (HLC 5) Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com Plan of the Forum. Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church Segal and Eisenberg (2007)	Figure 21 Hippos 2009, area to the east of the HLC (Hellenistic Compound). Wall 1386. Note the extent of damage, most probably the results of the landslide caused by the earthquake JW: located in HLC 5 Segal et al (2019)	Segal et al (2019:18) uncovered a wall displaced towards the west (Fig. 21) in the area east of the Hellenistic Compound (HLC5) which they attributed to one of the mid 8th century CE earthquakes. JW: This could also be due to soil creep
Collapsed walls	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	The atrium and the southern aisle floors were covered with collapsed building debris, composed mainly of basalt ashlars. Only the lowest ashlar courses of the building’s walls were extant, and in some places even the lowest course was tilted and pushed out of place. The eastern area of the opus sectile floor of the southern aisle was well preserved. - Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Collapsed Building (collapsed walls)	Umayyad-period structure was built above the middle of the basilica's eastern aisle and eastern wall Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Fig. 9.9 Fig. 9.9 The Umayyad-period structure in the eastern part of the basilica area. View towards the south. Note the secondary use of the civic basilica architectural fragments at the corner foundations reaching the civic basilica floor level (M. Eisenberg) Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	The most prominent of these Umayyad-period structures was built above the middle of the basilica's eastern aisle and eastern wall (Fig. 9.9).28 The full width of the building was excavated (7 m north–south) with an estimated length of 7.5 m (west–east). The walls are 0.8 m wide, preserved to a height of 1.9 m from their foundations on the bedrock. Speculation that it might be a mosque could not be proven by the excavations. The building was destroyed in AD 749. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:145)
Collapsed Building (collapsed walls) Collapsed Roof (due to displaced walls) Debris (due to collapsed walls)	Northeast Insula and Northeast Church Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		The Insula and the church within it are situated to the north of the decumanus maximus, c. 45 m north-east of the forum (Fig. 9.3). The Northeast Church is a small mono-apsidal church, built into an existing insula in the late fifth to early sixth centuries AD next to the so-called Peristyle House, an urban villa of the Early Byzantine period. The rest of the insula is taken up by simple courtyards and rooms that surround them, some fairly well built, with secondary use of basalt ashlars and paving stones (Figs 9.14–9.15). A basalt cross acroterion, similar to the above-mentioned one in the Northwest Church, was found in the western debris of the church, which means that most of its roof was still standing in AD 749. There is clear evidence for the AD 749 destruction in all the Northeast Insula spaces, but most of the insula had been abandoned by then, with some of the passages blocked (Fig. 9.15). The church had also been abandoned before the earthquake, and in the last phase it was full of poorly executed fixes to the floors and the wall plaster. The US expedition partners that excavated the church describe its last phase of use as follows: 'The church became a mausoleum and was little used or abandoned by the earthquake of 749 AD' - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:152,154)
Tilted Walls	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	The atrium and the southern aisle floors were covered with collapsed building debris, composed mainly of basalt ashlars. Only the lowest ashlar courses of the building’s walls were extant, and in some places even the lowest course was tilted and pushed out of place. The eastern area of the opus sectile floor of the southern aisle was well preserved. - Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Displaced Walls	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	The atrium and the southern aisle floors were covered with collapsed building debris, composed mainly of basalt ashlars. Only the lowest ashlar courses of the building’s walls were extant, and in some places even the lowest course was tilted and pushed out of place. The eastern area of the opus sectile floor of the southern aisle was well preserved. - Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Fallen columns Collapsed Roof (displaced walls) Collapsed Walls Items of value in the rubble (rubble due to collapsd walls)	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021) Fallen Columns in the Cathedral Click on image to open a higher resolution magnifiable image in a new tab Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025 Fallen Columns in the Cathedral Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025 Fig. 9.12 Fig. 9.12 A vertical extract from a photogrammetric model of the cathedral (M. Eisenberg) Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	Excavations in the 1950's revealed columns lying on the floor of the cathedral in sub parallel directions - Wechsler et al (2018) All the architectural fragments of the cathedral that were made of fine limestone, marble, and granite are reused Roman-period pieces. The church continued to serve in some capacity until the AD 749 earthquake, although in the Late Umayyad period the atrium was mostly overbuilt by simple housing units. The clear testimonies to the AD 749 earthquake are not only the symmetrically toppled 4.7 m long granite and marble column shafts found lying on the opus sectile floor in the 1950s excavations, but also the finds made in the recent digs (Fig. 9.12). An additional liturgical space (baptistery chapel/photisterion?) with a baptismal font enclosed with marble screens was found south of the southern wall of the cathedral. A collection of scattered church furniture was found on the opus sectile floor of this hall, under what seems to be the AD 749 earthquake collapse of the roof and the walls. Among this furniture was a large bronze candelabrum, a marble vessel with three hemispheric spaces for liquids, and a 42 kg marble reliquarium (the largest of its kind to be found in Israel, recovered empty of any relics). The new excavations provided an opportunity for photogrammetric documentation (Fig. 9.12), which allowed for a more accurate calculation of the orientation of the fallen column shafts in relation to the nearby wall, instead of 10° inaccuracy margins of calculations to the absolute north. The six westernmost shafts of the northern row are oriented at angles of 36°–53° to the northern cathedral wall, while the three shafts within the bema lie at angles of 67°, 52°, and 57° (Fig. 9.13). As K.-G. Hinzen (2009) suggested based on 3D quantitative approach models, the variations in the angle of collapse between the columns may have been caused by other pieces of the surrounding architecture, e.g., the entablature above the columns. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:149,151) Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) estimated a minimum paleo-PGA of 0.2-0.4 g to overturn the columns found in the Cathedral. This paleo-PGA is a lower bound and therefore an underestimate. Assuming a PGA of 0.4-0.6 g and converting from PGA to Intensity via Wald et al (1999), one arrives at an Intensity of 8 - 8.5 which reduces to ~6.5 - 7.5 when one considers a site effect.
Fallen columns ? (? because the collapse is undated but likely due to this earthquake)	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021) Fallen Columns in the Cathedral Click on image to open a higher resolution magnifiable image in a new tab Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025 Fallen Columns in the Cathedral Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025	Excavations in the 1950's revealed columns lying on the floor of the cathedral in sub parallel directions - Wechsler et al (2018) Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) estimated a minimum paleo-PGA of 0.2-0.4 g to overturn the columns found in the Cathedral. This paleo-PGA is a lower bound and therefore an underestimate. Assuming a PGA of 0.4-0.6 g and converting from PGA to Intensity via Wald et al (1999), one arrives at an Intensity of 8 - 8.5 which reduces to ~6.5 - 7.5 when one considers a site effect.
Fallen columns	Forum Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com Figure 3 VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HIPPOS CITY CENTER (M. EISENBERG) Eisenberg (2021) Plan of the Forum. Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church Segal and Eisenberg (2007) Fig.9.7 Fig. 9.7 A vertical view towards the northern part of the Hellenistic Compound and the North-West Church built in its centre. W — wine production B — bread production/cooking 0 — olive oil production (M. Eisenberg). Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	Fig. 9.6 Fig. 9.6 The northern portico of the forum with monolithic column shafts (toppled in AD 749) lying on the forum pavers, with the kalybe temple and Sea of Galilee in the far west (M. Eisenberg) JW: Columns not in original post quake position - see Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:n. 26). Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	At least the eastern part of the northern portico and the eastern portico most probably still stood when the AD 749 earthquake hit and toppled their columns at a uniform angle onto the forum pavers (Figs 9.6–9.7). - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:145)
Debris Collapsed Walls (inferred from the debris) human remains	Northwest Church Fig. 256 General plan of the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls mentioned in the text. Segal et al. (2013)		In terms of the relative chronology, the existence of the church was comprised between that of the sanctuary and the earthquake which destroyed the town of Sussita. Year 749 CE as a generally assumed date for this earthquake has been confirmed by the objects found in the sealed contexts at the church such as the coins and pottery (including oil lamps): see our Report 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. - Segal et al (2004:65) The testimonies to the earthquake of 749 CE as recorded in the Northwest Church complex have also included some human remains, specifically the skull of a young woman found in the shaft of the cellar in the atrium as well as damaged skeletons of an elderly woman and a child discovered in the debris of the central room in the western portico of the atrium. - Segal et al. (2013:216) its final collapse is precisely dated to the AD 749 earthquake by multiple finds, especially the assemblage of fully restorable vessels from the diakonikon. During the last phase of use, dated to the second half of the seventh and the early eighth centuries, a clear decline is noticeable in several of the church spaces, including careless repairs to the mosaic floors, lack of some of the church furniture, and simple blockage of some of the entrances. The possibility was raised that some of the damage was a consequence of one of the earthquakes prior to AD 749, e.g. in AD 658 and AD 717. ... A small number of roof tiles were collected from the church debris, which further prompted the suggestion that some parts of the roof had collapsed prior to AD 749 and were not rebuilt, and only a small part of the church was in active use until AD 749. A large basalt cross acroterion was found in the AD 749 debris in the western part of the church, indicating that the main part of the roof stood until then. Moreover, the cross is proof that there was no need to conceal prominent Christian symbols during the Umayyad period. A similar cross acroterion was found in the Northeast Church (see below). The only skeletal remains related to the AD 749 earthquake at Hippos were recovered from the NWC. The skeletons of an adult woman and a child, as well as the skull of a young woman, were found in the atrium, all buried under the earthquake debris. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:151-152)

Undated Potential Archaeoseismic Evidence

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description
Tilted walls	?	Figure 9 Tilted wall,Susita. In addition to the effects of construction and ground instability, the unequal load distribution of the rubble should be considered (i.e. post-destruction effects) Karcz and Kafri (1978) Figure 10 Tilted building, Susita. Karcz and Kafri (1978)	Tilted wall and building - Karcz and Kafri (1978)
Re-used Building Elements	Decumanus Maximus	Re-used Building Elements along Decumanus Maximus Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025	Re-used Building Elements
Sheared Column Column Pedestal	Decumanus Maximus	Sheared Column Column Pedestal along Decumanus Maximus Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025	Sheared Column Column Pedestal
Displaced and Rotated Stones	W side of Site	Displaced and Rotated Stones on western side of site Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025	Displaced and Rotated Stones - Note: unsure how much restoration was done here

The 2nd Northwest Church Earthquake - mid 8th century CE

The Cathedral

Fallen Columns from Cathedral at Hippos Sussita

Fig. 2.3

Photo of the cathedral with the fallen columns, looking west.

Wechsler et al (2018)

Plans, Photos, and Figures

Plan of Hippos-Sussita

Plan of Hippos Sussita

Used with permission from BibleWalks.com

from BibleWalks.com
Fig. 9 - Aerial View of the Cathedral

Figure 9

The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model.

Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

from Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)
Fig. 2c - DDA model for

Figure 2 (C)

The DDA model for a characteristic Susita column.

Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010)

a characteristic Hippos/Sussita column from Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010)
Fig. 3 - Model Results -
Figure 3

Required PGA for overturning the modeled Susita column under one (A) and three (B) input loading cycles.
- Solid triangles-stable columns
- solid diamonds—overturned columns
Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010)
PGA required to topple a column from Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010)
Fig. 2.4 - 3D laser scan

Fig. 2.4

Perspective clear view to a 3D laser scan model of the Cathedral of Hippos with a view from the northeast.

Wechsler et al (2018)

of the Cathedral from Wechsler et al (2018)

Discussion

Nine columns of the northern row of the cathedral are oriented N220°E ± 10° and two remaining columns of the southern row are oriented N295°E ± 10° (Wechsler et al, 2018).

Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) utilized a two-dimensional formulation of the discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) method (Shi, 1993) to produce a lower bound of 0.2 - 0.4 g for Peak Horizontal Ground Acceleration (PGA) required to topple the columns. The model for their columns was free standing as shown in Figure 2c of their paper and does not include a superstructure such as an architrave or a roof indicating it is likely to produce a conservative (i.e. low) value of minimum PGA required to topple the columns. Input material values for the columns, consisting of red and gray granite possibly imported from Aswan¹, were

E = 40 GPa
ν =0.18
ρ = 2700 kg/m³

The friction angle (Φ) between column base and pedestal was assumed to be 45°. Optimal contact spring stiffness (2 x 10⁸ N/m) was determined numerically. Simulations were performed for both one and three sinusoidal loading cycles at a variety of frequencies up to 5 Hz. (shown in Figure 3 of their paper). At frequencies of 1.5 Hz. and below, minimum PGA to topple the columns was about 0.2 g for both 1 and 3 loading cycles. Above 1.5 Hz., the single loading cycle simulations were more sensitive to frequency and required a higher PGA to topple the columns. The authors suggested that if only sinusoidal inputs are considered, 3 cycle simulations were more likely be representative of PGA thresholds required to topple the columns. Thus they used the three cycle simulations to produce a range of frequency dependent threshold PGA's required to topple the column that varied from 0.2 g below 1.5 Hz. up to 1 g at 5 Hz..

Recognizing the fairly wide range of threshold PGA's resulting from this analysis, Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) performed a subsequent set of simulations using strong motion records applied to the centroid of the column and base. The strong motion records came from instrumentally recorded earthquakes thought to be representative of the Dead Sea Transform². The predominant frequencies of these strong motion records varied from 0.45 - 2.2 Hz. and produced threshold PGA's between 0.2 and 0.4 g. Although Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) did not conclude that their column analysis resulted in an estimated threshold PGA of 0.2 - 0.4 g to topple the columns, it can be reasonably assumed that this is result. However, as mentioned previously, these threshold PGA's are likely underestimated as they modeled free standing columns without a superstructure.

Footnotes

1 Granite Quarrying at Aswan is discussed in

Kelany, a., Negem, m., tohami, a. and Heldal, t. (2009) Granite quarry survey in the aswan region, egypt: shedding new light on ancient quarrying. In abu-Jaber, N., bloxam, e.G., Degryse, p. and Heldal, t. (eds.) QuarryScapes: ancient stone quarry landscapes in the Eastern Mediterranean, Geological Survey of Norway Special publication,12, pp. 87–98.

2

Fill and Rock Responses from the Gulf of Aqaba earthquake of 1995
The Yerba Buena Island record from the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989
SF Bay Area record (Treasure Island record from the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 ?)
An El Centro record from the Imperial Valley earthquake of 1940

Wechsler et al (2018) commented on modeling the column falls as follows:

The Cathedral is, so far, the only structure that has been at the center of quantitative archaeoseimsic studies. Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) tried to estimate minimum levels of peak ground acceleration (PGA) during the earthquake ground motion which was necessary to topple the Cathedral columns. However, they used the model of a freestanding column of the same size as the ones found in the Cathedral, but with no capital, architrave or other superstructure. Since 2D models were used and forces were applied to the center of gravity of the columns and pedestals, the reported 0.2 - 0.4 m/s² PGA threshold at frequencies between 0.2 and 4.4 Hz can only be regarded as a rough estimate and are not necessarily representative for the complete structure of the Cathedral which has a significantly different response to earthquake ground motions than a solitary column. Hinzen (2010) used 3D discrete element models conforming to the size of the toppled columns of the Cathedral and showed that the toppling direction during a realistic earthquake ground motion in three dimensions is a matter of chance. A column that is being rocked by earthquake ground motions is in a nonlinear dynamic system and its behavior tends to be of a chaotic character. Small changes to the initial conditions can have a strong influence on the general dynamic reaction and significantly alter the toppling direction. The same paper shows that the parallel orientation is probably an effect of the superstructure connecting the columns mechanically and not a consequence of the ground motion character. This interpretation is also strongly supported by the fact that the two remaining columns of the southern row rest at angles of ~90° compared with the columns from the northern row, as shown in a 3D laser scan model of the site (Fig. 2.4). A similar analysis of the Hippos columns was performed by Hinzen (2010)

The 2nd Northwest Church Earthquake - mid 8th century CE

Modified by JW from Fig. 9 of Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

Deformation Map

Modified by JW from Fig. 9 of Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)

Dove-Shaped Pendant Earthquake - 361-380s CE

Earthquake Archeological Effects chart

Earthquake Archeological Effects (EAE)

Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)

of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224).

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description	Intensity
Collapsed Walls and re-used building elements	Basilica Figure 5 THE BASILICA A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES A SCHEMATIC PLAN (Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG) Eisenberg (2021)		fallen architectural fragment - Wechsler et al, 2018 Most of the basilica’s architectural fragments, especially from the northern and central parts, were looted and reused in the nearby Byzantine building. - Eisenberg (2021:171-173)	VIII+
Collapsed Roof suggesting displaced walls	Northern part of the nave of the Basilica Figure 5 THE BASILICA A PLAN WITH BUILDING PHASES A SCHEMATIC PLAN (Y. NAKAS AND M. EISENBERG) Eisenberg (2021)		The sole evidence for a sudden disaster is the find of parts of skeletons of at least four humans that were buried under the collapsed roof in the northern part of the nave. Two of the almost intact skeletons belonged to an adult male and a young female. The female was found with an iron nail (most probably from the roof ) stuck in her knee bones and a dove-shaped pendant resting between her neck bones. - Eisenberg (2021:171-173)	VII+
Foundation Damage	Saddle Necroplis (Lion and Flower Mausoleum) Figure 1 Mt. Sussita and its environs with the three necropoleis and the Saddle Necropolis monuments indicated: funerary podia Lion’s Mausoleum Flowers Mausoleum Burial Cave A sarcophagi field ditch Burial Cave B drone view towards north (photo M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024) Figure 2 Drone’s view towards west looking at the Lion’s Mausoleum (left), the Flowers Mausoleum (right), and Burial Cave A beneath them (photo M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024) Figure 8 An artistic reconstruction of the funerary monuments along the main road in the Saddle Necropolis with the funerary podia series and the two mausolea (Y. Nakas and M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)	Figure 5 The Flowers Mausoleum northern wall and architectural fragments at its foot during excavations; view towards east (photo M. Eisenberg) Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024)	The foundations of the mausoleum, built in the late 1st to early 2nd century AD, have been fully excavated, together with some of its architectural blocks, collapsed during the 363 AD earthquake. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:371) A unique series of at least 13 funerary podia was excavated along the eastern side of the saddle road. ... They probably collapsed in the 363 AD earthquake. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373) Based on the small finds and the architectural studies, the mausoleum’s construction was dated to the early 2nd century AD (even though some architectural elements are more characteristic of the 1st c. AD) and its destruction to the 363 AD earthquake. The vaulted ground floor may have survived the earthquake as simple burials dated to the 380s were discovered within its plaster floor. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373-374) Based on the small finds and the architectural studies, the mausoleum’s [Lion Mausoluem] construction was dated to the early 2nd century AD (even though some architectural elements are more characteristic of the 1st c. AD) and its destruction to the 363 AD earthquake. The vaulted ground floor may have survived the earthquake as simple burials dated to the 380s were discovered within its plaster floor. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:373-374) The proposed exact destruction date [of the Flower Mausaleum] is AD 363, when a strong earthquake hit Hippos and the whole region. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:381-382) The [Lion and Flowers] mausoleum was built at the end of the 1st/early 2nd century AD and destroyed together with the other monuments of the necropolis in the AD 363 earthquake - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024:383)	IX+
Collapsed colonnade?	Forum Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		The devastating earthquake that occurred in the region in 363 CE did not spare the forum. It may be assumed that the colonnades collapsed and as a result, some of the stylobates were also dismantled. - Segal et al. (2013:160)	V+? or VIII+?
Collapsed Walls	the propylaeum, and the theatre of the Saddle Compound Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)	VIII+
Damaged Hypocausta	the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse Figure 1 Plan of the site showing the main excavated areas. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)	?
Collapsed Walls?	Odeion Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)	VIII+?
Collapsed Walls?	Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)	VIII+?
Collapsed Walls?	porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		"During the night of 18 to 19 May AD 363, an earthquake caused fatal destruction in the region, razing much of the city of Hippos to the ground. Most buildings within and outside the city walls were completely or partly destroyed and not rebuilt. Among these are the civic basilica, the propylaeum and the theatre of the Saddle Compound, all the structures of the Saddle Necropolis, the hypocausta of the Southern Bathhouse, and perhaps also the odeion, the Roman temple in the Hellenistic Compound, and the porticoes of the colonnaded decumanus maximus." - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:144-145)	VIII+?

The archeoseismic evidence requires a minimum Intensity of VIII (8) when using the Earthquake Archeological Effects chart of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224) however foundation damage in the Saddle necroplis uncovered by Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2024), though approximately dated, suggests a minimum intensity of IX (9) and proximity to the epicentral region. It should be noted that, as a caveat, Hippos Sussita appears to be susceptible to a topographic or ridge effect.

The 1st Northwest Church Earthquake - 7th or Early 8th century CE

Earthquake Archeological Effects chart

Earthquake Archeological Effects (EAE)

Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)

of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224).

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description	Intensity
Displaced walls? Dented Floors ?	Nave of the Northwest Church Fig. 256 General plan of the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls mentioned in the text. Segal et al. (2013)	Fig. 281 Fig. 281 The mosaic under the arched entrance to the southern pastophorion (the martyrion chapel) with evidence of repairs. Segal et al. (2013)	The final phase of the church (Phase III) was the decline of the basilica which must have been the result of some unspecified disaster of an unknown date but which clearly caused serious damage to the nave; it was probably one of the earthquakes which affected this region in the second half of the 7th century (658 CE) or at the beginning of the 8th century (717 CE). Indeed, eloquent testimony to the ancient repairs made to the mosaic floor can be seen at the southern pastophorion. Right under the arched entrance to this room, the mosaic bears traces of repairs carried out after it was damaged, probably during an earthquake (fig. 281). - Segal et al. (2013:210)	VII+? ?

The archeoseismic evidence requires a minimum Intensity of VII (7) when using the Earthquake Archeological Effects chart of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224).

The 2nd Northwest Church Earthquake - mid 8th century CE

Earthquake Archeological Effects chart

Earthquake Archeological Effects (EAE)

Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)

of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description	Intensity
Tilted and displaced walls (tilted and displaced to the west)	Wall W1386 in the area east of the Hellenistic Compound (HLC 5) Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com Plan of the Forum. Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church Segal and Eisenberg (2007)	Figure 21 Hippos 2009, area to the east of the HLC (Hellenistic Compound). Wall 1386. Note the extent of damage, most probably the results of the landslide caused by the earthquake JW: located in HLC 5 Segal et al (2019)	Segal et al (2019:18) uncovered a wall displaced towards the west (Fig. 21) in the area east of the Hellenistic Compound (HLC5) which they attributed to one of the mid 8th century CE earthquakes. JW: This could also be due to soil creep	VI-VII+
Collapsed walls	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	The atrium and the southern aisle floors were covered with collapsed building debris, composed mainly of basalt ashlars. Only the lowest ashlar courses of the building’s walls were extant, and in some places even the lowest course was tilted and pushed out of place. The eastern area of the opus sectile floor of the southern aisle was well preserved. - Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	VIII+
Collapsed Building (collapsed walls)	Umayyad-period structure was built above the middle of the basilica's eastern aisle and eastern wall Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Fig. 9.9 Fig. 9.9 The Umayyad-period structure in the eastern part of the basilica area. View towards the south. Note the secondary use of the civic basilica architectural fragments at the corner foundations reaching the civic basilica floor level (M. Eisenberg) Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	The most prominent of these Umayyad-period structures was built above the middle of the basilica's eastern aisle and eastern wall (Fig. 9.9).28 The full width of the building was excavated (7 m north–south) with an estimated length of 7.5 m (west–east). The walls are 0.8 m wide, preserved to a height of 1.9 m from their foundations on the bedrock. Speculation that it might be a mosque could not be proven by the excavations. The building was destroyed in AD 749. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:145)	VIII+
Collapsed Building (collapsed walls) Collapsed Roof (due to displaced walls) Debris (due to collapsed walls)	Northeast Insula and Northeast Church Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com		The Insula and the church within it are situated to the north of the decumanus maximus, c. 45 m north-east of the forum (Fig. 9.3). The Northeast Church is a small mono-apsidal church, built into an existing insula in the late fifth to early sixth centuries AD next to the so-called Peristyle House, an urban villa of the Early Byzantine period. The rest of the insula is taken up by simple courtyards and rooms that surround them, some fairly well built, with secondary use of basalt ashlars and paving stones (Figs 9.14–9.15). A basalt cross acroterion, similar to the above-mentioned one in the Northwest Church, was found in the western debris of the church, which means that most of its roof was still standing in AD 749. There is clear evidence for the AD 749 destruction in all the Northeast Insula spaces, but most of the insula had been abandoned by then, with some of the passages blocked (Fig. 9.15). The church had also been abandoned before the earthquake, and in the last phase it was full of poorly executed fixes to the floors and the wall plaster. The US expedition partners that excavated the church describe its last phase of use as follows: 'The church became a mausoleum and was little used or abandoned by the earthquake of 749 AD' - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:152,154)	VIII+ VII+ VIII+
Tilted Walls	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	The atrium and the southern aisle floors were covered with collapsed building debris, composed mainly of basalt ashlars. Only the lowest ashlar courses of the building’s walls were extant, and in some places even the lowest course was tilted and pushed out of place. The eastern area of the opus sectile floor of the southern aisle was well preserved. - Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	VI+
Displaced Walls	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	The atrium and the southern aisle floors were covered with collapsed building debris, composed mainly of basalt ashlars. Only the lowest ashlar courses of the building’s walls were extant, and in some places even the lowest course was tilted and pushed out of place. The eastern area of the opus sectile floor of the southern aisle was well preserved. - Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021)	VII+
Fallen columns Collapsed Roof (displaced walls) Collapsed Walls Items of value in the rubble (rubble due to collapsd walls)	Cathedral Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com	Figure 9 The Cathedral at the end of the 2021 excavation, aerial view from 3D model. Kowalewska and Eisenberg (2021) Fallen Columns in the Cathedral Click on image to open a higher resolution magnifiable image in a new tab Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025 Fallen Columns in the Cathedral Photo by Jefferson Williams 17 April 2025 Fig. 9.12 Fig. 9.12 A vertical extract from a photogrammetric model of the cathedral (M. Eisenberg) Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	Excavations in the 1950's revealed columns lying on the floor of the cathedral in sub parallel directions - Wechsler et al (2018) All the architectural fragments of the cathedral that were made of fine limestone, marble, and granite are reused Roman-period pieces. The church continued to serve in some capacity until the AD 749 earthquake, although in the Late Umayyad period the atrium was mostly overbuilt by simple housing units. The clear testimonies to the AD 749 earthquake are not only the symmetrically toppled 4.7 m long granite and marble column shafts found lying on the opus sectile floor in the 1950s excavations, but also the finds made in the recent digs (Fig. 9.12). An additional liturgical space (baptistery chapel/photisterion?) with a baptismal font enclosed with marble screens was found south of the southern wall of the cathedral. A collection of scattered church furniture was found on the opus sectile floor of this hall, under what seems to be the AD 749 earthquake collapse of the roof and the walls. Among this furniture was a large bronze candelabrum, a marble vessel with three hemispheric spaces for liquids, and a 42 kg marble reliquarium (the largest of its kind to be found in Israel, recovered empty of any relics). The new excavations provided an opportunity for photogrammetric documentation (Fig. 9.12), which allowed for a more accurate calculation of the orientation of the fallen column shafts in relation to the nearby wall, instead of 10° inaccuracy margins of calculations to the absolute north. The six westernmost shafts of the northern row are oriented at angles of 36°–53° to the northern cathedral wall, while the three shafts within the bema lie at angles of 67°, 52°, and 57° (Fig. 9.13). As K.-G. Hinzen (2009) suggested based on 3D quantitative approach models, the variations in the angle of collapse between the columns may have been caused by other pieces of the surrounding architecture, e.g., the entablature above the columns. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:149,151) Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) estimated a minimum paleo-PGA of 0.2-0.4 g to overturn the columns found in the Cathedral. This paleo-PGA is a lower bound and therefore an underestimate. Assuming a PGA of 0.4-0.6 g and converting from PGA to Intensity via Wald et al (1999), one arrives at an Intensity of 8 - 8.5 which reduces to ~6.5 - 7.5 when one considers a site effect.	VI+ (EAE) 6.5-8.5 (Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor, 2010) VII+ (EAE) VIII+ (EAE) VIII+ (EAE)
Fallen columns	Forum Plan of Hippos Sussita Used with permission from BibleWalks.com Figure 3 VERTICAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF HIPPOS CITY CENTER (M. EISENBERG) Eisenberg (2021) Plan of the Forum. Hellenistic compound, and Northwest Church Segal and Eisenberg (2007) Fig.9.7 Fig. 9.7 A vertical view towards the northern part of the Hellenistic Compound and the North-West Church built in its centre. W — wine production B — bread production/cooking 0 — olive oil production (M. Eisenberg). Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	Fig. 9.6 Fig. 9.6 The northern portico of the forum with monolithic column shafts (toppled in AD 749) lying on the forum pavers, with the kalybe temple and Sea of Galilee in the far west (M. Eisenberg) JW: Columns not in original post quake position - see Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:n. 26). Click on image to open in a new tab Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025)	At least the eastern part of the northern portico and the eastern portico most probably still stood when the AD 749 earthquake hit and toppled their columns at a uniform angle onto the forum pavers (Figs 9.6–9.7). - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:145)	VI+ (EAE)
Debris Collapsed Walls (inferred from the debris) human remains	Northwest Church Fig. 256 General plan of the Northwest Church Complex with numbers of loci and walls mentioned in the text. Segal et al. (2013)		In terms of the relative chronology, the existence of the church was comprised between that of the sanctuary and the earthquake which destroyed the town of Sussita. Year 749 CE as a generally assumed date for this earthquake has been confirmed by the objects found in the sealed contexts at the church such as the coins and pottery (including oil lamps): see our Report 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. - Segal et al (2004:65) The testimonies to the earthquake of 749 CE as recorded in the Northwest Church complex have also included some human remains, specifically the skull of a young woman found in the shaft of the cellar in the atrium as well as damaged skeletons of an elderly woman and a child discovered in the debris of the central room in the western portico of the atrium. - Segal et al. (2013:216) its final collapse is precisely dated to the AD 749 earthquake by multiple finds, especially the assemblage of fully restorable vessels from the diakonikon. During the last phase of use, dated to the second half of the seventh and the early eighth centuries, a clear decline is noticeable in several of the church spaces, including careless repairs to the mosaic floors, lack of some of the church furniture, and simple blockage of some of the entrances. The possibility was raised that some of the damage was a consequence of one of the earthquakes prior to AD 749, e.g. in AD 658 and AD 717. ... A small number of roof tiles were collected from the church debris, which further prompted the suggestion that some parts of the roof had collapsed prior to AD 749 and were not rebuilt, and only a small part of the church was in active use until AD 749. A large basalt cross acroterion was found in the AD 749 debris in the western part of the church, indicating that the main part of the roof stood until then. Moreover, the cross is proof that there was no need to conceal prominent Christian symbols during the Umayyad period. A similar cross acroterion was found in the Northeast Church (see below). The only skeletal remains related to the AD 749 earthquake at Hippos were recovered from the NWC. The skeletons of an adult woman and a child, as well as the skull of a young woman, were found in the atrium, all buried under the earthquake debris. - Eisenberg and Kowalewska (2025:151-152)	? VIII+ ?

The archeoseismic evidence requires a minimum Intensity of VIII (8) when using the Earthquake Archeological Effects chart of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224). Hippos Sussita appears to be subject to a topographic or ridge effect.

Topographic or Ridge Effect

Fig. 2.5

Simplified north-south trending geological profile through the saddle-like structure of the Sussita hill. On top of the profile, a frequency-dependent seismic amplification is shown which was derived for ten one-dimensional linear elastic models of the subsurface. Abbreviations for the geologic units are given at the bottom of the figure.

Wechsler et al (2018)

Wechsler et al (2018) pointed out that a topographic or ridge effect is likely present Hippos Sussita:

The saddle-like structure of the Sussita hill is prone to topographic amplification of strong ground motion during earthquakes, especially at the hilltop. The focusing effects of seismic waves in similar situations have been reported to lead to significant ground motion amplification (e.g., Massa et al., 2010). In the case of Hippos, the special geometry of the hill is combined with the unusual situation of high impedance material in the form of a basalt flow on top of weaker conglomerates. Figure 2.5 (above) shows a simplified north-south trending profile through the site and the neighboring valleys of Ein-Gev and Sussita. Estimates of ground motion amplification of vertically traveling shear waves from 1D model calculations indicate amplification factors at the hilltop in the range of 8 at frequencies of 2-3 Hz, a frequency range at which constructions such as colonnades show high vulnerability. In any further archaeoseismic studies of the damaged structures in Hippos, the exceptional location of the site and the local conditions must be taken into account.

Estimate Magnitude and Intensity with and without a Site Effect

Calculator

Variable	Input	Units	Notes
PGA		g	Peak Horizontal Ground Acceleration
R		km.	Distance to earthquake producing fault
Seismic Amplification		unitless	Site Effect due to Topographic or Ridge Effect (set to 1 to assume no site effect)
Variable	Output - Site Effect not considered	Units	Notes
I		unitless	Conversion from PGA to Intensity using Wald et al (1999)
M		unitless	Attenuation relationship of Hough and Avni (2009) used to calculate Magnitude
Variable	Output - Site Effect removed	Units	Notes
I		unitless	Conversion from PGA to Intensity using Wald et al (1999)
M		unitless	Attenuation relationship of Hough and Avni (2009) used to calculate Magnitude

Magnitude is calculated from Intensity (I) and Fault Distance (R) based on Hough and Avni (2009) who did not specify the type of Magnitude scale they were using.

Site Effect Removal Methodology

Figures

Figure 13a -

Figure 13. (a)

Residuals between predicted acceleration response spectra (5% damping) for reference station (NRN2) and for station NRN7, for periods up to 1 s. The results are reported for the west—east component and are presented in terms of logarithmic differences. PGHA indicates peak ground horizontal component (in this case, the east—west component).

Massa et al (2010)

PGA vs. frequency (period is the inverse of frequency) from Massa et al (2010)

Discussion

Output with site effect removed assumes that PGA is higher than it would be if there was no site effect. In this situation, Intensity (I) with site effect removed is calculated pre-amplification (i.e. it will be lower). This is because an Intensity estimate with the site effect removed is helpful in producing an Intensity Map that will do a better job of "triangulating" the epicentral area. Site Effect is based on Figure 13a and Equation 2 of Massa et al (2010)

Equation 2

log₁₀(Y) = a + b*M+ c*log₁₀(R) + S_t + σ

where

Y = PGA
M = Magnitude
R = Hypocentral Distance (km.)
S_t = additional PGA from Topographic Effect
σ = standard deviation of PGA
a,b,c = coefficients relating to attenuation of source energy away from the source

In their study, they estimated a frequency dependent additional PGA (S_t in Eqn. 2) which is added by a topographic site effect. The additional topographic site effect PGA varied from ~0.1 g to 0.5 g for dominant frequencies of approximately 1 - 5 Hz.. Higher PGA's were shown to be present for higher frequencies which are more likely to occur when the earthquake producing fault is closer to the site. They also noted that a greater topographic effect was observed when the seismic energy arrived orthogonal (perpendicular in their words) to the ridge. Both of these considerations suggest that a topographic ridge effect should be considered at Hippos Sussita when other evidence suggests that one of the Sea of Galilee faults broke during the earthquake. The additional Site Effect PGA is linearly scaled from 0 - 0.5 g for site effects where amplitude increases from 1x to 10x. It's not the greatest transform to remove site effect from the Intensity estimate but may be useful for crude estimates.

Experimental calculators - Variation of Fourier amplitude spectra - UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Calculator

Source : Kramer (1996:92-93)

**Seismic Moment and Moment Magnitude**
Variable	Input	Units	Notes
μ		GPa	Shear Modulus
D		m	Displacement
w		km.	Fault width
l		km.	Fault length
Variable	Output	Units	Notes
M_o		N-m	Seismic Moment
M_o		dynes-cm.	Seismic Moment
M_w		unitless	Moment Magnitude

Variable	Input	Units	Notes
R_θΦ		unitless	Radiation Patttern
F		unitless	Free surface effect
v_s		km./s	Shear Wave velocity of the rock
ρ		g/cc	Density of the rock
M_w			Moment Magntidue
f_max		Hz.	cutoff frequency - 15 Hz. typical for W N Am.
Δσ		bars	50 bars typical for W N Am.
f		Hz.	frequency
R		km.	Fault Distance
Variable	Output	Units	Notes
C			constant
M_o		dyne-cm.	Seismic Moment
f_c		Hz.	Corner frequency
A(f)			Amplitude (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Methodology

|A(f)| = [C*M_o*(f²/{1-(f/f_c)²})*(1/sqrt{1 + (f/f_max)⁸})]e^{-{π*f*R/Q(f)*v_s}}/R         (3.30 - Kramer, 1996:92)

|A(f)| = fourier amplitudes
C = constant
M_o = Seismic Moment (dyne-cm.)
f = frequency (Hz.)
f_c = corner frequency (Hz.)
f_max = cutoff frequency (Hz.)
Q(f) = frequency dependent quality factor, inversely proportional to the damping ratio of the rock
π = Pi
R = distance from circular rupture surface
v_s = shear wave velocity of the rock

C = R_θΦ*F*V / 4*π*ρ*v_s³         (3.31 - Kramer, 1996:92)

R_θΦ = Radiation Pattern ≈ 0.55
F = Free-surface effect =2
V = √2/2 - accounts for partitioning of energy into two horizontal components
π = Pi
ρ = density of the rock
v_s = shear wave velocity of the rock

f_c = 4.9 x 10⁶*v_s*(Δσ/M_o)^1/3         (3.32 - Kramer, 1996:93)

f_c = corner frequency (Hz.)
v_s = shear wave velocity of the rock (km/sec.)
Δσ = stress drop (bars) - 50 and 100 are typically used for western and eastern North America
M_o = Seismic Moment (dyne-cm.)

M_w = (2/3)*log₁₀M_o-10.7         (2.5 - Kramer, 1996:49)

M_w = Moment Magnitude
M_o = Seismic Moment (dyne-cm.)

fxsolver

M_o = μ*A*D         (2.1 - Kramer, 1996:42)

μ = Shear Modulus (Pa)
A = Area of rupture (m2)
D = displacement (m)

fxsolver

Units

1 Pa = 1 N/m2
1 dyne is the force required to accelerate 1 gram 1 cm/s2
1 N = 100,000 dynes
1 bar = 10^6 dynes/cm2

Digital Hippos

link to open in a new tab

References

Articles and Books

Eisenberg, M. (2021) The Basilica of Hippos of the Decapolis and a Corpus of the Regional Basilicae in The Basilica in Roman Palestine, Adoption and Adaptation Processes, in Light of Comparanda in Italy and North Africa, A. Dell’acqua and O. Peleg-Barkat (eds)

Eisenberg, M. and Osband, M. (2022) Evidence for Settlement Decline in Late 3rd–mid-4th Centuries CE in the Hippos Region and Beyond, Aram v. 34:1 & 2, 153-184

Eisenberg, M. and Kowalewska, A.(2024) The Flowers Mausoleum at Hippos of the Decapolis: A first glance into one of the finest Roman provincial architectural decorations in basalt, Zeit(en) des Umbruchs, Nr. 7

Eisenberg, M. and Kowalewska, A. (2025) Chapter 9. Hippos (Susiya) of the Decapolis during the Early Islamic Period and the AD 749 Earthquake , in Lichtenberger, A. and Raja, R. (2025) Jerash, the Decapolis, and the Earthquake of AD 749, Brepolis

Hinzen, K. G. (2010). Sensitivity of earthquake-toppled columns to small changes in ground motion and geometry, Isr. J Earth Sci. 58, nos. 3-4, 309-326, doi: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.309.

Karcz, I. and U. Kafri (1978). "Evaluation of supposed archaeoseismic damage in Israel." Journal of Archaeological Science 5(3): 237-253.

Kelany, a., Negem, m., tohami, a. and Heldal, t. (2009) Granite quarry survey in the aswan region, egypt: shedding new light on ancient quarrying. In abu-Jaber, N., bloxam, e.G., Degryse, p. and Heldal, t. (eds.) QuarryScapes: ancient stone quarry landscapes in the Eastern Mediterranean, Geological Survey of Norway Special publication,12, pp. 87–98.

Kowalewska, Arleta and Eisenberg, Michael (2021) Horbat Sussita (Hippos) – Preliminary Report Hadashot Arkheologiyot Volume 135 Year 2023

Massa et al. (2010) An Experimental Approach for Estimating Seismic Amplification Effects at the Top of a Ridge, and the Implication for Ground-Motion Predictions: The Case of Narni, Central Italy Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America Mlynarczyk, J. (2008). Churches and the Society in Byzantine-period Hippos. Decapolis, ARAM Society,, Oxford, ARAM.

Wechsler, N., Marco, S., Hinzen, K.G., and Hinojosa-Prieto, H. (2018) Chapter 2 - Historical Earthquakes around the Sea of Galilee in Hippos-Sussita of the Decapolis: The First Twelve Seasons of Excavations, Vol. II

Yagoda-Biran and Hatzor (2010) Constraining paleo PGA values by numerical analysis of overturned columns Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics 39(4):463 - 472

Excavation Reports

Segal, A., et al. (2003). HIPPOS-SUSSITA, Fourth Season of Excavations (June-July 2003).

Segal et al. (2013) Hippos-Sussita of the Decapolis: The First Twelve Seasons of Excavations, Vol. I

Hippos-Sussita of the Decapolis: The First Twelve Seasons of Excavations, Vol. II

Websites

Digital Hippos

Publications List from Digital Hippos

Hippos (Sussita) Excavations Project at OCHRE

OCHRE homepage

Hippos-Sussita at biblewalks.com

Bibliography from Stern et. al. (1993)

G. Schumacher, ZDPV 9 (1886). 327ff.; id ., The Jaulan, London 1888, 194ff.

Schiirer, GJV 2, 155ff.

E. Anati,IEJ3 (1953), 133

J. Leibovitch, CNI 4/2-3 (1953), 31

A. Ovadiah, PEQ ll3 (1981), 101-104

Weippert 1988,6, 65

J. Peleg, Mitteilungen des Leichtweiss-lnstitutfiiur Wasserbau, 103 (1989), 325-336

V. Tzaferis, BAR 16/5 (1990), 50-58

C. Epstein and V. Tzaferis, 'Atiqot 20 (1991), 89-94

M. Nun, The Sea of Galilee: Water Levels Past and Present, Ein Gev 1991, II.

Bibliography from Stern et. al. (2008)

Main publications

Z. Meshel et al., The Water-Supply System of Susita, Tel Aviv 1996; ibid. (Review) BAR 24/3 (1998), 60

A. Segal et al., Hippos-Sussita: 1st Season of Excavations, July 2000, Haifa 2000; id., Hippos-Sussita: 2nd Season of Excavations, July 2001, Haifa 2001; id., Hippos-Sussita: 3rd Season of Excavations, July 2002, Haifa 2002

J. Mlynarczyk, Hippos-Sussita: 3rd Season of Excavations, July 2002: Pottery Report, Haifa 2002

A. Segal et al., Hippos-Sussita: 4th Season of Excavations, June–July 2003, Haifa 2003; id., Hippos-Sussita: 5th Season of Excavations, September–October 2004, and Summary of All Five Seasons (2000–2004), Haifa 2004.

Studies

C. Epstein & V. Tzaferis, ‘Atiqot 20 (1991), 89–94

M. Adinolfi, LA 44 (1994), 375–380

Z. Meshel et al., ESI 14 (1995), 29–30

H. Fahlbusch & B. Rottgardt, Cura Aquarum in Campania: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the History of Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering in the Mediterranean Region, Pompeii, 1–8.10.1994 (BABESCH: Bulletin Antieke Beschaving Suppl. 4; eds. N. de Haan & G. C. M. Jansen), Leiden 1996, 159–167

R. C. Gregg & D. Urman, Jews, Pagans, and Christians in the Golan Hights: Greek and Other Inscriptions of the Roman and Byzantine Eras (South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 140), Atlanta, GA 1996

M. L. Fischer, Marble Studies, Konstanz 1998

A. Segal, ESI 111 (2000), 12*–13*; 113 (2001), 14*–18*; 114 (2002), 5*–8*; id., Minerva 5/5 (2004), 23–25

B. Bagatti, Ancient Christian Villages of Galilee (SBF Collectio Minor 37), Jerusalem 2001, 59–64

N. Belayche, Iudaea-Palaestina: The Pagan Cults in Roman Palestine (2nd to 4th Century) (Religion der Römischen Provinzen-Religions in Roman Provinces 1), Tübingen 2001, 273–277

J. Mlynarczyk, Sympozja Kazimierskie, 2, Lublin 2001, 215–224 (Eng. abstract); 3, Lublin 2002, 193–203 (Eng. abstract); id., Swiatowitza 3A (2001), 133–141 (Eng. abstract)

J. Peleg, Aram 13–14 (2001–2002), 423–441

C. Ben David, The Aqueducts of Israel, Portsmouth, RI 2002, 199–206

M. Eisenberg, ESI 114 (2002), 8*–9*

T. Tsuk et al., The Aqueducts of Israel, Portsmouth, RI 2002, 207–209; BAR 29/1 (2003), 54

M. Heinzelmann, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Evangelischen Instituts für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes 10 (2004), 203–206; 30/1 (2004), 48– 49

A. Lichtenberger, Kulte und Kultur der Dekapolis: Untersuchungen zu numismatischen, archäologischen und epigraphischen Zeugnissen (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 29), Wiesbaden 2003; id., BAIAS 22 (2004), 23–34

M. Schuler et al., ASOR Annual Meeting 2004

Y. Roman, Eretz 100 (2005), 26–33

J. Siegel-Itzkovich, Artifax 20/4 (2005), 6.

Wikipedia pages

Hippos Sussita

from Wikipedia

Decapolis

from Wikipedia