The University of South Florida

Excavations at Sepphoris, Israel

Report of the Excavations: 3 May-18 July, 1993

James F. Strange, The University of South Florida

Hypertext version prepared by Thomas R. W. Longstaff [© 1994]

[Last modified on June 2, 1994]

Note:

The University of Florida began excavations at Sepphoris, Israel in the summer of 1983. Beginning in 1985 excavations at this site were also conducted by Duke University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For a complete overview of the excavation of this site, the interested reader should consult the reports of each excavation project.

The Peristyle Building

The USF Excavations at Sepphoris excavated on the east side of the hill of Sepphoris (Field V) in the peristyle building during summer of 1993. Excavation dates were May 3 to July 18. Excavation in 31 squares revealed that the peristyle building appeared to be one structure 40 x 60 meters, surrounded by streets on all four sides, and occupying one city block of Roman and Byzantine Sepphoris (Sketch to Scale).

The Roman street at the east end of the peristyle building was founded in the Early Roman period and measured 5 m. across. The expedition unearthed 35 m. of street. In addition there were originally mosaic sidewalks 5 meters wide on either side of the street, though these were destroyed by the fifth century CE. The street featured a colonnade with entrances to the peristyle building on the west side. One of these entrances has been found near the SE corner of the building. It is possible that a major staircase graced the main entrance on the long axis of the building, but only further excavation will tell.

At the east end of the building extensive construction in the fifth century followed a fourth century destruction. The sidewalks were simply incorporated into smaller structures at the east end of the peristyle which opened directly on to the street. One structure, at the SE, was a glass recycling or glass vessel formation site with burned floors, work spaces, many droplets of glass, and numerous pieces of glass slag. The space at the NE corner of the peristyle was rebuilt as a bath. In one of the drains of the bath were wasters from Byzantine lamp manufacture, though the location of the lamp shop is not yet known.

The space for the bath went out of use only about the end of the Arab I period, possibly into the Arab II period. Extensive traffic on the paved street continued as late as the 13th century. The east end of the building was also in use in the Arab I and Arab II period, even for industrial use.

At the west end of the building the original ER street was unearthed, marking the west end of the building. Here a single sidewalk used as late as the fifth century CE and about 2 m. broad lead pedestrian traffic along a street barely 2.5 m. wide. The foundation of the west wall of the building, of the sidewalk, and of the street was all in the ER period.

Within the building new excavations at the west end revealed more of the geometric mosaic of the fourth century CE. A stepped pool, filled in at the end of the building's life, appeared in the middle of one of the shops that line the south side of the peristyle. Extensive drains beneath the floor attest to the care lavished on proper drainage of such a large piece of ancient architecture. Excavations will resume in 1994.

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