Explore the vast range of titles available.

Synagogue chronology has been the subject of scholarly debate for decades, especially in the Galilee, where synagogues have been dated both to the Roman and Byzantine (= late-antique) periods. 1 For the Golan, 2 the consensus has been that there is no evidence for them in the Roman period, and especially not in the 2nd-3rd c. The c .30 synagogues there, nearly all in the W central Golan, have always been precluded from the debate since, with the exception of an Early Roman one at Gamla, 3 the accepted dates for their construction and use are between the 4th and the 7th c. (fig. 1). 4

An archaeological site is an integral part of its surrounding landscape. This is one of the main novel approaches in the long-term archaeological project of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath. The site has interacted with its surrounding for more than three thousand years. It was impacted by the ancient environment, but also had an impact on both the ancient environment and current conditions. The following is a summary of environmental research that has been carried out at the Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath environs from 1999 through 2012. This case study provides important information regarding the ancient landscape and interactions between climate, the environment, and humans.

It is generally assumed that architectural artifacts discovered in surveys of rural sites have remained in their original location. If a site survey revealed architectural remains, even if the public structure to which they belonged was not found, those remains are taken as evidence of that building’s original presence. However, monumental remains are sometimes moved from their original place of use, challenging this assumption. Ten surveyed sites in the Central Golan Heights contained architectural elements from synagogues or churches dating to the Byzantine period. It is suggested that in this period, only three of these sites were settled, and the architectural fragments found at the other sites were brought from Christian NaꜤaran and Jewish En Nashut. The methodology and conclusions presented herein have significant methodological implications.

Majduliyya is a rural Roman-period site in the Golan on the border of the ancient administrative districts of Gaulantitis and Hippos. The main goal of the ongoing excavations at the site is to characterize the local architectural setting and material culture of a rural Roman period village in the Golan and to study interregional, intra-regional and urban-rural socio-economic relationships in the region. The surveys and excavations conducted to date have provided information on the plan and architecture of the site, including a public structure, private dwellings and agricultural installations. The findings from the pottery and coins provide evidence that the settlement dates mainly from the Roman period — from the first century BCE through the late third century CE — and did not continue into the Byzantine period (part of the village was resettled for a short time in the Early Islamic and Mamluk periods). The main significant initial results, summarized in this article, include a Roman-period synagogue at Majduliyya that provides a missing link in Golan synagogues (between the earliest one known from Gamla and the later ones, which flourished in the Byzantine period), a pottery kiln, olive-press remains and residential structures.

The site of Ashqelon Barne‘a is located in the southern part of the Israeli coastal plain (also known as Pleshet; Fig. 2.1). The coastal plain region is comprised of a series of elongated, subparallel, aeolian sandstone (kurkar) ridges (Fig. 2.2; Tsoar 2000). The westernmost ridge forms a cliff by the sea that reaches a height of ~ 20 m in the study area, rising to~50 m in the central (Sharon) coastal plain. In between the ridges are low depressions known as troughs (also termed slacks; Gvirtzman, Netser and Katsav 1998; Almagor 2005; Zilberman et al. 2006) wherein soils accumulated from