Alternative name | Teqoa of Galilee(?) |
---|---|
Location | Israel |
Region | Northern District |
Coordinates | 32°58′38″N35°26′21″E / 32.97722°N 35.43917°E |
Type | settlement, synagogue, mausoleum |
History | |
Founded | 180 CE |
Abandoned | 417 CE |
Periods | Roman to Byzantine period |
Cultures | Jewish |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1970-1972 |
Condition | In ruins |
Khirbet Shema [1] is an archaeological site located in Israel at the foot of Mount Meron. It features the ruins of a large Jewish village [2] of the Roman and Byzantine periods, including the remains of an ancient synagogue and a mausoleum. It may be identified with the ancient Teqoa of Galilee.
Several researchers have identified the site with the ancient Teqoa of Galilee (not to be confused with Teqoa, Judea), although no evidence has been discovered to verify this identification. [ citation needed ]
Khirbet Shema is the traditional burial site of Shammai, [3] a contemporary and opponent of Hillel the Elder.
American archaeologist Eric M. Meyers excavated the site from 1970 to 1972 on behalf of the American Schools of Oriental Research. The area recovered exceeded six acres.
Excavations have uncovered a large mausoleum, numerous tombs and an ancient synagogue. Additionally, their work included "uncovering adjacent buildings and surrounding parts of the village." [4] Even by 1974, having worked with up to 80 people, no remnants of the synagogue's roof were found.
Researchers have reviewed the "coins, glass, plaster, ceramic stone, bone, jewelry and some organic materials" found. Although "over 4,000 artifacts have been found in the excavations," [4] there is little evidence of late Hellenistic colonization and the end of Roman times at the site.
The team's Co-head, Dr. James F. Strange, professor of biblical archeology at University of South Florida, [5] indicated that the ruins of the synagogue show it to be unique, both for the area and time of construction. "There were several factors which led us to believe the building was quite unlike any other synagogue in that part of Palestine." [4] Specific features he found noteworthy included "foundation walls .. nearly two feet thick, .. an entrance staircase .. stairs ten feet wide ... and a number of underground chambers."
The bulk of the coins [6] suggest that this area was populated from 180 to around 417 CE, when "the village was destroyed by an earthquake."
Excavations done in "different sites in upper Galilee: Shema, Meiron, Gush Halav and Nabratein" [7] helped uncover more information about the debate as to "whether the earliest Galilean synagogues .. were built on a so-called basilical plan [8] .. as opposed to a broad building" known as "a broadhouse plan." [9] Khirbet Shema and two other ancient synagogues excavated around the same time all were broadhouse.
Kafr ʿInān, is a former Palestinian village, depopulated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. It was located around 33 kilometres (21 mi) east of Acre.
Sepphoris, known in Hebrew as Tzipori and in Arabic as Saffuriya is an archaeological site located in the central Galilee region of Israel, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north-northwest of Nazareth. It lies 286 meters (938 ft) above sea level and overlooks the Beit Netofa Valley. The site holds a rich and diverse historical and architectural legacy that includes Hellenistic, ancient Jewish, Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman remains. In the Roman period, it was also called Diocaesaraea. In Mandatory Palestine, Saffuriya was a Palestinian Arab town with a population of approximately 5000 people at the time of its depopulation in 1948.
Kedesh was an ancient Canaanite and later Israelite settlement in Upper Galilee, mentioned few times in the Hebrew Bible. Its remains are located in Tel Kedesh, 3 km northeast of the modern Kibbutz Malkiya in Israel on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Hamaam, or Wadi Hamam, is an Arab village in northern Israel, located near the Sea of Galilee, at the foot of Mount Nitai and across the Wadi Hamam valley from Mount Arbel. It is the easternmost part of the al-Batuf Regional Council. In 2022 its population was 1,561.
The Upper Galilee is a geographical region located in northern Israel. Part of the larger Galilee region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terrain. The term "Upper Galilee" is ancient, and has been in use since the end of the Second Temple period. From a political perspective, the Upper Galilee is situated within the administrative boundaries of the Northern District.
Teqoa is a Palestinian town in the Bethlehem Governorate, located 12 km (7.5 mi) southeast of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The town is built adjacent to the biblical site of Tekoa (Thecoe), now Khirbet Tuqu', from which it takes its name. Today's town includes three other localities: Khirbet ad-Deir, al-Halkoom, and Khirbet Teqoa. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Teqoa had a population of 8,767 in 2017.
Khirbet Kerak or Beth Yerah is a tell located on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee in modern-day Israel. The tell spans an area of over 50 acres—one of the largest in the Levant—and contains remains dating from the Early Bronze Age and from the Persian period through to the Early Islamic period.
Jish is a local council in Upper Galilee, located on the northeastern slopes of Mount Meron, 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of Safed, in Israel's Northern District. In 2022, it had a population of 3,216, which is predominantly Maronite Catholic and Melkite Greek Catholic Christians (63%), with a Sunni Muslim Arab minority.
Susya is a location in the southern Hebron Governorate in the West Bank. It houses an archaeological site with extensive remains from the Second Temple and Byzantine periods, including the ruins of an archeologically notable synagogue, repurposed as a mosque after the Muslim conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. A Palestinian village named Susya was established near the site in the 1830s. The village lands extended over 300 hectares under multiple private Palestinian ownership, and the Palestinians on the site are said to exemplify a southern Hebron cave-dwelling culture present in the area since the early 19th century whose transhumant practices involved seasonal dwellings in the area's caves and ruins of Susya.
Gottlieb Schumacher was an American-born civil engineer, architect and archaeologist of German descent, who was an important figure in the early archaeological exploration of Palestine.
Meiron was a Palestinian village, located 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) west of Safad. Associated with the ancient Canaanite city of Merom, excavations at the site have found extensive remains from the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. The remains include a 3rd-century synagogue, and Meiron served as a prominent local religious centre at the time.
The synagogue of Nabratein or of Navoraya is an ancient synagogue and archaeological site in the Upper Galilee region of the Northern District of Israel, located in a pine forest northeast of Safed.
The Galilee earthquake of 363 was a pair of severe earthquakes that shook the Galilee and nearby regions on May 18 and 19. The maximum perceived intensity for the events was estimated to be X on the European macroseismic scale. The earthquakes occurred on the portion of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.
Horvat Burgin, or Burgin, is an archaeological site in the Judaean Lowlands. Settlement at the site began in the Iron Age. During the Second Temple period, it was a Jewish settlement, which was abandoned in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. In the Byzantine period it was populated by Christians, likely including Georgian monks. In the modern period, it was a small Arab hamlet named Khirbat Umm Burj, which was depopulated in 1948.
Chorazin or Korazim was an ancient village in the Roman and Byzantine periods, best known from the Christian Gospels. It stood on the Korazim Plateau in the Upper Galilee on a hill above the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, 2.5 mi (4.0 km) from Capernaum in what is now the territory of modern Israel.
Al-Sinnabra or Sinn en-Nabra, is the Arabic place name for a historic site on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee in modern-day Israel. The ancient site lay on a spur from the hills that close the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, next to which towards its south being the tell, Khirbet Kerak or Bet Yerah, one of the largest in the Levant, spanning an area of over 50 acres. Bet Yerah was the Hellenistic era twin city of Sennabris, as al-Sinnabra was known in Classical antiquity, and its remains are located at the same tell.
Ancient synagogues in Israel refers to synagogues located in Israel built by communities of Jews and Samaritans from antiquity to the Early Islamic period.
Ancient synagogues in Palestine refers to synagogues and their remains in the Land of Israel/Palestine region, built by the Jewish and Samaritan communities from the time of the Hasmonean dynasty during the Late Hellenistic period, to the Late Byzantine period.
Alf Thomas Kraabel was an American classics scholar and educator who worked extensively in Greek and Hellenistic Judaic studies. He served as a faculty member in the classics department at the University of Minnesota from 1963 to 1983, and served as the Dean of Luther College in Iowa before retiring in 2000.
Bersabe, also known as Beersheba of Galilee, was a Second Temple period Jewish village located near the town of Kefar Hananya which marked the boundary between the Upper Galilee and the Lower Galilee, as described by Josephus, with Upper Galilee stretching from Bersabe in the Beit HaKerem Valley to Baca (Peki'in) in the north. Bersabe was one of several towns and villages of Galilee fortified by Josephus during the First Jewish–Roman War, being one of the most defensible positions and where insurgents from across Galilee had taken up refuge against the Imperial Roman army when the surrounding countryside was plundered.
coins unearthed at Khirbet Shema, ... he was the numismatist
This wiki article started as a machine (google) translation of https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirbat_Shema (French), but also with information from CACM (English, Feb. 1974, "Synagogue of Khirbet Shema Restored").
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