Lecture
Digging Deep in the Galilee: 10 Years of Excavations on a Hill with a View
- Date
- Sunday 12 November 2023
- Time
- Location
- National Museum of Antiquities Leiden
This lecture is part of the Middle Eastern Culture Market 2023 in the Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.
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When I walked the barren hill of Horvat Kur in the Galilee together with Leiden archaeology student Mark van der Enden in 2007, there was not much more to enjoy than scorched grass, dust and a spectacular view across the Lake of Galilee. Nothing but some suspicious shards from the Roman and Byzantine periods scattered on the surface suggested what was going on underground. All that dramatically changed when Kinneret Regional Project, at that time a consortium of the Universities of Leiden, Bern and Helsinki, started a test excavation in 2008 and exposed layers of sediment, walls and finds that brought the remains of a small village to light again that had been slumbering for almost 1500 years.
In 2018, after more than 10 years of archaeological fieldwork have passed, after hundreds of volunteers from more than a dozen countries have worked on the hill year for year until this summer, after many Leiden students from various disciplines have received basic training in field archaeology, found walls, tons of sherds, rooftiles, glass, bones and coins and after lots of finds and features have been dug up, measured in, cleaned, registered, drawn, photographed and described, we know a whole lot more about village life in ancient Galilee - the formative region of both Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. The key discovery on Horvat Kur is a synagogue - a Jewish prayer house and community center of the surrounding village dating from between the mid-4th through the early 7th century CE.
Now, in 2023, the excavations have been concluded, and work has returned to the scholar’s desk. A detailed “Final Report” needs to be written on the finds and findings, the crown of all archaeological work. Thanks to a generous sabbatical from the Leiden Institute of History and the Leiden Center for the Arts in Society in the first year of 2024, I will have the opportunity to start writing. This presentation summarizes the results of our excavations and highlights the people who have all contributed to the Project’s success with their enthusiasm, dedication and curiosity.
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For more information, please see the webpage of the Middle Eastern Culture Market 2023.