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<< Other Photo Pages >> Sussita - Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel

Submitted by motist on Sunday, 15 March 2015  Page Views: 7701

Multi-periodSite Name: Sussita Alternative Name: Hippos
Country: Israel
NOTE: This site is 1.869 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Tiberias  Nearest Village: Ein - Gev
Latitude: 32.778982N  Longitude: 35.659685E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Sussita
Sussita submitted by motist : Sussita Dr. Michael Eisenberg holding up the bronze mask of Pan. Photo by Michael Eisenberg (Vote or comment on this photo)
The ancient city of Sussita, or Hippos in Greek (both meaning “horse”), is located on a mountaintop 350 meters (1148 ft.) above the Sea of Galilee. Towering above the Ein Gev riverbed, it offers a fascinating landscape and breathtaking view.

The ancient city existed from the Hellenistic period (the 3rd century BCE) to the Ummayad period, until it was destroyed by a powerful earthquake in 749. The city flourished in the Roman and Byzantine periods. It was one of the cities of the Decapolis – the group of ten cities in the region that shared Greco-Roman culture. Unlike the Semitic peoples of the area (Jews, Arab and Nabateans), these cities served as centers of Greco-Roman culture and their citizens were Macedonians, Greeks or members of other peoples that adopted Greek, and later Roman, culture. The inhabitants were pagans until the Byzantine period, when they converted to Christianity, which became the prevailing religion of the area.

Sussita and Bet Shean are the only cities of the Decapolis in Israel, while the others are now part of Jordan and Syria.

After initial surveys of the site in the early 1950s, the mountaintop became a frontline IDF fortress defending the Syrian border.

Excavation of the site began in 2000 and continues for about one month a year, under the supervision of Professor Arthur Segal of the University of Haifa.

Interesting findings include the forum, a temple dated to the 2nd or early 3rd century CE, a sanctuary and a Byzantine church. Because the city was never resettled after the earthquake of 749, and because of its location far from modern roads, many of the artifacts are extremely well preserved.

Note: Rare bronze mask of god Pan found at Golan dig - see the comment on our page
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Sussita
Sussita submitted by motist : Sussita (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Sussita submitted by motist (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Sussita submitted by motist : Sussita A theater is finally found in Hippos-Sussita. Credit: Michael Eisenberg

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Sussita submitted by motist : Sussita

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 688m NNE 30° Wadi Ein Gev Ancient Village or Settlement
 688m NNE 30° NEG II Prehistoric Village* Ancient Village or Settlement
 5.3km N 351° Kursi National Park* Ancient Village or Settlement
 9.9km SW 229° Sea of Galilee Cairn* Cairn
 10.3km W 262° Hammat Tiberias* Ancient Village or Settlement
 10.8km SW 226° Tel Bet Yerah Artificial Mound
 10.8km SW 230° Ohalo II* Ancient Village or Settlement
 12.0km SSW 207° Sha'ar HaGolan* Ancient Village or Settlement
 14.8km N 349° Bethsaida* Ancient Village or Settlement
 15.5km WNW 296° Dalmanutha* Ancient Village or Settlement
 16.3km NNE 30° The ancient city of Gamla* Ancient Village or Settlement
 16.4km NNE 31° Gamla Dolmen field* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 18.0km NE 48° Dolmen field near Natur on the Golan Heights* Barrow Cemetery
 19.5km NE 42° Rujm el-Hiri* Stone Circle
 20.5km NW 305° Hukok* Ancient Temple
 27.2km SSE 151° Rasun (Jordan)* Burial Chamber or Dolmen
 27.8km NNW 342° Tel Hatzor* Artificial Mound
 28.1km NW 309° Crescent-shaped monument near Shefer* Artificial Mound
 28.7km NNW 331° Naburiya synagogue in Biriya Forest* Ancient Temple
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 33.9km NE 34° Dubbah Breika Ancient Village or Settlement
 33.9km SSW 206° Tel Beth Shean* Ancient Village or Settlement
 34.1km WSW 255° Mary's Well (Nazareth)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring
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Re: Sussita by motist on Wednesday, 04 September 2019
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6th-century inscriptions near Galilee may show Christians’ fading Greek literacy

So far, ‘Burnt Church’ site at ongoing Hippos-Sussita Excavations Project has revealed three texts — all of which were misspelled and had grammar errors, say archaeologists

By Amanda Borschel-Dan


Some 15 years ago, while on the trail of an elusive Byzantine-era synagogue, archaeologists at the ongoing Hippos-Sussita Excavations Project near the Sea of Galilee began excavating what appeared to be a public building that had been burned to the ground. After quickly discovering that the remains indicated the structure was “just another church” — one of seven at least at the large ancient settlement — the team moved on to other work.
This summer, the settlement’s South-West or Burnt Church was revisited by archaeologists in search of firm dating for the conflagration that both destroyed and preserved the church. They revealed a plethora of interesting artifacts and mosaics — and a nearly illiterate artisan, who had been tasked with inscribing the names of donors and abbots for posterity. Instead, his grammar and spelling mistakes are preserved in a trio of ancient Greek mosaics. (Where is autocorrect when you need it?) The mosaics at the Burnt Church offer geometric designs, birds with vivid colors and “a very happy fat fish,” said excavation director, Haifa University’s Dr. Michael Eisenberg. While beautiful on the eye, much more important to Eisenberg’s scholarly work are the three inscriptions so far uncovered in the church. However, as first reported in Haaretz, all three inscriptions, unearthed in two stages of excavation at Burnt Church, exhibited so many mistakes that the research team began to wonder whether the artisan and presumed supervising church officials were indeed native Greek speakers. The central medallion inscription was the find of the season and is still being deciphered.There were so many mistakes, we thought perhaps it is not their lingua franca,” Eisenberg said this week, rather Aramaic. Among the errors are grammar and spelling goof-ups, including confusion with constructing possessive nouns.Similar to the greater Jewish Diaspora’s command of Hebrew, it is possible that the residents of Christian-majority 5th century Hippos could “perhaps read the Holy Scriptures in Greek” (if literate), but maybe not any more than that. He added that it is known by scholars that by the Byzantine period, Greek “was rather lousy.”
According to a Biblical Archaeology Review article written by the late archaeologist Vassilios Tzaferis, an expert in monks and monasteries in the Byzantine period, prior to the commencement of the excavation project in 2000, “Sussita/Hippos was one of the most important cities in the East during the Roman/Byzantine period, one of the towns of the famous Decapolis (the League of Ten Cities), and is today the most significant archaeological site on the eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee.”
By 359 CE, said Eisenberg, there was a bishop at Hippos — just a short time after Christianity was adopted by the Byzantine empire.
I’m sure there are churches from the 4th century, but we haven’t found them,” said Eisenberg. The Burnt Church was constructed in two phases, in the second half of the 5th and 6th centuries, he said, and the mosaics are likely from the 6th century.
Ancient Greek epigrapher Dr. Gregor Staab of the University of Cologne, Germany, told The Times of Israel, “Generally, the mistakes are not uncommon in this region and time. Here the well-known decline of the classical Greek grammar is recognizable. Obviously it has not disturbed anybody that the Greek language was wrong and the artisan or his employer did not know the language.”“Similar mistakes occur and can be expected” in mosaics of this era and region, said Staab. It is Greek written by one who is not completely fluent in the language and “is certainly no new dialect,” said Staab emphatically.


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Re: Sussita by motist on Tuesday, 10 January 2017
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Archaeologists find vast pagan sanctuary outside Roman city in north Israel

Location of pagan cult site outside city walls of Hippos-Sussita suggests the primary purpose of the theater was to worship the gods, not entertain the masses.
Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman town of Hippos-Sussita in northern Israel have finally found the large theatre they'd been seeking for years. But based on its location outside town, they think the propylaea bathhouse-theater compound they discovered wasn't for entertainment, but for worship.
The ancients didn't have signs saying, "Line up here to adore Augustus." Building the tale of Hippos is like building a detective story, clue by clue, says Dr. Michael Eisenberg of Haifa University, head of the Hippos excavations project.

Dr. Michael Eisenberg holding up the bronze mask of Pan. Credit: Michael Eisenberg

"First we found the Pan mask, in 2015," he says. "Then we found a monumental gate leading to what we surmised might be a site of worship. This year, in a single compound outside the city walls, we found a bathhouse and a theater."
The latest discoveries in Hippos-Sussita, which is within the Sussita Natural Park run by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, were unveiled Monday at the annual conference of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at Haifa University. At the conference, Eisenberg described the latest discoveries, including two burial grounds also located outside the city proper.
Digging up the propylaeum leading to Pan's Gate (in the rain). Credit: Michael Eisenberg
In support of his theory, Eisenberg points out that theaters for entertainment were typically within the cities, while the ancient Greeks and Romans often located sanctuaries to gods outside cities.
"The Asclepion outside Pergamon is one of the best examples of a huge healing sanctuary of the Roman period, and it's outside the city of Pergamon, in Asia Minor," he told Haaretz. "It was one of the most famous healing centers of the ancient world… and it had bathing facilities and a theater."
Other examples of major religious compounds outside cities include Asclepios' sanctuary in Epidaurus, Greece, which also features a gate and a huge theater, and another on the island of Kos.
In Israel itself, in fact very near Hippos, a compound dedicated to healing was built by the Romans at Hamat Gader, featuring a theater and baths. (Today it's better known among Israelis for its crocodile farm, from which the reptiles have been known to escape.)
Roughly in the early second century C.E., about a century and counting after the Great Jewish Revolt of 67-70 C.E., the town of Hippos expanded outside its walls. Homes located beyond the walls would have been hard to protect from marauders, but clearly public buildings had been erected there too, Eisenberg says.
In any case, come the 4th century C.E., the town's fortunes receded again. "We don't know why," he admits, though the earthquake in 363 C.E. is likely among the reasons.
The case of the missing theater
Hippos was one of the Decapolis, a region of ten Roman cities along the empire's eastern boundary in the Levant, within what is modern-day Jordan, Syria and Israel. The cities were not formally united in a league, but in any case each was a hub of Latin culture in the alien Levant, with its Semitic languages and cults. (The nearby Hamat Gader complex is by another of the Decapolis cities, Gadara.)
Hippos was founded on a crest with a saddle ridge, connecting it to the southwestern Golan Heights, about two kilometers east of the Sea of Galilee. But whatever the marvels of the city itself, it is the discoveries beyond the city gates that set the Haifa University diggers aquiver.

Note the quality of the stonework at Hippos-Sussita. Credit: Michael Eisenberg

One conundrum had been the mystery of the missing theater.
Every self-respecting ancient Roman city had a theater, where the citi

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Re: Sussita by motist on Sunday, 15 March 2015
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Rare bronze mask of god Pan found at Golan dig

Larger than a human head, the mask of the half-human, half-goat god was discovered by chance at the Sussita archaeological site.

see: http://www.haaretz.com/life/archaeology/.premium-1.647010
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Re: Sussita by motist on Thursday, 02 October 2014
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Skeletons Shed Light on Ancient Earthquake in Israel

Archaeologists have uncovered startling evidence of a severe earthquake that rumbled more than 1,700 years ago in the region of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus performed most of the miracles described in the New Testament.

Skeletons crushed under a collapsed roof depicted a scenario of death and destruction caused by the earthquake that hit Israel and the region in 363 A.D.

see : http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/skeletons-shed-light-on-ancient-earthquake-in-israel-140930.htm
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Re: Sussita by Andy B on Monday, 13 February 2012
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see more:

http://www.eretz.com/NEW/susita.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippos

http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Hippos.html
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