Tel Anafa
Tel Anafa (Arabic Tell el-Aḫḍar ) is a tell in Upper Galilee north of Lake Hule on the site of Kibbutz Shamir. The Tell was archaeologically researched in several excavation campaigns between 1968 and 1986 . Erosion and animal activities make stratigraphic assignment of individual finds difficult.
The oldest finds come from the Early Bronze Age and show more similarities with the northern than with the southern neighbors. There are also some finds from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages , while the findings are difficult to classify for the Iron Age and subsequent epochs up to the early Hellenistic period. This is partly due to the extensive and profound structural changes in the Hellenistic period. A strong Phoenician influence can generally be seen for the Persian period .
The most important finds, however, date from the late Hellenistic period, when a large, palace-like building was erected on the hill. This building was lavishly decorated. Remnants of wall paintings have been preserved, as well as a bathroom with mosaics and a hypocaust . At about the same time, an increase in imported luxury goods and changes in eating habits can be demonstrated. Livestock farming included not only cattle and sheep, but pigs as well. The trade contacts in turn point to the Phoenician area. In the early first century BC, however, settlement on the Tell ended for well over half a century. It was only around the turn of the times that smaller buildings scattered on the hill were found again. The small finds from this period now show stronger contacts to the south. However, pigs are still detectable as pets, which is why Jewish settlement seems to be excluded. However, this settlement phase also ended after a few decades. For the following centuries, scattered individual finds and from the Arab to modern times also smaller settlements can be proven.
Web links
literature
- Sharon C. Herbert: Tel Anafa I. Final Report on Ten Years of Excavation at a Hellenistic and Roman Settlement in Northern Israel. Journal of Roman Archeology, Supplementary Series 10. Ann Arbor 1994.
- Sharon C. Herbert (Ed.): Tel Anafa II, 1: The Hellenistic and Roman Pottery. Journal of Roman Archeology, Supplementary Series 10,2,1. Ann Arbor 1997. ISBN 1-88782-998-9
- Andrea Berlin, Sharon C. Herbert (Eds.): Tel Anafa II, 2: Glass Vessels, Lamps, Objects of Metal, and Groundstone and Other Stone Tools and Vessels. ISBN 978-0974187372
- Sandra Ann Fortner: The ceramics and small finds from Bethsaida-Iulias on the Sea of Galilee, Israel , Diss. 2005, Munich 2008. [1]
Coordinates: 33 ° 10 ′ 37.8 ″ N , 35 ° 38 ′ 40.9 ″ E