Późnohellenistyczne i wczesnorzymskie domostwa Betsaidy

Abstrakt

Wykopaliska na wzgórzu Et-Tell rozpoczęte zostały w roku 1987, od roku 1998 bierze w nich udział polska międzyuczelniana misja złożona z pracowników i doktorantów Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego i Uniwersytetu Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie.<br>THE LATE HELLENISTIC AND EARLY ROMAN HOUSES OF BETHSAIDA. While archaeological investigations at Bethsaida began in 1987 the Polish Mission, composed of representatives of the University of Łódź and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, joined the fieldwork in 1998. The excavation area is confined to the flat top of a hill named Et-Tell, situated about two kilometres north of the present shoreline of the Sea of Galilee to the east of the Jordan River. The site is identified with Bethsaida, frequently referenced in the New Testament and also by Josephus Flavius, Pliny the Elder and Claudius Ptolemaios. The Hellenistic and Roman period was marked as layer 2 in Bethsaida. According to contemporary literary sources Bethsaida passed into the hands of the Herod family in the latter part of the period encompassed by this layer. Philip Herod, son of Herod the Great, who ruled the Golan, resettled Bethsaida and renamed it Bethsaida Julias. It was apparently an important site in the Galilee - Golan area in the first century A.D.. This prosperous period in the history of the town is tied to the ministry of Jesus in Bethsaida and its vicinity. Evidence of buildings dating to this period was registered throughout the surface of Et-Tell, equally public buildings and private houses. In area A the houses are built on a slope, in area B and C the houses are constructed on a levelled surface. Additionally, a public building, probably of sacral function, has been unearthed in area A. The houses are spacious, consisting of a courtyard and a roofed area. The most precise information is currently available about the so-called "House of the Vintner" and "House of the Fisherman". In the year 2000 the "House of the Surgeon" was uncovered. The typical features of a Bethsaidan house have been established from the example of the "House of the Vintner", a roughly rectangular structure (16.2 x 18 m) situated in squares E-I 29-32. The building features walls that predate the building itself (wall W 209). Access to the house was through an opening in the southern wall ofthe courtyard (12 x 12.8m), which was at least partly paved. To the east was a paved kitchen (9.9 x4.49 m), its uneven floor rising towards the south end ofthe house. An oven, basalt threshing boards, numerous pottery shards, utensils including pruning hooks and other objects were found here. East of the kitchen was a cellar (4.5 x 3.5 m) in which four large Hellenistic storage vessels and a casserole were found crushed by the falling basalt beams of the roof. The residential area, probably in two stories, was situated in the north of the house. It was composed of three rooms, only the middle one, once believed to be a triclinium, was rectangular in shape (4.5 x 5.4 m). Fishing, farming and weaving tools were found in the courtyard. Tradition suggests that the house has the structure of a country house where the courtyard was used for industrial activities: storage, repairs, processing of food and perhaps weaving. Furthermore, the arrangement suited the climatic conditions of the region as well as the cultural tradition, which demands privacy for the family. "The House of the Vintner" and similar houses were probably inhabited by multigenerational families as indicated by ethnographical similarities.