ARCHAEOLOGIST:
UNC professor finds treasures buried in Israel (Justin Quesinberry, WNCN News).
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -
Half a world away, and centuries deep in history, Jodi Magness spends every summer digging into Israel's past.
"I always say an archeological dig is like summer camp for adults," Magness said.
The professor at the University of North Carolina has packed her bags, along with dozens of students and staff, and headed to Galilea each summer since 2011.
That's when they began excavating a Jewish village called “Huqoqa,” which dates back to the time of Jesus. Most recently it was abandoned since the 1940s.
[...]
PaleoJudaica has been following the discoveries of ancient mosaics at Huqoq for some time: background
here and
here and keep following the links back. In this article Prof. Magness also briefly discusses the social background of the ancient Huqoq being excavated:
The impact of religion is central to the questions Magness is asking.
She said the synagogue dates back to around the time Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
So she wonders, what was the fate of Jewish villages like Huqoq under Christian rule?
“Because the historical view backwards is usually: well, the Jews must have been oppressed, right, by Christian rule, Christian rule was not friendly to the Jews, they must have suffered. And, what we're finding at Huqoq is just the opposite. Here, we have a village that clearly prospered,” she said.