Bathing pool with bull idol excavated at Zippori

ARCHAEOLOGY: At Zippori pool where Judah Hanasi may have bathed, a rare tiny pagan bull found Archaeologists believe they can connect a peculiar Talmudic story about the head of the Sanhedrin bathing on a fast day to a recently excavated site in the national park (Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel).

The bull figurine is remarkable. Apparently there are parallel object in the British Museum, but this is the first one I have seen from the Roman period. A bronze and silver bull figurine dating to the first half of the second millenium B.C.E. was found at Ashkelon. And among the gold and lead (?) codices seized from smugglers in Turkey last year, there was a bull figurine made of gold and stamped with a menorah.

For PaleoJudaica posts on earlier discoveries at the site of Tzipori/Tzippori/Zippori/Sepphoris, start here and follow the many links. Cross-file under Talmud Watch.

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