New discoveries at Hippos-Sussita

DECORATIVE ART AND (BAD) GREEK EPIGRAPHY: New Inscriptions in Roman City in Israel Shed Personal Light on Early Christians. While cleaning one set of Byzantine mosaics in Hippos of the Decapolis, the archaeologists found more mosaics. An unknown bishop, a goldsmithing priest and an anxious couple have come to light (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

People of yore were deeply religious, it seems – including in Hippos (Sussita) of the Decapolis, a Greco-Roman city perched high above the Sea of Galilee.

No less than seven churches have been found in the city from the early Christian era. Now, four inscriptions newly discovered in one of its ancient churches – the Martyrion of Theodoros, or “Burnt Church” – during the summer 2022 excavation season shed rare personal light on actual people. So say excavation directors Dr. Arleta Kowalewska and Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, and epigraphist Prof. Gregor Staab of the Institute of Classical Studies at University of Cologne.

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Just to be clear, it is the Greek that's bad, not the epigraphy.

UPDATE: I forgot add that there are many PaleoJudaica posts on the excavations at Hippos-Sussita. See here and links, plus here.

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