Archaeologists from Samford University uncovered remains of an unfamiliar Jewish village in the Galilee sector of Israel during a recent archaeological expedition.
The discovery, which was announced this week by Samford University religion professor James Riley Strange, included houses and an ancient synagogue. Researchers also uncovered evidence of pottery production in the ancient Jewish village of Shikhin, located about five miles northwest of Nazareth. The team was especially fascinated by the seven molds for making oil lamps that they discovered at the site. It provided proof that residents of the village produced various types of oil lamps in addition to many common pottery forms.
The newly uncovered remains shed light on Galilean Jewish village life and its economy during the birth of religions like Christianity and the Judaism of the Talmud.
"The site of the discovery has been abandoned, except for agriculture, ever since the mid-fourth century A.D.," said Strange in a news release. "The buildings came down and people used its stones in other nearby buildings, then those buildings were destroyed and the stones were re-used again."
Strange and his team, which included students Jonathan Sansom and Richard Shaw and Aaron Carr, began working on the Shikhin site in 2011, and made their first excavation in 2012.
Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian mentioned the village as one of the earliest Jewish settlements in the Galilee at the time of the Hasmonaean dynasty, which ruled about 140-63 B.C.
The current excavation project aims at recovering and preserving the site of Shikhin in the Lower Galilee of Israel.
"The remarkable discovery at Shikhin by Dr. James Strange and his collaborators is the fruit of many months of skilled and patient effort," Samford provost and executive vice president J. Bradley Creed, said in the news release. "I am particularly grateful that under Dr. Strange's tutelage, Samford students have been involved in the project which has been a once in a lifetime experience for them and an incredible learning opportunity. This international, cultural heritage project is a boon to the field of archaeology and historic preservation as well as a significant contribution to a richer understanding of human civilization and society."
