A town dating back more than 2,000 years has been discovered on the
northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, in Israel's Ginosar valley.
The ancient town may be Dalmanutha (also spelled Dalmanoutha), described in the Gospel of Mark as the place Jesus
sailed to after miraculously feeding 4,000 people by multiplying a few
fish and loaves of bread, said Ken Dark, of the University of Reading in
the U.K., whose team discovered the town during a field survey.
The archaeologists also determined that a famous boat, dating to around
2,000 years ago, and uncovered in 1986, was found on the shoreline of
the newly discovered town. The boat was reported on two decades ago but
the discovery of the town provides new information on what lay close to
it.
The evidence the team found suggests the town was prosperous
in ancient times. "Vessel glass and amphora hint at wealth," Dark wrote
in an article published in the most recent edition of the journal
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, while "weights and stone anchors, along
with the access to beaches suitable for landing boats — and, of course,
the first-century boat … all imply an involvement with fishing." [Photos: 4,000-Year-Old Structure Hidden Under Sea of Galilee]
The architectural remains and pottery suggest that Jews and those
following a polytheistic religion lived side by side in the community.
In addition, the researchers found that the southern side of the newly
discovered town lies only about 500 feet (150 meters) away from another
ancient town known as Magdala.
Architecture and pottery
Fields between the modern-day town of Migdal and the sea coast
contained hundreds of pottery pieces dating from as early as the second
or first century B.C. to up to some point after the fifth century A.D.,
the time of the Byzantine Empire, the archaeologists found. The artifacts suggest the town survived for many centuries.
Also among their finds were cubes known as tesserae and limestone
vessel fragments, which were "associated with Jewish purity practices in
the early Roman period," indicating the presence of a Jewish community
in the town, Dark told LiveScience in an email.
Some of the most
impressive finds, however, were not made in the fields but rather in
modern-day Migdal itself. The archaeologists found dozens of examples of
ancient architectural remains, some of which the modern-day townspeople
had turned into seats or garden ornaments, or simply left lying on the
ground. In one instance, the researchers found more than 40 basalt
ashlar blocks in a single garden.
After talking to the local
people, and trying to identify the source and date of the findings, the
researchers determined that many of the architectural remains came from
the local area and likely were part of this newly discovered town. [Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World]
These remains included a number of ancient column fragments, including
examples of capitals (the top of columns) carved in a Corinthian style.
"This settlement may have contained masonry buildings, some with mosaic
floors and architectural stonework," Dark wrote in his paper.
The
finds also included a pagan altar, made of light-gray limestone and
used in religious rituals by those of a polytheistic faith, Dark said.
Is it Dalmanutha?
In the New Testament, Dalmanutha is mentioned only briefly in the Gospel of Mark.
The gospel says that after feeding 4,000 people by miraculously
multiplying a few fish and loaves of bread, Jesus "got into the boat
with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees
came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He
sighed deeply and said, 'Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly
I tell you, no sign will be given to it.'Then he left them, got back
into the boat and crossed to the other side." (Mark 8:10-13, New
International Version)
Dark isn't certain the newly discovered
town is Dalmanutha, but there is evidence to support the idea. From the
remains found, researchers can tell the newly discovered town would have
been a sizable, thriving location in the first century A.D., and the
name Dalmanutha has not been firmly linked to a known archaeological
site.
It's likely that the newly found town's name is among the
few place-names already identified by other researchers relating to the
Ginosar valley shore, and one of those places is Dalmanutha, Dark said.
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