Khirbet Wadi Hamam Complete

Description

Situated on the slope above the modern locality of (Wadi) Hamam, roughly two kilometers west of the Sea of Galilee, Khirbet Wadi Hamam occupies a position favored by both water and transit. A perennial spring lies beside the site, and the settlement stood along the corridor through Wadi Arbel that linked central Galilee with the Mediterranean coast—conditions that fostered its development into a substantial village. Extensive excavations carried out by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem team between 2007 and 2012 revealed a sequence of occupation beginning in the early Roman period. At the center of the site, in the first half of the first century CE, a communal structure was erected featuring a hall encircled by benches and supported by columns; this building may be identified as a synagogue. Following a later resettlement, dated to the turn of the third century CE (late second or early third), the village experienced renewed prosperity that continued through the third and into the early fourth century. During the first half of the third century CE, a synagogue adorned with white limestone architectural elements was constructed in the village center. It suffered damage later in that century but was promptly repaired, and a high-quality mosaic floor was laid as part of the restoration. The final stratified layers belong to the closing decades of the fourth century, and the settlement appears to have been abandoned in the fifth century. Image source: Leibner 2018: p. 13, fig. 1.9; p. 15, fig. 1.10. Further reading: Leibner, U. 2018. Khirbet Wadi Ḥamam: A Roman-Period Village and Synagogue in the Lower Galilee. The Institue of Archaeology. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. https://scholars.huji.ac.il/uzileibner/wadi-hamam https://synagogues.kinneret.ac.il/synagogues/wadi-hamam/