Archaeology
GabaHippeon, Amaqim, el-Harithiyeh, Tel Shosh, el-Hartiah, GabaePlace descriptionJosephus describes a small city founded by Herod (Gaba, the city of the cavalry; War 2.459; 3.36; Life 115-18; in the latter passage, Gaba is four kilometers from Beth She`arim), where he settled demobilized veteran cavalrymen; its exact location has been debated for many years. The two candidates are Tell Abu-Shush (1633.2244) in the eastern part of the Menashe hills (near Kibbutz Mishmar Ha`Emeq), and Khirbet el-Hartiah (map reference 1609.2369; near Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha`Amaqim: Siegelman 1984; Barag 1988). At Tell Abu-Shush there are remains of buildings, an oil press, aqueducts, tombs, coins (including coins of Gaba), and two inscriptions that mention the name Gaba, all dated to the Roman period. The second site is el-Hartiah, on the southeast border of the Acco plain, where remains of a Hellenistic period tower (including fragments of a Corinthian and a pseudo-Doric capital) were excavated along with remains of a large village with pottery of the Early Roman period and mainly Seleucid coins. A hoard of plowshares from the early first century BCE was also found (Segal & Naor in NEAEHL 4:1339-40). The latest solution to the problem of identification is that there were two towns of the same name. The southern one is Gaba Philippi, a small Gentile city on the border of the Galilee, and the northern one, founded by Herod on the border between the Galilee and the Acco coastal plain (Barag 1988). |