Archaeology
KefarNahumKefar Nahum, Capernaum, Cepharnocus, Tell HumPlace descriptionCapernaum was an unfortified border village (about 10-12 acres or 4 hectares) in the Galilee on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), just before the road crossed the Jordan into Gaulanitis, the territory of Philip the Tetrarch. After falling off his horse in a battle near the Jordan, Josephus was brought to Capernaum to recover (Life 403). The “spring of Capernaum” (War 3.519) is probably the springs of Heptapegon; Josephus reports a popular notion that it was a tributary of the Nile. The village was laid out in blocks or insulae. Various first-century remains (pottery, coins, artifacts) were found in almost every excavated area in the western section of the village (the Franciscans’ property), though only rarely in the eastern portion (the Greek Orthodox property). Loffreda and Corbo showed that most of the houses that were excavated, including the so-called house of Peter, had Early Roman foundations, all of which were built from basalt. They argued that a church, which was first a remodeling of a house (domus ecclesiae) and later a more extensively reconstructed octagonal church, was built over the house of Peter to commemorate its associations with Jesus (summary by Loffreda in NEAEHL 1:291-96). <br>A large well-known limestone synagogue has continued to be a matter of deep controversy because of the complexity of the evidence for its dating and questions about synagogue typologies. The presently observable synagogue is now dated to the fifth or sixth century CE. The excavators have claimed that this later structure, however, had an earlier first-century CE synagogue below the limestone structure: they report a first-century flagstone floor, too large to be associated with a private dwelling of the period. Corbo has argued that a basalt wall that can be seen below the present limestone west wall was first-century; Loffreda believes that the basalt wall was intermediate between the first-century floor and the later limestone structure (Loffreda, NEAEHL 1:294-95). Corbo’s view has not yet been widely accepted, though Luke 7:5 provides literary evidence for a synagogue building in the first century. Recent excavations under the south (front) porch that exposed more of the foundations have demonstrated clearly that the courtyard east of the main building was added as an ancillary building after the construction of the limestone building. Thus, while it is certain that Capernaum was a first-century Jewish village, it is less clear whether it had a major institutional building at its heart at that period.<br> Miscellaneous finds. A Roman milestone from the time of Hadrian was found near the village; a mausoleum was found about 200 m. North of the synagogue. More than 25,000 Late Roman coins were uncovered when excavations were conducted under the flagstone floor of the limestone synagogue. A polychrome floor overlay an earlier white plaster floor in the insula sacra, below the octagonal church, with associated pilgrim inscriptions (in various languages, of uncertain date) scratched into the plastered walls. |