Archaeology
BanyasPaneas, Banias, Panias, Caesarea PhilippiPlace descriptionThe site was used for pagan religious purposes from the third or second century BCE. The original population was probably Phoenician and Ituraean, but by the first century CE, according to Josephus (Life 49-61), there was a Jewish community as well, perhaps religiously observant to judge from the incident in which John of Gischala overcharged the residents for oil (Life 74-76). These mixed cultural origins probably account for it never being considered a city of the Decapolis, despite its similarity in character and proximity. The first building at the cult site, according to the most recent excavations, was the temple at the mouth of the natural “cave of Pan,” perhaps built by King Herod, though the size of this structure does not fit well Josephus’s account of the building in “white marble” (War 1.404). Its east wall was built of opus quadratum with limestone ashlars; the main floor lay over a small vault (NEAEHL 1:140). During the first century CE, two more temples were erected east of the cave: the open temple to Pan and the nymphs (first half of the century) and a temple to Zeus Heliopolitanus (dated by an inscription to the end of the century; Ma`oz 1998). More opus reticulatum remains can be seen to the west of the caves and the spring, possibly a palace built by King Herod (elsewhere in the Holy Land a building technology associated exclusively with Herod).<br>The city itself, as distinct from the religious site, was founded by Philip the Tetrarch (War 2.168) on the large plateau in front of the cave along the river, and was connected by road to Tyre in one direction and to Damascus in the other. The modern excavations have uncovered the remains of the civic center of the city, of which the Cardo and a monumental building (Nymphaeum?) Were identified and dated to the first century CE. A large, well-built building was uncovered west of the Cardo and identified as a palace (? Asklepieion?), with very well constructed vaults, exedrae, pools, all on a formal symmetrical plan, probably built by Agrippa II (Tzaferis 1998). Beside it and at a higher floor level are twelve vaults forming a horreum, dated to the Early Roman period. An aqueduct was built during the first century CE to bring water to the higher parts of the growing city (Hartal 1998); at some point in the Early Roman period the headwaters of the Jordan (Nahal Hermon) were contained within parallel ashlar retaining walls. <br>Tombs. A monumental tomb complex was excavated in the nearby kibbutz’s small zoo with two rectangular sunken courts, porch, rolling stone, and burial areas, one with loculi and one with arcosolia. On the analogy of the Tomb of the Kings in Jerusalem it has been dated to the first century. Other first century burial areas, including a two-chambered burial cave with rolling stone, were found nearby (NEAEHL 1: 142).<br>Sculptures. The marble statues from the excavations of the temples have now been published, forming a nice group of gods and goddesses that were in use at the series of temples along the cliff face, above the spring, from about the first century CE to the fourth. In this group can be found Artemis, Zeus or Asklepios, Athena, Aphrodite, Pan, a dancing satyr, nymphs, and others (Friedland 1999).<br>Coins. The first coins were minted in 3 BCE when Herod Philip, son of King Herod, founded the city. During the reign of the Emperor Nero, and possibly because of the city’s attitude towards the Galileans, Agrippa II renamed the city Neronias, a name that then appeared on the coins, though this was altered again to Caesarea Panias following Nero’s damnatio memoriae. |