Fascinating Finds at Hippos-Sussita

January 20, 2015

The past 15 excavation seasons at Hippos-Sussita, run by archaeologists from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, have provided a constant flow of fascinating discoveries.  

The city of Hippos-Sussita, which was founded in the second century BC, experienced two strong and well-documented earthquakes. The first in the year AD 363 caused heavy damage. The city, did, however, recover. The great earthquake of AD 749 destroyed the city which was subsequently completely abandoned. Evidence of the extensive damage caused by the earthquake of AD 363 was found in earlier seasons. None, however, was as violent, thrilling and eerie as the evidence discovered this year.

This year, evidence was uncovered showing that the great earthquake of AD 363 had destroyed the Roman bathhouse. The evidence found so far shows that the earthquake was so powerful it completely destroyed the city, which took some twenty years to rebuild. Among the wreckage from the bathhouse, the archaeologists found an excellent Roman marble sculpture of a muscular right leg of a man leaning against a tree trunk.

Excavations were resumed in the bastion, the main defense post of the Roman period city built on the southern edge of the cliff, where the work focused on the fortified position of a projectile machine that propelled/launched ballista stones. The catapult was some eight meters [26 ft] long according to the size of the chamber. So far the archaeologists have found a number of ballista balls that fit the massive catapult, as well as smaller balls that were used on smaller ballista machines. These machines were positioned above the bastion’s vaults and were used to launch basalt ballista balls slightly smaller than soccer balls as far as 350 meters [1,148 ft].

To the north of the basilica, the largest building in town that served as the commercial, economic and judicial center of the city, the dig’s senior area supervisor Haim Shkolnik and his team unearthed the remains of several skeletons that had been crushed by the weight of the collapsed roof. Among the bones of one of the women lay a stunning gold dove-shaped pendant.

A section of the western part of the city’s main colonnaded street which traversed its entire length of 600 meters [1,968 ft] from east to west was excavated this year with the help of a Canadian team. The archaeologists uncovered another original piece of the wall that supported the street columns, confirming the theory that it had been a magnificent colonnaded street similar to those of the Roman East cities that were built at the peak of the Pax Romana—the Roman era of peace during the first few centuries AD.

Source: Excerpt of press release, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Photo Credit: Photos by Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and www.hippos.haifa.ac.il