Weiss, Zeev : Sepphoris. A Mosaic of Cultures

Zeev Weiss,
Sepphoris. A Mosaic of Cultures

Jerusalem 2025

ISBN 978-965-217-474-1


311 S./pp., zahlr. Farb- und S/W-Abb./num. colour and b/w-figs., 28 x 21 cm; kartoniert/hardcover



In the heart of the Lower Galilee, 5 kilometers west of Nazareth, lie the remains of Sepphoris, longtime capital of the Galilee in antiquity. Hellenistic Sepphoris had a rural appearance. Its newly acquired status as a polis, replete with typical Roman-style civic buildings and institutions, changed the face of this Galilean city after the Great Revolt against Rome and later. Owing to its newfound wealth and prosperous economy, Sepphoris grew significantly, with a population that peaked at 15 to 20 thousand inhabitants. By the end of the first or early second century, the city expanded its boundaries and boasted public buildings and private dwellings that followed Roman guidelines. Sepphoris retained this layout throughout late antiquity, however in the course of the seventh century, when its magnificent buildings were destroyed and abandoned and its population waned, the city dwindled to a small town or large village. The wealth of evidence emerging from Sepphoris, one of the major Galilean settlements that nurtured the creation of part of the rabbinic literary corpus, illustrates the glorious past of this large and prosperous city that housed a mosaic of cultures. The wide spectrum of its architectural features, artistic expressions, and small finds, combined with the information culled from epigraphic and literary sources, afford abundant insights into the relationship between Jewish society and Graeco-Roman culture and how the local population conducted its affairs in a period of transition and change - from Rome to Byzantium and from paganism to Christianity. Consequently, major concerns raised only a decade or two ago regarding the nature of the Galilean city have now given way to in-depth discussions not only about Sepphoris and its population, but also about urbanism, art, and architecture in ancient Palestine.