Sepphoris I: The Pottery from Ancient Sepphoris

Sepphoris, “the ornament of all Galilee” according to Josephus, was an important Galilean site during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods and into early Islamic times. It served as Herod Antipas’s capital of Galilee in the late first century B.C.E. and the early first century C.E., and the Sanhedrin (the supreme Jewish judicial authority) was located there for a time in the third century C.E. Extensive excavations on the western acropolis—probably the location of many of the Jewish occupants of this multicultural city—by the Duke University-Hebrew University project in the mid- to late 1980s and the Duke excavations of the 1990s produced a remarkable assemblage of ceramic wares. This book provides an overview of the history and chronology of the site. It then presents a detailed examination of the pottery. Featuring 55 plates with line-drawings as well as some photos of the various ceramic types, this important publication will be essential for all studies of the archaeology of early Judaism and Christianity in the Holy Land.