RAMI ARAV - Three Decades of Excavations at Bethsaida 

In this lecture, Professor Arav presented a review of three decades of archaeological investigations at the important site of Bethsaida, on the Sea of Galilee - a city settled on and off between the 10th century BCE and the 4th century CE.
The story started in the 10th century BCE, when the site served as the capital of the Aramaean kingdom of Geshur. Excavations of these phases have revealed a stunning succession of city gates, high places with pagan stele representing the moon god of Haran, a granary and a Neo-Hittite style palace. This city was destroyed in 920 BC.
Yet some fifty years after this destruction, Bethsaida had grown again, boasting the largest biblical-era city gate ever found in Israel, only to be brought to an end by the 732 BCE conquest of Assyrian King Tiglath Pileser III. It went on to become a Phoenician settlement, then around 100 BCE, the Hasmoneans conquered the site. In 60 CE Herod the Great’s son, Philip, granted the newly named Julias the status of a Greek city, building it a temple and new walls.
Rami Arav is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the
University of Nebraska at Omaha. He has been directing the excavations of biblical Bethsaida Since 1987, and is the co-author of the four-volume book, Bethsaida, a City by the Northern Shores of the Sea of Galilee.