Sepphoris Overview

Tom McCollough

The Jewish historian Josephus described the ancient city of Sepphoris as the "jewel of the Galilee." The excavations of this city have uncovered a truly beautiful city founded in the early decades of the first century C.E. The city had many features of a Roman urban plan to include a theater that could seat 4,000. Beginning in 1983 and continuing to 1987, the University of South Florida Excavations at Sepphoris opened eight areas around the foundation and withing the cavea of this theatre. The prupose of these excavations was not only to recover the architecture of this important Galilean theater but also to establish a date of founding, possible expansion and termination of use. The final report on the excavations of the theater (Field II of the USF Excavations) will work from a detailed stratigraphical analysis and will include ceramic plates and anumismatic analysis as well as a report on carbon 16 dating of plaster and mortar samples taken from the outer walls of the theater stage and cavea.