Beit She'arim, also, Kh. Sheikh Abreiḳ, is a Roman-era Jewish village that thrived from the 1st-century BCE until its demise in the early 20th century. The name of site is occasionally rendered as Bet She'arāyim. It is first mentioned by Josephus as Besara, a place then serving as the administrative center of the estates of Queen Berenice in the Jezreel Valley. The village seemed to have been of agricultural importance, as it was being used to store the harvested grain of the neighboring towns and villages. By the mid-2nd century, the village had become the seat of the rabbinic synod under Rabbi Judahha-Nasi. The site is situated on the spur of a hill about half a kilometer long and 200 meters wide, and lies in the southern extremity of the Lower Galilee mountains, facing the western end of the Jezreel Valley, east of Daliat el-Carmel, south of Kiryat Tivon, and west of Ramat Yishai. It rises above sea level at its highest point. Adjoining the village on its northwest side is a necropolis, situated in a valley, which rose to prominence largely due to Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi who was interred there. In the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, Beit Shearim became a popular place for Diaspora Jews to send their dead for burial. In 2015, the necropolis, known as the Beit She'arim National Park, was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Identification
For many years the ancient site of Beit Shearim remained obscure and nearly slipped into oblivion. Throughout the centuries, the village's Hebrew name was changed to Sheikh Abreik. Some historical geographers thought that Sheikh Abreiḳ was to be identified with Gaba Hippeum, the site mentioned by Josephus as being in the confines of Mount Carmel. It was not until Alexander Zaïd in 1936 discovered a "new" catacomb among the known burial caves in the hill directly below Sheikh Abreiḳ and brought it to the attention of British Mandate archaeologist Benjamin Mazar and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi that priority was given to the site, which discovery prompted seven seasons of systematic excavations at Sheikh Abreiḳ and its necropolis between the years 1936–1940, and 1956, under the direction of Prof. Benjamin Mazar on behalf of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, and again in the years 1953–1958 under Nahman Avigad. Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, looking at the evidence presented to him by Mazar, reached the conclusion that this was no ordinary find, but that it most certainly was the burial grounds of the Jewish Patriarchal family of the 2nd-century CE. Although historical geographerSamuel Klein had argued as early as 1913 that Beth-Shearim and Besara were to be recognised as one and the same place, an opinion followed by C.R. Conder, he was unable to pin-point its exact location. Only after the revelations of 1936 came to light, and Ben-Zvi's recognition that the necropolis at Sheikh Abreik belonged to a Patriarchal family, did Klein reach the conclusion that Sheikh Abreik was the ancient site of Beit Shearim. Klein's identification was later corroborated by the discovery of a broken marble slab, from a mausoleum above Catacomb no. 11, containing a Greek inscription, in which the funerary epigram bears the words: "I, Justus, the son of appho, of the family Leontius, have died and have been laid to rest...alas, in esar". Additional excavations were conducted at the site in 2006–2007 by archaeologist Yotam Tepper on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, during which season coins from the Roman and Byzantine periods were retrieved.
Site description
The village site retains the stone foundation of what appears to be a large synagogue and other public buildings in the northeastern quarter of the ruins. A hall directly in front of the synagogue entrance was aligned with two rows of columns, each row containing eight pillars. One large structure on the southwestern part of the hill is thought to have been a basilica which, under the Jewish custom of the time, buildings of such size were used primarily for kings holding court, or for baths, or for royal treasuries. It was constructed of large, smooth-bossed ashlars that were coated with thick plaster. The basilica contained two rows of seven square pillars. Archaeologists have also identified a late Roman "stepped pool" in Beit Shearim, and three 3rd to 4th-century ritual baths on the ancient site. Ancient stone-pavements, cisterns, and walls of hewn-stone can still be seen on the site. Byzantine mosaics have also been found at the site. Remains of a gate and an oil press from the Byzantine period were discovered at the northern edge of the summit, but are thought to have been built in an earlier time.
Necropolis
Based on the inscriptions found at the necropolis, Jews were being brought for burial at Beit Shearim from all neighboring places, such as from the Phoenician coast, Sidon, Beirut, and Byblos, Palmyra, Antioch, Mesene, and Himyar, among other places. The people of Himyar were buried in a single catacomb, in which 40 smaller rooms or loculi branched-off from a main hall. The burial cave dates from the beginning of the 3rd-century CE. Twenty-one catacombs have thus far been discovered at the necropolis. When the catacombs were first explored by archaeologists in the 20th-century, the tombs had already fallen into great disrepair and neglect, and the sarcophagi contained therein had almost all been broken-into by grave-robbers in search for treasure. This pillaging was believed to have happened in the 8th and 9th centuries CE based on the type of terra-cotta lamps found in situ. The robbers also emptied the stone coffins of the bones of the deceased. During the Mameluk period, the "Cave of the Coffins" served as a place of refuge for Arab shepherds. Lieutenant C. R. Conder of the Palestine Exploration Fund visited the site in late 1872 and described one of the systems of caves, known as "The Cave of Hell". While exploring a catacomb, he found there a coin of Agrippa, which find led him to conclude that the ruins date back to "the later Jewish times, about the Christian era." Benjamin Mazar, during his excavations of Sheikh Abreik, discovered coins that date no later than the time of Constantine the Great and Constantius II. In wake of the excavations conducted under Nahman Avigad, Avigad remarked: "The fact that in one catacomb nearly one hundred and thirty sarcophagi were discovered, and that there had previously been many more, makes it one of the foremost catacombs of ancient times in so far as the use of sarcophagi is concerned." Conservation work in the catacombs at Beit Shearim has being carried out over the years, in order to check the decay and to preserve old structures.
Early history
Pottery shards discovered at the site indicate that a first settlement there dates back to the Iron Age. An anecdote about communal life in Beit Shearim has come down in the name of Judah ha-Nasi, who, after mentioning the place, alludes to the practice of its people being observant in the laws of Jewish ritual purity. The Mishnaic sage, Rabbi Johanan ben Nuri, made his home in Beit Shearim. During its Jewish settlement in the Second Temple period, the inhabitants of Beit Shearim are believed to have been occupied in husbandry, but when the village land became a popular burial ground for Diaspora Jews, many of the villagers are thought to have worked in funeral preparations and in stone-masonry. Some have speculated that Beit Shearim may have been destroyed in the general revolt under Gallus Caesar in 351/2 CE, during a time when many towns and villages in Galilee and Judea were assigned to the flames, including Sepphoris. During this time, the necropolis fell into disuse. In any rate, the site shows signs of resettlement in the Byzantine period, all throughout the 6th-century, and into the early Arab period, although dwindling in importance.
