Hammat Tiberias

Hammat Tiberias sits on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, about a mile south of Tiberias.[1][2] The settlement was a distinct town before Tiberias was founded north of it in the first half of the first century CE; as Tiberias grew into a major city, Hammat gradually became its suburb.[4] In the Byzantine period the two communities maintained separate city walls, reflecting their continued distinct identities even as Hammat was joined to Tiberias for certain halakhic purposes.[4][1]

The site was known by several names across different languages and periods: Hamatta, Hamtan, and Hamei Tiberias in Hebrew and Aramaic; Emmaus in Greek; and al-Khamṣ in Arabic.[4] The Talmud records the name as an explanation for the town's character. Megillah 6a states, "Hammath is Tiberias. And why was it called Hammath? On account of the hot springs of Tiberias that are located there."[5] A competing identification in the same passage, attributed to Rabba, places Hammath at the hot springs of Gerar adjacent to Tiberias and distinguishes it from Rakkath, which that view equates with Tiberias itself.[5]

Most scholars identify Hammat Tiberias with the biblical Hammath, listed in Joshua 19:35 among the fortified towns of Naphtali. The identification remains uncertain because no biblical-period remains have been uncovered at Hammat Tiberias, and the earlier settlement may instead have stood among remains later incorporated into Roman Tiberias.[1] The population was probably Jewish in the Hasmonean period,[4] and the town was already famous for its hot baths during the Second Temple era.[1]

When Tiberias rose to prominence in talmudic times, Hammat was formally linked to the larger city for halakhic purposes.[1] Priests of the Maziah course settled there following the destruction of the Second Temple, and Rabbi Meir, the second-century Talmudic authority whose reputed tomb stands near the site, was among the scholars who lived there.[1] A Jewish community is attested at Hammat as late as the period represented by the Cairo Genizah.[1]

Roman baths were constructed around the hot springs and attracted visitors from across the empire; bathing in the springs on the Sabbath was explicitly permitted in a rabbinic ruling cited by the heritage-site account.[4] The southern synagogue complex remained in use through the Byzantine and early Muslim periods, with its latest phase continuing until the mid-eighth century CE.[4]

Five springs feed the modern bathhouses at Hammat Tiberias, with water temperatures reaching 140–144°F (60–62°C).[1] The water contains graphite, iron, and magnesium chloride and has long been used, especially in winter, for its reputed curative properties.[1] The springs were associated with the treatment of skin diseases and were probably central to the town's economy.[4]

The surviving bathhouse structure visible in the national park dates from a Turkish spa completed in 1840. An earlier bathhouse around the springs was destroyed in an eighth-century earthquake and rebuilt several times.[6] At the southern end of the park, the remains of an arched structure may belong to an ancient bathhouse from the Mishnaic period.[4]

Ancient synagogue remains at Hammat Tiberias were discovered by chance in 1920–1921, when members of the Labor Battalion were building the Tiberias–Zemach road.[4] Nahum Slouschz excavated the northern synagogue in 1920–1921.[4][1] The work was the first archaeological excavation in the country led by a Jewish resident and the first conducted under the auspices of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society.[4] The structure is dated broadly to the third through fifth centuries CE and is believed to have served Hammat's Jewish community until the early eighth century; it was later re-covered and is not open to visitors.[4]

Among the finds were a limestone relief of a seven-branched menorah and fragments of a decorated stone seat identified as the "cathedra of Moses," the seat from which Torah was taught to the community.[4][1] Depressions at the tops of the menorah's branches could hold clay or glass lamps, and a plaster cast of the object is displayed in the site museum.[4]

A second, more extensive campaign was conducted by Professor Moshe Dothan between 1961 and 1963, uncovering additional synagogue remains several hundred meters south of the Slouschz site.[4][1] A two-volume archaeological publication summarized these and related finds. Volume one, covering early synagogues and Hellenistic and Roman remains, appeared in 1983; volume two, covering late synagogues, was completed and edited by Barbara L. Johnson and published in 2000.[7] Shulamit Miller's 2011 Hebrew University M.A. thesis, "The mosaics of Tiberias and Hammat Tiberias during the Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic periods," provides further scholarly analysis of mosaic evidence from both sites.[8]

Dothan's excavations in the southern part of the site revealed four principal building phases superimposed on one another.[1] The earliest structure, probably not a synagogue, was arranged around a central courtyard. Above it, a third-century synagogue was constructed; a basilica-form synagogue was then built directly over its predecessor, reusing its columns. A sixth-century synagogue, differently oriented and featuring an apse and geometric mosaic pavement, was erected above these structures and measured approximately 62 by 49 feet (19 by 15 meters).[1]

The Slouschz synagogue in the northern part of the site was a basilica-shaped hall without an apse. Its Jerusalem-oriented façade contained four small marble columns that apparently supported a lintel above the Ark of the Law.[1] Its mosaic pavement was accompanied by fragments of a "seat of Moses" and a stone seven-branched menorah carved in relief. In a later phase of the southern complex, a stationary platform was installed and the entrance was relocated from the south to the north.[1]

Scholars have situated Hammat Tiberias within broader typologies of ancient synagogue architecture. The Jewish Review of Books describes a "Transitional Synagogues" category added by later scholars to Eleazar Lipa Sukenik's original chronological framework. Hammat Tiberias is presented as an example falling between Galilean-type synagogues such as Capernaum and later buildings such as Beit Alpha, although the article notes that subsequent scholarship has revised Sukenik's historical paradigm.[9]

The site's most celebrated structure is the basilica-form synagogue known as the Severus Synagogue, named for a figure commemorated in a Greek dedicatory inscription in its mosaic floor.[1][3] The structure is generally placed in the early fourth century, when the Sanhedrin was headquartered in Tiberias.[1][3] The Jewish Virtual Library calls its unusually well-preserved pavement the earliest synagogue mosaic discovered in Israel.[3]

The nave floor is organized into three principal mosaic compositions. The southern composition depicts the Ark of the Law flanked by menorot and other ritual objects. The central composition contains a zodiac wheel with Helios, the sun god, driving his chariot at its center, surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac; four female figures representing the seasons occupy the corners. The northern composition contains a dedicatory inscription flanked by two lions.[1] Within the zodiac wheel, the Aquarius panel depicts a young naked man pouring water from a large jug, accompanied by the Hebrew label דלי ("Aquarius" or "bucket").[10]

The inscriptions include Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The heritage-site account says that most are in Greek, one is in Aramaic, and only a few words appear in Hebrew, reflecting the linguistic landscape of Tiberias during the Talmudic period.[4] One inscription commemorates "Severus, the pupil of the most illustrious patriarchs," linking the patron to Jewish communal leadership.[1] Geometric mosaics and additional dedicatory inscriptions appeared in the side aisles.[4]

The heritage-site account suggests that the mosaic-bearing building was destroyed in an earthquake at the end of the fourth century CE. A larger basilica, built approximately half a meter higher and decorated with colorful mosaics, was erected over its ruins in the fifth century. That building was destroyed in the early seventh century, rebuilt on a similar plan with simpler geometric mosaic floors in the early Muslim period, and remained in use until the mid-eighth century.[4] Ynet likewise describes the zodiac synagogue as having been destroyed, probably in an earthquake, around the beginning of the fifth century and notes that a later wall crossed the mosaic.[2] The broader complex included a courtyard, study house, guesthouse, and shops fronting the street.[4]

The mosaic's iconography has attracted scholarly attention because of Jewish religious law's restrictions on figurative imagery. The heritage-site account describes Helios as a pagan deity still worshipped by non-Jews in the fourth century and presents greater openness to figurative art after the revolts against Rome as one proposed explanation. In this interpretation, artistic forms could be adopted without their religious content. The later wall built across the mosaic may indicate that subsequent generations disapproved of the imagery.[4] The Jewish Review of Books also discusses the zodiac symbols and Helios in relation to the biblical prohibition on graven images.[11]

Comparable subject matter and layouts—including zodiac wheels, ritual objects, and dedicatory inscriptions—later appeared in synagogue mosaics at Beit Alfa, Na'aran, Usfiya, and the northern synagogue at Beit She'an.[4]

Beyond the synagogues, excavations have identified a Byzantine gate and a section of city wall, as well as a street and shops from the Byzantine and early Arab periods, dated to the seventh and eighth centuries CE.[4] North of the town, excavators uncovered graves and stone sarcophagi bearing Greek inscriptions. The southern end of the park preserves the remains of an arched structure that may have belonged to an ancient bathhouse from the Mishnaic period.[4]

Adjacent to the hot springs stands the reputed tomb of Rabbi Meir Ba'al ha-Nes, the second-century Talmudic authority who lived in Hammat.[1] A large synagogue was built at the grave site, and from the eighteenth century onward the location gained wide fame in the Jewish world through charitable collection boxes bearing Rabbi Meir's name and distributed by emissaries traveling throughout the diaspora.[1] A custom developed of holding festivities and lighting bonfires near the grave on the fourteenth of Iyyar.[1]

The springs, synagogue remains, and other archaeological finds are preserved within Hammat Tiberias National Park at the southern end of Tiberias.[2] The Severus Synagogue's mosaic floor is the principal surviving artistic feature of the synagogue.[3] The Slouschz synagogue excavated in 1920–1921, farther north within the site, was re-covered after excavation and is not accessible to visitors.[4]

In May 2012, vandals damaged mosaics at the site overnight, including a panel depicting an ark with Torah scrolls, two seven-branched menorahs, and other ritual objects. An Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist described the damage as irreversible. Police suspected extremists opposed to archaeological excavations of ancient tombs, although no motive was officially established.[12]

The Talmud engages directly with the name and identity of Hammat in several passages. Megillah 5b cites Joshua 19:35, which lists Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth among the fortified cities of Naphtali, and identifies Rakkath with Tiberias.[13] Megillah 6a records an explanation equating Hammath with Tiberias and deriving its name from the hot springs, while also preserving Rabba's view that Hammath refers to the hot springs of Gerar near Tiberias and that Rakkath is Tiberias.[5] These are competing textual traditions rather than independent geographical conclusions.

Most scholars identify the site with biblical Hammath or Hammath-Dor, but no biblical-period remains have been uncovered at Hammat Tiberias. The ancient settlement may instead have lain among early remains within the area later occupied by Roman Tiberias.[1] Ynet characterizes Hammat Tiberias as one of the three fortified cities associated with biblical Naphtali and calls it Tiberias's "older sister." It says that the fuller name "Hammat Tiberias" came into use after Tiberias was founded in the first century CE, distinguishing the older settlement from other places named Hammat.[2]