From Paganism to Christianity: Cultural Identities in Horbat Beit Loya, Israel

Oren Gutfeld (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
290 Paccar Hall

In this talk Professor Gutfeld discusses a new and unknown site, Beit Loya, that he has been digging since 2005 and that has revealed new data regarding the Judean Lowlands.  Beit Loya features burial caves with Hebrew inscriptions from the Iron Age II; and was an Edumites settlement in the Hellenistic period, a Jewish site until the destruction of the Second Temple, and a Christian site with beautiful Church and Mosaic Floor from the Byzantine period.