Gamla: Two mysteries — and a failed revolt

An American team from Concordia University has been excavating at the ancient city of Hippos in the Holy Land. This is part of a series about Hippos and nearby digs.

Gamla, a haunting ruin 15 kilometers* northeast of Hippos, came to a bad end. Two mysteries persist. The bad end, however, is no mystery. We know exactly what happened.

Just before the First Jewish Revolt in 66 CE**, Gamla (GAHM la) was a village of 4,000 or 5,000 people. Refugees fleeing from the fighting in the revolt probably doubled the population.

Diggers found seven coins made at Gamla with an inscription reading “For the redemption of Jerusalem.” An eighth coin was found far to the south in the Judean desert — probably carried there by someone fleeing the disaster at Gamla.

More about that in a moment. First, the mysteries:

“We have a completely new kind of Jewish public building from the first century,” says Danny Syon, senior archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority and an excavator at Gamla.

Until Gamla, archaeologists thought the only public building they would find in such Jewish villages was the synagogue. Gamla already has one synagogue. “Now,” says Syon, “we definitely have a public building — and we don’t know what it is.”

We do know that the 15 x 16 meter Gamla structure is a public building because of its three long central aisles leading to a podium — an area higher than the surrounding floor from which people could make speeches. The two side aisles are divided into rooms. “It might be a court,” says Syon.

The building style is “very impressive,” he adds. The structure has four columns and is built of large stones, larger than those used to build houses. “It cannot be a domestic building,” says Syon, “and it doesn’t have a large enough space for a congregation, so it is not a synagogue.”

Josephus, a Jewish historian who commanded Jewish forces in the revolt, reports that he set up courts in villages when he came to this area from Jerusalem. The Bible’s New Testament, however, says that courts were held in synagogues. Sometimes punishment was carried out in synagogues as well — whipping.

“So it could be that in some communities the synagogue served as the court, and maybe in others there was a specific building,” says Syon. “In Gamla, we have a building that might be just that.”

VACANT LOT?

Here’s the other mystery about Gamla: A part of the middle of the town that was full of people in the first century BCE** was abandoned about the end of the reign of King Herod the Great, who died in 4 BCE.

What happened to the mystery neighborhood? We don’t know. Was it cleared out by war? There is no evidence of fighting. And all the material culture archaeologists have collected dates to no later than the first century BCE.

Whatever the reason, the 50 x 30 meter area was abandoned and never resettled. “It was an empty lot,” says Syon. “And that is a big enigma.”

What we do know is that, years after the mystery neighborhood was abandoned, a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire failed.

Roman soldiers fought rebels throughout the Holy Land. In Gamla, Romans commanded by the future emperor, Vespasian, attacked Gamla by climbing across the roofs of the houses in such numbers that the roofs collapsed.

The Romans retreated, but attacked again later and destroyed the town.

Archaeologists have found arrowheads and other evidence of the battle found mostly just inside and just outside the town’s wall.

Weapons also include ballista balls — stones that Roman catapults hurled against the walls to knock them down. Syon found about 2,000 ballista balls against the walls where they fell — and a pile inside the wall as well. The defenders may have gathered the smooth stones to throw back at the attackers.

The Romans eventually crushed the revolt. Fighting finally ended in 70 C. Today you can climb the steep 330-meter hill where a thriving village once stood — and think about that long-ago war and the mysteries of Gamla.

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* To change from kilometers to miles and to make other metric conversions, you can use this site from the state of Washington: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Metrics/factors.htm 

** CE means “common era.” It’s the same as A.D., which means “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.” BCE means “before common era.” It’s the same as “before Christ.”