Entering an Unknown Pagan Sanctuary: New Discoveries Made at a Roman Site in Israel

Ancient Origins

A team of researchers have finally found the missing link in the ancient Israeli city of Hippos-Sussita. Following discoveries of a large bronze mask of the Greek god Pan and a monumental gate, they were searching for the last piece of evidence to ascertain the era and purpose of the rich site. Through the discovery of a large theater and a bathhouse, they have declared it was almost definitely occupied during peacetime. However, the theater seems to have been used as a space for something other than entertainment - the experts speculate that it could have been a religious center instead.

An Important City During Roman Times
The new discoveries were made during recent excavations in the Hippos-Sussita Excavations Project, a research project conducted by a team from the University of Haifa with partners from all over the globe, at Hippos, overlooking the Sea of Galilee in Northern Israel.

Hippos Saddle Ridge - December 16 by University of Haifa Photogrammetry Lab on Sketchfab

The Roman amphitheater they uncovered leaves no doubt about the site’s era. As Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the University of Haifa and leader of the Hippos Excavations Project, revealed,

"The excavations outside the city over the past few years are falling into place like in a detective story.” He went on to explain, “First we found the mask of Pan, then the monumental gate leading to what we began to assume was a large public compound - a sanctuary. And now, this year, we find a public bathhouse and theater in the same location, both facilities that in the Roman period could be associated with the god of medicine Asclepius or with gods of nature such as Dionysus and Pan.”

Early excavations of the Roman theater. There is a semicircular passage between the lower and upper seating arrangements (praencinctio) and an entrance to a vaulted corridor (vomitorium). (M. Eisenberg)

As previously reported on Ancient Origins, the team of archaeologists unearthed a large bronze mask of the Greek god of forests and shepherds (Pan) while excavating a catapult armory outside Hippos-Sussita in 2015. They suggested that it dates to the Pax Romana, a time of peace in the Roman Empire.

Dr. Michael Eisenberg holding up the bronze mask of Pan. (Michael Eisenberg)

The Missing Link is Found
Despite all the evidence, there was a missing link that didn’t allow the researchers to state the site’s exact era with certainty: The Roman Theater. As Eisenberg described,

“No self-respecting Roman city in this period could allow itself to remain without a theater. It’s simply unthinkable that any Roman polis could have existed without a theater.”

Eisenberg also added that Dr. Arthur Segal, leader of the Hippos project for many years and a top expert on the theaters in the Roman East, was the one who insisted that there must be a theater in the city. As one can easily understand, its discovery gives a new meaning to the project and the reassurance local researchers needed to verify their theories and speculations.

Dr. A. Iermolin (standing) and Dr. M. Eisenberg during the excavation of the first vaulted passage (vomitorium). (A. Nakaryakov)

Religious Ceremonies
Instead of Entertainment However, Haaretz reports that all the findings so far have led the experts to speculate that the theater was more likely used for religious purposes than a place of entertainment. As Eisenberg said,

“What is even more exciting for the researchers than the discovery of the theater is the fact that they may have uncovered an expansive sanctuary outside the city walls. Dionysus, the god of wine, is associated with change and the loss of identity, and accordingly, with the masks used in the theater.”

Additionally, Eisenberg explained that the gate, which is almost unearthed, probably bore the bronze mask of Pan that was found in one of the gate towers, “All these findings suggest that this was a large sanctuary outside the city – something that completely changes what we knew about Hippos and the surrounding area, until now.”

Hippos (Sussita) Excavations - A Portal for Pan by mayzenb on Sketchfab

Hippos (Sussita) Excavations - A Portal for Pan by mayzenb on Sketchfab

He makes sure to note, however, that all this is just a hypothesis for the moment, and only further research – and possibly more findings – will clear things up.

Top Image: A view of 2016 excavations the archaeological site at Hippos. Source: Hippos-Sussita Excavations Project

By Theodoros Karasavvas

Million-Year-Old Fossils Show Hippos Going for a Swim

By Megan Gannon

Researchers in Kenya have uncovered fossilized animal tracks, which they believe may have been left by swimming hippos 1.4 million years ago. Credit: Courtesy of Matthew Bennett

More than a million years ago, hippopotamuses paddled across a shallow pool in the region that's now northern Kenya, occasionally scraping their feet on the sandy bottom. Today, researchers have evidence of the hippos' fleeting swim in the form of fossilized footprints.
The newly identified prints represent the first known tracks of ancient mammals taking a dip, joining previously discovered trace fossils left behind by swimming dinosaurs, turtles and crocodiles, the researchers said.
The hippo foot impressions were found in Kenya's Koobi Fora region, which is part of the Lake Turkana Basin, considered the cradle of human evolution because the area contains some of the oldest fossils from hominins — a group that comprises multiple species that came after Homo, the human lineage, split from chimpanzees. In fact, early humans may have witnessed the aquatic adventures of these ancient hippos; hominin footprints were discovered on the same geologic surface a mere 230 feet (70 meters) from the hippo tracks.

Researchers in Kenya have uncovered fossilized animal tracks, which they believe may have been left by swimming hippos 1.4 million years ago. Credit: Courtesy of Matthew Bennett View full size image

More than a million years ago, hippopotamuses paddled across a shallow pool in the region that's now northern Kenya, occasionally scraping their feet on the sandy bottom. Today, researchers have evidence of the hippos' fleeting swim in the form of fossilized footprints.
The newly identified prints represent the first known tracks of ancient mammals taking a dip, joining previously discovered trace fossils left behind by swimming dinosaurs, turtles and crocodiles, the researchers said.
The hippo foot impressions were found in Kenya's Koobi Fora region, which is part of the Lake Turkana Basin, considered the cradle of human evolution because the area contains some of the oldest fossils from hominins — a group that comprises multiple species that came after Homo, the human lineage, split from chimpanzees. In fact, early humans may have witnessed the aquatic adventures of these ancient hippos; hominin footprints were discovered on the same geologic surface a mere 230 feet (70 meters) from the hippo track
 'Bottom walkers'
Recent excavations in Koobi Fora revealed dozens of large animal tracks, dating back to 1.4 million years ago, but a majority of the prints appear to have been left by a four-toed animal "bottom walking" in a shallow water body, study leader Matthew Bennett, of the United Kingdom's Bournemouth University, and his colleagues said.
Because of the size and shape of the prints, the team thinks the tracks could belong to adults and juveniles of the species Hippopotamus gorgops, which went extinct during the Ice Age, and perhaps the pygmy hippo species Hippopotamus aethiopicus.
At the time, the Lake Turkana area was much more fertile than it is today. The semi-arid environment had lots of shallow pools and channels, all feeding into larger lakes, and it supported a striking diversity of plants and animals, Bennett said.
The hippo prints appear to have been pressed into fine sands and silts deposited on the floor of a shallow body of water, before being buried by a layer of coarser sand, likely during a small flood, Bennett explained in an email to Live Science.
Today's gliding hippos

Sometimes, the hippos would thrust upwards towards the water surface using both hind feet placed firmly apart.
Credit: Courtesy of Matthew Bennett

View full size image

To look for a modern comparison to these extinct animals, the researchers observed the swimming styles of two female common Nile hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibius) through a glass tank at the Adventure Aquarium in Philadelphia.
Underwater, the Nile hippos would glide with their limbs folded beneath their bodies. They would occasionally scratch the bottom of the tank with one leg, dragging only their digits across the ground. Sometimes, the hippos would thrust upward, toward the water surface, using both of their hind legs. These movements were reflected in the shape of the ancient tracks, the researchers said.
Bennett said other swimming tracks of mammals likely have been uncovered but just haven't been recognized. These types of prints do not form clear sequences like footprints on land do, Bennett said. He also guessed that many researchers have tended to dismiss animal tracks in their quest for hominin footprints.
"[The hippo tracks] tell us about mammal locomotion in a near-zero-gravity environment," Bennett said in an email. "They show how different types of 'bottom walking' motion may be recorded as tracks. All of this helps us understand and interpret swim tracks made by much larger extinct animals, such as dinosaurs."
 http://www.livescience.com/46286-swimming-hippos-fossil-tracks.html