From our colleagues in Israel …

Dr. Schuler will deliver a plenary lecture at the upcoming meeting of the Society of LCMS Theological Professors at Concordia Wisconsin on 23 May.

Prospectus: This paper explores the formation of Christian identity at the site as has been revealed in recent excavations. The paper highlights the role of church construction in supplanting paganism, the reverence of the sacred dead within the city in contrast to pagan and Jewish practices, the novel practice of religious community in an urban context, and the import of baptism and the eucharist in the move toward Chalcedonian Christianity. Evidence of residual pagan practices in Christian contexts illustrates the fluid and incomplete nature of that identity formation.

On Saturday, 14 April, Dr. Mark Schuler will deliver a lecture on “The End of Christianity at Hippos: the Sixth to the Eighth Centuries” at Macalestar College in St. Paul as part of a conference on Byzantium and Early Islam: Exploring the Late Antique Transition. Other speakers at the conference include Andy Overman, Gideon Avni, Walid Atrash, Stephen Shoemaker, Alan Walmsley, Gaby Mazor, and Vanessa Rousseau.

In my lecture, I will overview the various Christian churches at Sussita and posit a description of the community in the sixth century CE.

Looking forward to our visit to Sussita and to the exhibition opening at the Hecht Museum. Watch for photos on Facebook.

Many good friends and colleagues will be presenting about Hippos at the annual meeting of ASOR this week in Boston. Our session is on Friday 17 November. Join us!

Antiochia Hippos of the Decapolis and Its Territorium

Theme: Antiochia Hippos (Sussita) of the Decapolis is the last polis to be unearthed in the Land of Israel. The city, founded upon Sussita Mountain, is the center of on-going archaeological research started at 2000. In recent years, the research has expanded to Sussita’s saddle-ridge area and the Territorium of Hippos.

CHAIR: Michael Eisenberg (University of Haifa)

PRESENTERS:

10:40
Introduction (5 min.)

10:45
Chaim Ben David (Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee) and Mechael Osband (University of Haifa; Ohalo College), “The Territorial Borders and the Rural Settlements of the Hippos District during the Roman and Byzantine Periods: the Current State of Research and the Contribution from the Recent Excavations at Khirbet Majduliyya” (15 min.)

11:05
Adam Pažout (University of Haifa), “Regional Defenses in the Territory of Hippos: A Spatial Analysis Approach” (15 min.)

11:25
Michael Eisenberg (University of Haifa), “The Urban Expansion at Hippos (Sussita) during the Roman Period: a Newly Excavated Sanctuary at the Saddle-Ridge” (15 min.)

11:45
Arleta Kowalewska (University of Haifa), “The Southern Bathhouse of Antiochia Hippos” (15 min.)

12:05
Stephen Chambers (Concordia Lutheran Seminary, Canada), “A Story in Glass: How Distribution Patterns Assist in the Reconstruction of the History of the Northeast Insula” (15 min.)

12:25
Mark Schuler (Concordia University, St. Paul), “Re-visioning Structures and Spaces: a History of the Northeast Insula at Antiochia Hippos” (15 min.)