Funerary podia of Hippos of the Decapolis and the phenomenon in the Roman world

Abstract

In the Roman world a wide variety of funerary architecture was erected along the access roads of cities to catch the eye of passersby. In Hippos (Sussita in Aramaic) of the Decapolis, the most notable funerary structures stood along the city's main approach within the Saddle Necropolis. The most distinctive elements of the necropolis's architectural remains were a series of 13 large funerary podia – the focus of the 2020 excavations. The Hippos podia are unique in the Roman world, in their dating, their architecture, and their multiplicity. The architectural design of this series of structures may be the first evidence of necropolis planning and erection of funerary monuments by the polis itself within the Roman world. The article describes the freshly exposed Hippos podia, proposes reasoning for the choice of this particular type of construction, and analyzes similar funerary structures throughout the Roman world, with emphasis on the Roman East, where sarcophagi were widespread.

XRF Analysis of Village and Urban Basalt Architecture in the Hippos Territorium during the Roman Period

“…Recent excavations along the Saddle Necropolis revealed its original trench and several drum pieces from which samples were taken. The stone‐pipe construction is dated to the first half of the first century CE with repairs, attested at the saddle area, as late as the fifth century CE (Eisenberg & Kowalewska, 2022: 121–123; Tsuk, 2018: 55). The pipe was dismantled during the Umayyad period (late seventh–early eighth centuries) and was apparently reused in the Umayyad al‐Ṣinnabra palace on the southern side of the Sea of Galilee (Alexandre, 2017; Gluhak, 2017).…”

“…Eighty‐four of the mausoleum's basalt architectural fragments have been located so far. The quality of most of the architectural elements is very high, and some bear assembly marks indicating the placement of the stones within the structure (Eisenberg & Kowalewska,2024). At Hippos and in the rest of the Decapolis, these and other types of masons' marks are dated mainly from the first to the early second centuries ce (Kowalewska & Eisenberg, 2019, 121, tab.…”

“…Public and funerary structures in the city and along the mountain's saddle have been uncovered in excavations that began in 2000 and continue to this day in one of the larger Classical-period archaeological enterprises in the Decapolis. A higher resolution of the chronology of these basalt ashlar-built structures in the Roman period has been gained by multiple finds including architecture, typology of decorated architectural fragments, mason's marks, coins, pottery, glass, and fresco (for the various reports see mainly: Eisenberg, 2018;Eisenberg & Segal, 2022;Kowalewska & Eisenberg, 2019;Segal, 2014. For Hippos historiography see Dvorjetski, 2014). The basalt quarrying sites of the many public, monumental, and decorated structures of the Roman period have not been identified.…”

Cross-comparison of classical sources, explorer and scientific reports and maps in the search of an ancient city: The example of Raphana of the Decapolis

“…This group of cities plays an important role in research that aims to contextualize the Judaean and Galilean history and to investigate urban centers in which different local and Greco-Roman influences met (Lichtenberger, 2021). While the location of most of the Decapolis cities is known and is (or was) subjected to systematic archaeological investigations (e.g., Eisenberg and Kowalewska, 2022;Makhadmeh et al, 2020;Shiyab et al, 2019), the location of others remain speculative. This is the case of Raphana for which the precise location remains difficult to establish owing in part to numerous name changes, limited information on the city structure, architecture, and size, etc.…”