Thursday, March 15 at 7-8p

James Strange, Ph.D. Professor of Religious Studies, USF

Recently Israeli archaeologists have been digging two ancient synagogues in the Galilee that have yielded their own surprises.  At the same time a major Roman theater has emerged in Tiberias that rivals the one found in Sepphoris and Caesarea. Surveys continue apace, and now it appears that the Galilee in the Roman period is more densely populated than anywhere else in the Roman Empire except perhaps Germania. The details of local and regional trade routes are emerging from survey and other data to indicate that there was a vibrant manufacturing culture in the Galilee operating side by side with agricultural production.