Caesarea Maritima Excavations in the Old City 1989-2003

Conducted by the University of Maryland and the University of Haifa, Final Reports

Volume 1: The Temple Platform (Area TP), Neighboring Quarters (Area TPS and Z), and the Inner Harbor Quays (Area I): Hellenistic Evidence, King Herod’s Harbor Temple, Intermediate Occupation, and the Octagonal Harbor Church

edited by Kenneth G. Holum

This volume presents the results of the many years of excavation by the Combined Caesarea Expeditions, organized to explore the city and harbor of ancient Caesarea. Holum presents CCE’s original research questions, the overall stratigraphy of the site, and the team’s findings about Caesarea from the Hellenistic period to the end of antiquity in the seventh century CE. In so doing, the volume makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the transition from paganism to Christianity in Late Antiquity. It explores in depth King Herod’s pagan temple, which existed until about 400 CE, when the now Christian authorities deliberately dismantled it, removing all but its deepest foundations, and let the site lose its holiness. A century later, the authorities built a grand Octagonal Church in exactly the same spot and on the same alignment as Herod’s temple, so that it functioned as a harbor church, visible from far at sea. In the Byzantine period, Caesarea prospered and reached its largest extent. The volume presents the archaeological evidence for these developments, paying careful attention to the foundations of the temple and church, fragments of the superstructure of both monumental buildings, the Herodian and Byzantine staircases that rose directly from the harbor to the temple and church, the pottery, coins, and other evidence.

ASOR Archaeological Reports, Volume 27, Series Editor Hanan Charaf, January 2021, 472 pages, 256 b/w figures, 13 tables, 3 fold-out maps, ISBN 978-0-89757-115-9, $89.95.

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