Magdala Taricheae is in the Genessar Valley at the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and at the feet of Mount Arbel in the Lower Galilee. It is ca. 4.85km north of Tiberias, capital of the Galilee during the 1st c. CE.
It is an ancient town from the Early Roman period in which were found one synagogue from the 1st c. CE with mosaic floors and coloured frescoes on the walls; a ritual area with four miqva’ot filled with underground water; domestic and production areas; market areas and one harbour (De Luca 2009; Avshalom-Gorni et al. 2013; Zapata-Meza et al. 2018).
The main periods identified in the excavations by the Anahuac University and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) were Late Hellenistic, Early Roman and Middle Roman (Avshalom – Gorni 2018: 102; Zapata-Meza et al. 2018)
· Stratum IV. Hellenistic Period (late 2nd c. – mid 1st c. BCE)
· Stratum III. Early Roman Period (mid-1st c. BCE – 67 CE)
· Stratum II. Middle Roman (67 – 350 CE)
· Stratum I. Later Periods (after 350 CE)
(Zapata-Meza et al. 2018: 86).
During the end of the beginning of the 20th c. CE W. F. Albright wrote in his article Contributions to the Historical Geography of Palestine one of the first academic discussions about the location of Taricheae through archaeological, geographical, and historical sources to place this ancient town 5.5km north Tiberias (Albright 1921: 30 -33). Albright associated the site with the Arab town Mejdel, which was associated to the flourishing Migdal of the Rabbinic times, also known as Magdala for the Christian traditions (ibid.: 33). Regarding Albright, Taricheae is the Greek name of Magdala.
The ground where the ancient town of Magdala was settled is susceptible to flooding as a consequence of the underground springs that flow into the lake. These springs are Nahal Arbel or the Fulya Spring (Gvirtzman 1997; Leibner 2009). The type of soils of the flat areas of the Genessar Valley is brown alluvial grumusol (Leibner, U. 2009: 215). The pottery vessels found at the site were identified as types from Kefar Hananya and Shikhin, with some exceptions (Avshalom – Gorni 2018: 102).
Contributor: Andrea Garza, August 2021
