The Birth of a Project: The 2011 Excavation at Huqoq, Israel

We usually learn about archaeological projects once the dig has ended and a picture has begun to emerge. Michael Chazan will talk about the first season of excavation at the site of Huqoq, Israel, located near the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee. The project is directed by Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina. The University of Toronto is participating in this enterprise with the leadership of the Department of Jewish Studies and the sponsorship of the Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies, at St. Michael’s College as part of the Jewish-Italian Friendship Project with the Italian and Israeli Consulates. The project’s goal is to determine the age of the construction of the synagogue at Huqoq, one of the few such structures that remain unexcavated. The project also pursues questions that strike at the core of the history of the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity.

The beginning of a project is fraught with unexpected challenges and rewards. This lecture will cover the excavation of a Mikva at the site, the careful documentation of a Palestinian village that was abandoned in 1949, and the untangling of the sequence of Roman and Byzantine domestic structures.

Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012 Time: 7:15 - 8:15 p.m.

LOCATION: University of Toronto, Carr Hall, Room 404, located at 100 St. Joseph Street, St. Michael’s

College at the University of Toronto. (First street north of Wellesley; parking lot is opposite Carr Hall).