Mosaics Found on the Sea of Galilee’s Shores Indicate Wealthy Christians and Jews May Have Dwelt There Before the Caliph

Images of flora and fauna can be made out in the decorations.

Archaeologists working on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in present-day Israel, have unearthed a set of colorful floor mosaics that show the site was a prosperous region settled by early Christian and Jewish communities centuries before it became an important Islamic administrative center.

The mosaics predate a nearby Umayyad-era palace known as Khirbat al-Minya, located along the northern end of Lake Tiberias, which was built during the reign of the early Islamic Caliph, Walid I, from 705–15 C.E. The site was once an important trade hub, centering around sugar production, and the Caliph’s son commissioned the palace, which included one of the first mosques erected in the Palestine region. The area suffered damage from a major earthquake around 749 C.E. and was later abandoned.

Professor Hans-Peter Kuhnen, an archaeologist from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, who has been leading the dig, told Artnet News that “the mosaics indicate that the Caliph in the eighth century built his palace in an area that was settled at least since the fifth or sixth century, likely by wealthy people who could afford such colorful mosaics.”

Professor Hans-Peter Kuhnen, an archaeologist from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, who has been leading the dig, told Artnet News that “the mosaics indicate that the Caliph in the eighth century built his palace in an area that was settled at least since the fifth or sixth century, likely by wealthy people who could afford such colorful mosaics.”

Professor Kuhnen and his team have been doing archaeological research in the area for the past decade, starting with excavations and restoration work in the Caliph’s palace. Work was suspended during the pandemic, but the team continued digging on the site this year.

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