When I started this archaeological project in 2002, the standard tool for creating galleries was Flash. 2020 is the end of Flash. So one of my projects this year is to use Lightroom to remake all the galleries on this site. Should be fun. Until that is done, I will be taking down the galleries.
I worked by myself on the NIP today looking into a number of small questions. The blocked doorway from the north medial chamber to the north building is 60 cm above the floor in the chamber but 135 cm above the floor of the north building. I went looking for a threshold, but could not find one. The blockage sits on bedrock.
I have in my notes that there were brick pavers inside the north entrance on the east side of the north building. But I have no photo. These I was able to find. The brick paving continues under the bench on the east side of the room.
Other questions included a protrusion on the west side of the east wall of the House of Tyche in the southeast corner, the discovery of a small bench (likely a bed) in a rooms south of the church, and other little details.
I am pleased with what I see, when I have time to look.
Thanks to actions of the Board of Regents at Concordia Saint Paul, I have been approved for a sabbatical for the coming school year. The primary purpose of this sabbatical is to prepare a final report on the Northeast Insula Project at the Hippos Excavations.
I will again spend a month this summer at Sussita conducting a study season. I will completely re-examine and re-describe the site. Part of this work will involve making a 3D digital scan of the complete work using the Leica BLK360 scanner.
I also plan to use this blog site to track the work and update followers on my progress.
Again, my thanks to the university for making this sabbatical possible.
Dr. Schuler will deliver a plenary lecture at the upcoming meeting of the Society of LCMS Theological Professors at Concordia Wisconsin on 23 May.
Prospectus: This paper explores the formation of Christian identity at the site as has been revealed in recent excavations. The paper highlights the role of church construction in supplanting paganism, the reverence of the sacred dead within the city in contrast to pagan and Jewish practices, the novel practice of religious community in an urban context, and the import of baptism and the eucharist in the move toward Chalcedonian Christianity. Evidence of residual pagan practices in Christian contexts illustrates the fluid and incomplete nature of that identity formation.
On Saturday, 14 April, Dr. Mark Schuler will deliver a lecture on “The End of Christianity at Hippos: the Sixth to the Eighth Centuries” at Macalestar College in St. Paul as part of a conference on Byzantium and Early Islam: Exploring the Late Antique Transition. Other speakers at the conference include Andy Overman, Gideon Avni, Walid Atrash, Stephen Shoemaker, Alan Walmsley, Gaby Mazor, and Vanessa Rousseau.
