Israeli archaeologists during the excavation in the North of the country have discovered the ruins of the once flourishing Christian city, which was destroyed by Persian troops, about 1,400 years ago.
About the opening tells Haaretz. We are talking about the Byzantine settlement of PI Metzuba in the Western Galilee. The town prospered, but at the beginning of VII century ad, was destroyed. Persia invaded the region during the war with Byzantium.
the Ruins were discovered during extension works of the road connecting the town of Shlomi and kibbutz Hanita, South from the border of Israel with Lebanon. The place was called by the archaeologists. They found the remains of many buildings decorated with Christian symbols. One of the buildings was magnificent – was found inside the mosaic size is 5×6 metres, very high quality, decorated with images of flowers, animals and people.
the First excavations at the site were conducted in 2007. But only now managed to dig up one of the plots. In Byzantine written sources the city is not mentioned. However, in the Jerusalem Talmud, the compendium of Jewish religious law, drawn up in IV-V centuries in Galilee, mentioned Christian city called PI Matzuba. Scientists believe they have found it.
the Talmud classifies PI Metsubou to the group of cities of Western Galilee, which was not considered part of Israel, but whose Jewish residents still had to observe all the commandments prescribed for the Holy land. However, archeological finds show that the population of this city was almost completely Christian.
most of the detected buildings was a small modest house, United close lanes, with the exception of one large, well-built home in the heart of the city, which was mentioned above. By the way, in this building, archaeologists found a bronze cross and a door handle, decorated with a cross. However, it was not a monastery, as initially suggested by the researchers.
“We looked at the mosaic and realized that it graced the living room of an urban Villa, belonged to a very wealthy family, says archaeologist Gilad Cinamon. Is quite a rare find for this region of the Byzantine period. We don’t know who lived in a luxury Villa PI Marubi, but the owners probably didn’t enjoy this puzzle.”
after Analyzing found artifacts, the scientists came to the conclusion that the Villa was founded about the year 600 of our era. Just over a decade later, the entire region was embroiled in a military conflict. The Byzantine Empire and Persia of the Sassanid dynasty fought a long and bloody war, which lasted from 602 at 628 years.
During this war, the Persians occupied Galilee and the remaining part of the Holy land. It happened about 613 years. In the end, the victory was won by the Byzantines. They regained the lost territory��. However, the war was so exhausted both empires, just a few years later, in 630, they are unable to adequately withstand the forces of the growing Islamic Caliphate in Arabia.
According to Cynamon, the Byzantines did not recover, PI Metsubou. Later traces of a settlement here was not detected. However, during the Byzantine-Persian war in Galilee from about 140 Byzantine settlements of about 60 were completely destroyed.
