HAIFA, ISRAEL—Falling water levels in the Sea of Galilee have revealed that the ancient harbor at the site of Kursi was much larger than previously thought. Some scholars have thought that Kursi could be the “Land of the Gederenes” mentioned in the Christian New Testament. Archaeologists Haim Cohen and Michal Artzy of the University of Haifa also discovered a large marble slab bearing an inscription written in the Aramaic language with Hebrew letters. The inscription is thought to date to A.D. 500, and was found at the entrance to an inner room in a building that might have been a synagogue. Dedications from this time period were usually embedded in mosaic floors. “The dedication comprises eight lines, so that it is very detailed or expansive. In most cases we do not find so many words in Hebrew letters engraved on stone, so the person to whom the inscription was dedicated must have had a tremendous influence on the local people. There is no parallel for such a detailed and expensive dedication in archaeological findings to date in Israel,” Artzy said in a press release. To read about another discovery in Israel, go to "The Mosaics of Huqoq."
