JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—Archaeologists have uncovered three 1,700-year-old funerary inscriptions that seem to name rabbis at the Roman-era cemetery of the city of Tzippori, near the Sea of Galilee. The Jewish Press reports that two of the inscriptions were written in Aramaic, the language that was in widespread use in the region, and one in Greek. “The importance of the epitaphs lies in the fact that these reflect the everyday life of the Jews of Tzippori and their cultural world,” said archaeologist Moti Aviam of the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology. Tzippori was the capital of Galilee during the Hasmonean Period, which lasted from 140 to 37 B.C., after which the capital was moved to the city of Tiberias. Interestingly, an inscription mentions that one of the dead is called "The Tiberian," which the researchers say could mean he was a resident of Tiberias who was brought to Tzippori to be buried by an important rabbi. To read in-depth about another excavation in Galilee, go to “Excavating Tel Kedesh.”
