JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—Hundreds of fragments of brightly colored Roman frescoes have been discovered in Zippori National Park by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The site, also known as Sepphoris, was a Jewish urban center in the Galilee during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The Jerusalem Post reports that the images on the fragments include figures of a lion’s head, a horned animal, a bird, and a tiger’s hindquarters, as well as floral patterns and geometric motifs. The paintings are thought to have decorated one or more rooms in a monumental public structure built during the early second century A.D. The center of the building featured a stone-paved courtyard and a side portico. Underground vaults that served as water cisterns were found to the west and north of the courtyard. The building was dismantled in antiquity and a new structure was built on the same location. To read about a famous set of frescoes from Pompeii, go to “Saving the Villa of the Mysteries.”
