page_title: Capernaum
section_title: Archaeology
hierarchical_section_title: Capernaum / Archaeology
caption_attribution_description: Ruins of houses in w:Capernaum.
context_page_description: Capernaum was a fishing village established during the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1,500. Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other. A house turned into a church by the Byzantines is believed to have been the home of Saint Peter.
  The village was inhabited continuously from the 2nd century BC to the 11th century AD, when it was abandoned sometime before the Crusader conquest. This includes the re-establishment of the village during the Early Islamic period soon after the 749 earthquake.
context_section_description: In 1838, American explorer Edward Robinson discovered ruins which he identified as those of a synagogue, but did not relate this to ancient Capernaum. In 1866, Charles William Wilson identified the location (then known as Tel Hum) as Capernaum. In 1894, Franciscan Friar Giuseppe Baldi of Naples, the Custodian of the Holy Land, was able to purchase a good part of the land around the ruins. Additional land on the eastern portion of the site became the property of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.
  In 1905, Germans Heinrich Kohl and Carl Watzinger began a study of Galilean synagogues. These were continued by Franciscans Fathers Vendelin von Benden (1905–1915) and Gaudenzio Orfali (1921–1926). The excavations resulted in the discovery of two public buildings, the synagogue (which was partially restored by Fr Orfali), and an octagonal church.
  In 1968, excavation of the western portion of the site—the portion owned by the Franciscans—was resumed by Virgilio Corbo and Stanislao Loffreda. During this phase, the major discovery was of a 1st-century house which is believed by Christians to be the home of St. Peter. These excavations have been ongoing, with some publication on the Internet as recently as 2003.
  The excavations revealed that the site was established at the beginning of the Hasmonean period, roughly in the 2nd century BC, and abandoned in the 11th century.
  The eastern half of the site, which is owned by the Orthodox Monastery of the Holy Apostles, centered on the red-roofed Church of the Holy Apostles, was surveyed and partially excavated under the direction of Vassilios Tzaferis. This section has uncovered the village from the Byzantine and Early Arab periods. Features include a pool apparently used for the processing of fish, and a hoard of gold coins (Tzaferis, 1989).
  On both sides of an ample north-south main street arose small districts bordered by small cross-sectional streets and no-exit side-streets. The walls were constructed with coarse basalt blocks and reinforced with stone and mud, but the stones (except for the thresholds) were not dressed and mortar was not used.
  The most extensive part of the typical house was the courtyard, where there was a circular furnace made of refractory earth, as well as grain mills and a set of stone stairs that led to the roof. The floors of the houses were cobbled. Around the open courtyard, modest cells were arranged which received light through a series of openings or low windows.
  Given the coarse construction of the walls, there was rarely a second story to a typical home, and the roof would have been constructed of light wooden beams and thatch mixed with mud. This, along with the discovery of the stairs to the roof, recalls the biblical story of the Healing of the Paralytic: "And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay." (Mark 2:4)
  A study of the district located between the synagogue and the octagonal church showed that several extended families clustered together, communally using the same courtyards and doorless internal passages. The houses had no hygienic facilities or drainage; the rooms were narrow. Most objects found were made of clay: pots, plates, amphoras, and lamps. Fish hooks, weights for fish nets, striker pins, weaving bobbins, and basalt mills for milling grain and pressing olives were also found.
  As of the 4th century, the houses were constructed with good quality mortar and fine ceramics. This was about the time that the synagogue now visible was built. Differences in social class were not noticeable. Buildings constructed at the founding of the town continued to be in use until the time of the abandonment of the town.
caption: Ruins of the Roman-period town.
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