Nazareth Village
Excavation and Research
at the Nazareth Village FarmFor the past decade, the Center for the Study of Early Christianity has labored to lay the academic foundation for the construction of a first-century Galilean village or town based upon archaeology and early Christian and Jewish sources.
Such a 'model village' would provide a sort of time capsule into which the contemporary visitor might step to encounter more effectively the message of Jesus in its original setting. At Nazareth Village, this educational vision is being realized.
The Nazareth Farm Excavation
On a visit to Nazareth Hospital in November 1996 CSEC's director Stephen Pfann identified an ancient winepress associated with agriculatural terraces on the hospital grounds and the adjacent land. Potsherds found on the surface of the terraceds dated from various periods beginning with the early-to-late Roman Period.
A survey of the area was conducted in February 1997 by CSEC's archaeological staff. Four seasons of excavation, licensed by the Israel Antiquities Authority and under the joint direction of Ross Voss and S. Pfann have been carried out by CSEC, with the help of students and local volunteers. These excavations have confirmed the land to be a complete Roman Period terrace farm with a winepress, watchtowers, olive crushing stones, irrigation systems, and an ancient quarry, and have illuminated previously unknown aspects of terrace farming in the Galilee.
The Nazareth Village
Dr. Nakhle Bishara, Medical Director of Nazareth Hospital, had long hoped to build a visitor's center in Nazareth focusing on the life of Jesus. In light of the archaeological profile of the site, Dr. Bishara invited CSEC to incorporate its vision for an authentic first-century 'model village' with the proposed visitors' center. CSEC was thus contracted to be the academic consultants for the project and to provide the foundational research necessary for recreating a picture of Galilean town life in the first century A.D. Hence the Nazareth Village farm and visitor's center, developed under the direction of Michael Hostetler, was born.
The Nazareth Village is the only enterprise of its kind dedicated to illuminating the life of Jesus through an authentically constructed, first-century town and restored ancient farm. It is in this venue that the story of Jesus' childhood, ministry, and teaching are retold with elements of everyday life re-enacted.
To-date, four major avenues of daily life have been explored: the nature of first-century Nazareth, the house as a living space, household furnishings, and the synagogue. The methodological basis of this resarch is built upon primary literary and archaeological sources, as well as secondary ethnographic and anthropological studies. A four-stepped, 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'N/A' rating system is applied to all elements as to their certainty of being historically accurate.
Research Reports
*First Century Nazareth: A Preliminary Model for On-Going Research
*The House: Its Structure as a Living Space
*Houshold Furnishings and Pottery: A Preliminary Report
*The Synagogue in the First Century CE (A.D.): Recommendations for the Reconstruction of an Academically Defensible Synagogue in NazarethResearch Team
Stephen J. Pfann, Ph.D., Director
Vered Hillel, Senior Researcher
Yehudah Rapuano, Senior Researcher
Curtis Hutt, Claire Ruth Pfann, Edwin RattaiResearch Advisory Board
R. Frankel, E. Meyers, J. Strange, V. Tzaferis
Synagogue Advisory Board
L. Levine, E. Meyers, E. Netzer, J. Strange
Future Areas of Research
Much research still lies ahead as we endeavor to add to the buildings and the population of the Nazareth Village. Future plans include the development of first-century 'in character' townspeople (patriarch, matriarch, Pharisee, tax collector, and the like) who will interact with visitors from a first-century perspective. We hope to establish an archive in Nazareth to house the results and data from the many years of research UHL/CSEC has invested in building the first-century village concept. We plan to have UHL/CSEC staff on site to ensure the authenticity of the material culture of the site and the character of the village inhabitants, in a manner similar to Plymouth Plantation and Williamsburg.
