A town has been discovered in the Ginosar Valley of Israel that dates back more than 2,000 years, according to Live Science and reported by Yahoo! The town is along the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee.
The biblical-era town may be Dalmanutha, a town described in the Gospel of Mark as the place Jesus was able to feed 4,000 people with only a few fish and loaves of bread, performing one of his miracles, according to Ken Dark, of the University of Reading, the head of the team that discovered the town during a field survey.
A famous boat was found on the shore of the town in 1986. The boat dated back to approximately 2,000 years ago.
"Vessel glass and amphora hint at wealth," Dark wrote in an article that was published in the recent edition of Palestine Exploration Quarterly. "Weight and stone anchors, along with the access to beaches suitable for landing boats - and, of course, the first-century boat...all imply involvement with fishing."
The artifacts found at the site indicate that Jews and those following a polytheistic religion lived alongside the community. The archaeologists also found that the southern border of the town is only approximately 500 feet from the ancient town of Magdala.
The field between the town of Magdala, today called Migdal, and the coast contained hundreds of pottery fragments dating back as far as the first or second century B.C. and continue up to some time after the fifth century A.D., which is the time of the Byzantine Empire. These artifacts suggest that the town existed for many centuries, according to the archaeologists.
Cubes known as tesserae and limestone vessel fragments were also found at the site. They are "associated with Jewish purity practices in the early Roman period," Dark said to LiveScience. These indicate a Jewish community.
"This settlement may have contained masonry buildings, some with mosaic floors and architectural stonework," Dark wrote in the paper.
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