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From the 80's B.C.E. until 67 C.E. Gamla was a small,
quiet, but thriving Jewish town, built on the steep
side of a hill, a hill which from a distance had
the outline of a kneeling camel. The townsmen made
a solid income from the production of and trade
in olive oil.  But
we would never have heard of them had they not decided
to play their part in the Jews' Great Revolt against
their Roman overlords.The Revolt broke out in 66
C.E. and we owe the description of the town and
the account of its preparations for battle and the
course of that battle to the book, The Jewish War,
written by one Yosef Ben Mattatiahu, better known
to history as Josephus Flavius.
An audiovisual show takes visitors through all stages
of the town's rebellion, the siege, the bitter fighting,
through to the final, even more bitter end, when
only two women were left alive. The Gamla dig, carried
out by a team of Israeli and foreign volunteers
under the direction of the late Shmariya Guttman,
began in 1976 and lasted a full fourteen seasons.
In 1998, digging resumed under Danny Sion and Zvi
Yavor and at the time of writing, summer 2000, is
still continuing. The town's synagogue, the one
in use at the time the Second Temple still stood,
was discovered at an early stage and alongside it
a ritual bath (mikve) and study room. Likewise the
town's outer wall with a round defensive tower at
one end. At a later stage an olive-oil press was
found with an adjoining second mikve. Close by was
a street of shops and the impressive houses of the
town's well-to-do, the rooms decorated in multicolored
plaster.
From the finds of the two Gamla digs the Museum
displays water and oil jugs, numerous oil-lamps,
jewelry, arrow heads, catapult (ballista) balls,
and a large number of coins, of which undoubtedly
the most important is the one inscribed "For the
Redemption of Holy Jerusalem". It seems to have
been minted in Gamla itself, in 66 C.E., at the
height of the Revolt. Starting on the obverse of
the coin, which also shows a goblet, the inscription
continues onto the reverse. The whole coin recalls
the silver shekel coins which Jews contributed to
the Temple, but the Gamla coin is of bronze and
noticeably more crudely made. Most likely it was
minted to raise the defenders' morale, to convince
them they were fighting not only for their own homes
but for the greater goal of Jerusalem itself. |
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