JEWS OR PAGANS? 131possibly after, there is a nearly complete gap in information from Vespasian’s
invasioninthatyearuntilthefourthcentury.^8 ThePalestinianTalmuddisplays
little interest in the district, and the less than extensive excavations have with
some exceptions uncovered mainly late antique material—most prominently
synagogues, to be discussed below. A similar situation prevails in the Golan
Heights. While we have enough information to know that Upper Galilee was
settled in the second and third centuries, at least partly by Jews (some rabbis
came fromUpper Galilean villages, anda handful oflate antique synagogues
were built over slightly earlier,perhapssynagogal, structures), little else can
be said.^9
One enigma may be noted, though. In the Upper Galilean village of Qa-
syon, an area especially rich in late antique synagogue remains, fairly exten-
siveremainswerefoundinthenineteenthcenturyofamonumentalbuilding
constructed in the second centuryC.E. The building resembles neither later
Galilean synagogues nor contemporary Syrian temples precisely, though it
has structural elements in common with both. Among the remains were a
stone eagle, an altar, and a lintel bearing a rather roughly carved Greek in-
scription:
For the well-being of our lords the Caesars L. Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax
Augustus and his sons M. Aurelius Antoninus and L. Septimius Geta. By oath of
the Ioudaioi...Insideawreathbesidethemaininscriptioniscarvedthenameoftheempress
JuliaDomna.Sincetheseremainswerediscoveredinthelastcentury,archae-
ologistshavedisagreedabouttheidentityofthestructure:itiseitheranexcep-
tionallypeculiarsynagogueoraslightlypeculiartempleoddmainlyforhaving
beenpatronizedbyagroupofself-identifiedIoudaioi.(Theonlythingknown
about Qasyon otherwise is that is was the hometown of a Palestinianamora
called R. Yohanan deQasyon, presumably in the later third century.)^10 The
ambiguities of these remains, the possibility they imply of the coexistence of
the retention of some sense of Jewish separateness with full participation in
normative Roman imperial religious life, and this in a remote hill country
village, serve as a good introduction to this chapter’s discussion of the com-
plexities of Jewishness in high imperial Palestine.
(^8) On the Galilean economy before the revolt of 66, see S. Schwartz, “Josephus in Galilee.” If
we could extrapolate fro mthe findings of D. Adan-Bayewitz,CommonPotteryinRomanGalilee
(Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 1993) to the economy of Galilee in general, which is
unlikelysincethereisnoreasonaprioritoconsiderpotteryespeciallyusefulasatracerforgeneral
patterns of exchange, then we would learn that the two halves of Galilee were quite thoroughly
integrated economically despite their cultural and social distinctness. This would be surprising
and interesting. For additional discussion, see Lapin, forthcoming.
(^9) See Goodman,StateandSociety, pp. 32–33.
(^10) For a survey of Qasyon and an account of the controversy about it, see Z. Ilan,Ancient
Synagogues inIsrael(Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1991), pp. 57–59; on the inscription, see L.