144 CHAPTER FOURa seating capacity of 4,000 to 5,000 was discovered earlier in the century and
has recently been reexcavated; traces of frescoes are said to have been visible
on the corridor walls, but their content is not reported.
Other structures of interest are the by now famous private house on the
acropoliswhosetriclinium(diningroom)floorisdecoratedwithanexception-
ally fine mosaic depicting scenes from Dionysiac mythology and cult. More
recently, another domestic mosaic pavement has been discovered, depicting
Orpheus in one panel and wrestlers, banqueters, and dice players in others.^49
Both of these are said to be of “Roman” date, and the excavators have dated
the Dionysiac floor with implausible precision to the early third century—
implausible because the dating is based on style, which is a veryimprecise
criterion for dating, even in places like North Africa, where the corpus of
material is vast.^50 (Several other impressive mosaic pavements were found in
Sepphoris, too, but these are late antique.) On the other hand, over twenty
smallbathtubswerediscoveredinaresidentialdistrictofthecity,whichexca-
vators have identified, with what justification is unclear, asmiqva’ot.^51 If this
iscorrect,thenthepopulationofSepphorisinapproximatelythethirdcentury
was either radically diverse, consisting of a mixture of paganizers and the pu-
rity-obsessed or mind-bogglingly eclectic in their Jewish observance.^52 While
both options see mprobable on other grounds, it is unclear why the bathtubs
should not be considered simply bathtubs.
Amongthefewsmallfindsofrelevantdatethathavethusfarbeenreported,
though not yet fully published, are bronze figurines of Prometheus and Pan,
severalmoldedceramiclampswithimagesonthedisciofcoupleshavingsex,
and, from the same area as the lamps, several ceramic incense shovels and a
NEAEHL(Eng.) 1324–28 for a helpful summary and bibliography, up to date as of 1991. I am
painfully aware of the fact that not all Palestinian and Israeli excavations have been published
adequately (or at all), that the storerooms of the Israel and Rockefeller Museums, as well as the
archives of Israel’s Department of Antiquities, are filled with items and notices of items with
which I a munfa miliar. I a massu ming and hoping, though, that this material will not alter the
general picture substantially.
(^49) SeeHA106 (1996): 31–39, with photographs on inside cover.
(^50) See K. Dunbabin,TheMosaicsofRomanNorthAfrica:StudiesinIconographyandPatron-
age(Oxford: Clarendon, 1978), pp. 30–37.
(^51) In a site on the Sepphorite acropolis examined by Rutgers, themiqva’otfell into disuse in
the course of the second century, at the same time that pig bones begin to appear among the
osteological remains. Rutgers argues that this evidence for neglect of Jewish law does not imply
thatthe highimperial residentsof thesite werenotJewish. SeeL. V.Rutgers, “SomeReflections
on the Archaeological Finds fro mthe Do mestic Quarter on the Acropolis of Sepphoris,” in H.
Lapin, ed.,Religious and Ethnic Communities in Later Roman Palestine(Bethesda: University
PressofMaryland, 1998),pp.179–95.Forthe argumentthatthemiqva’otare reallybathtubs,see
H. Eshel, “A Note on the ‘Miqvaot’ at Sepphoris,” in D. Edwards and C. McCollough, eds.,
ArchaeologyandtheGalilee(Atlanta: Scholars, 1997), pp. 131–34.
(^52) For the suggestion that thebouleutaiof Sepphoris were mainly of priestly origin, see R.
Kimelman, “The Conflict between the Priestly Oligarchy and the Sages in the Talmudic Period
(An Explication of PT Shabbat 12:3, 13c = Horayot 3:5, 48c),”Zion48 (1983): 125–48.