Roman Archaeology Following Legio VI Ferrata
LEGIO Excavations at the Camp of the Roman Sixth Ferrata Legion in Israel
Matthew J. Adams, Jonathan David and Yotam Tepper 05/01/2014 Biblical Archaeology Society
"During the 2013 excavation season, the Jezreel Valley Regional Project1 teamed up with Israeli archaeologist Yotam Tepper to expose a Roman camp just south of Tel Megiddo known as Legio. In this web-exclusive report, directors Matthew J. Adams, Jonathan David and Yotam Tepper describe the first archaeological investigation of a second-century C.E. Roman camp in the Eastern Roman Empire. "
"During the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138 C.E.), two imperial legions were stationed in the consular province of Judea: Legio X Fretensis in Jerusalem and Legio VI Ferrata in the north at a place called Caparcotna or Kaperkotnei in Latin and Greek sources, respectively. The latter legion was deployed more than three decades after the First Jewish Revolt (67–70 C.E.) and sometime before the Bar-Kokhba rebellion (132–136 CE), and it remained stationed in Judea through most of the 3rd century C.E.
Based in the Jezreel Valley somewhere near Tel Megiddo, the Legio VI Ferrata, or the Sixth Ironclad Legion, was well situated to control imperial roads, with direct access to the Galilee and inland valleys of northern Palestine—important centers of the local, occasionally uproarious, Jewish population. Until recently, the exact location of the castra (“camp” in the sense of a permanent military base) of the Sixth Legion had not been confirmed, but textual evidence places it in the Jezreel Valley along the road from Caesarea to Beth Shean in the vicinity of Megiddo."
"After Gottlieb Schumacher’s early 20th century work around Megiddo, the most intensive survey of this area was conducted by Yotam Tepper, who attempted to clarify the exact location of the castra, the village and the polis. As part of his Ph.D. research at Tel Aviv University, Tepper delineated discrete areas of Roman material culture remains, including coins and roof tiles stamped with the name of the Sixth Legion, concentrated in and around a large agricultural field known as el-Manach.2 Additionally, aerial photographs, satellite imagery and LiDAR (topographical laser scanning) data hinted at a large rectangular structure, approximately 900 feet by 900 feet, just beneath the surface surrounded by depressions. While working nearby on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2003–2005, Tepper also uncovered the famous 3rd-century Christian prayer hall at Megiddo Prison, the mosaics of which bore dedicatory inscriptions to “God Jesus Christ,” including one sponsored by a centurion named Gaianus. Overall, Tepper concluded that there was compelling evidence pointing to the exact location of the Sixth Legion’s headquarters in the agricultural field of el-Manach.
Matthew J. Adams, Jonathan David and Yotam Tepper 05/01/2014 Biblical Archaeology Society
"During the 2013 excavation season, the Jezreel Valley Regional Project1 teamed up with Israeli archaeologist Yotam Tepper to expose a Roman camp just south of Tel Megiddo known as Legio. In this web-exclusive report, directors Matthew J. Adams, Jonathan David and Yotam Tepper describe the first archaeological investigation of a second-century C.E. Roman camp in the Eastern Roman Empire. "
"During the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138 C.E.), two imperial legions were stationed in the consular province of Judea: Legio X Fretensis in Jerusalem and Legio VI Ferrata in the north at a place called Caparcotna or Kaperkotnei in Latin and Greek sources, respectively. The latter legion was deployed more than three decades after the First Jewish Revolt (67–70 C.E.) and sometime before the Bar-Kokhba rebellion (132–136 CE), and it remained stationed in Judea through most of the 3rd century C.E.
Based in the Jezreel Valley somewhere near Tel Megiddo, the Legio VI Ferrata, or the Sixth Ironclad Legion, was well situated to control imperial roads, with direct access to the Galilee and inland valleys of northern Palestine—important centers of the local, occasionally uproarious, Jewish population. Until recently, the exact location of the castra (“camp” in the sense of a permanent military base) of the Sixth Legion had not been confirmed, but textual evidence places it in the Jezreel Valley along the road from Caesarea to Beth Shean in the vicinity of Megiddo."
"After Gottlieb Schumacher’s early 20th century work around Megiddo, the most intensive survey of this area was conducted by Yotam Tepper, who attempted to clarify the exact location of the castra, the village and the polis. As part of his Ph.D. research at Tel Aviv University, Tepper delineated discrete areas of Roman material culture remains, including coins and roof tiles stamped with the name of the Sixth Legion, concentrated in and around a large agricultural field known as el-Manach.2 Additionally, aerial photographs, satellite imagery and LiDAR (topographical laser scanning) data hinted at a large rectangular structure, approximately 900 feet by 900 feet, just beneath the surface surrounded by depressions. While working nearby on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2003–2005, Tepper also uncovered the famous 3rd-century Christian prayer hall at Megiddo Prison, the mosaics of which bore dedicatory inscriptions to “God Jesus Christ,” including one sponsored by a centurion named Gaianus. Overall, Tepper concluded that there was compelling evidence pointing to the exact location of the Sixth Legion’s headquarters in the agricultural field of el-Manach.
Inscription of Legio VI Ferrata from Haifa, Israel
In 2010 and 2011, Tepper teamed up with the Jezreel Valley Regional Project (JVRP) and archaeogeophisicists Jessie Pincus and Tim de Smet to conduct a Ground Penetrating Radar and Electromagnetic survey of this area. These technologies allowed us to see beneath the surface of the fields and provided additional clues—radar and electromagnetic anomalies suggested the presence of something long, linear and wall-like. On the basis of Tepper’s historical and geographical work, in combination with the survey and remote sensing evidence, the JVRP spent two weeks during the summer of 2013 excavating part of the long-lost camp of Legio VI Ferrata."
"At the north end of the trench line, we found that the depressions evident in aerial photography were in fact part of a Roman camp’s typical defensive trenching earthworks, the fosse. Next to this 6.5-foot-deep ditch was the foundation of a great wall nearly 20 feet wide, evidently the main circumvallation rampart of the camp. Inside of that wall in the remaining 230 feet of our test trenches, the team exposed rooms likely belonging to one of the barracks areas of the camp. Much of the architectural remains had long been stripped away, but within the rooms were numerous ceramic roof tiles with the legion’s mark , coins, fragments of scale armor, lead ingots and a stone table leg sculpted with the three-dimensional visage of a panther."
"No military headquarters of this type for this particular period had yet been excavated in the entire Eastern Empire. Additionally, it proves to be the closest parallel to the inaccessible camp of Legio X Fretensis in Jerusalem. Not only will continued excavations at Legio illuminate this important camp in its own right, but its revelations may also be used as a proxy for the study of the Roman military’s occupation of the ancient Jewish capital."
Yotam Tepper, “The Roman Legionary Camp at Legio, Israel: Results of an Archaeological Survey and Observations on the Roman Military Presence at the Site,” in A.S. Lewin and P. Pellegrini, eds., The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest (Oxford: BAR International Series, 2007), pp. 57-71.
Location Map:
http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/legio.html
"At the north end of the trench line, we found that the depressions evident in aerial photography were in fact part of a Roman camp’s typical defensive trenching earthworks, the fosse. Next to this 6.5-foot-deep ditch was the foundation of a great wall nearly 20 feet wide, evidently the main circumvallation rampart of the camp. Inside of that wall in the remaining 230 feet of our test trenches, the team exposed rooms likely belonging to one of the barracks areas of the camp. Much of the architectural remains had long been stripped away, but within the rooms were numerous ceramic roof tiles with the legion’s mark , coins, fragments of scale armor, lead ingots and a stone table leg sculpted with the three-dimensional visage of a panther."
"No military headquarters of this type for this particular period had yet been excavated in the entire Eastern Empire. Additionally, it proves to be the closest parallel to the inaccessible camp of Legio X Fretensis in Jerusalem. Not only will continued excavations at Legio illuminate this important camp in its own right, but its revelations may also be used as a proxy for the study of the Roman military’s occupation of the ancient Jewish capital."
Yotam Tepper, “The Roman Legionary Camp at Legio, Israel: Results of an Archaeological Survey and Observations on the Roman Military Presence at the Site,” in A.S. Lewin and P. Pellegrini, eds., The Late Roman Army in the Near East from Diocletian to the Arab Conquest (Oxford: BAR International Series, 2007), pp. 57-71.
Location Map:
http://www.jezreelvalleyregionalproject.com/legio.html
Roman burial sites of Legio VI Ferrata on way to Megiddo
