.
The Historical Atlas by William Shepherd, circa 1923.
Canaanite and Israelite Zippori in Hebrew Bible, Mishnah, Talmud The
Hebrew Bible makes no mention of the city, although in
Jewish tradition it is thought to be the city
Kitron mentioned in the
Book of Judges (1:30 ). According to
Mishna 'Arakhin 9:6, the old fortress of Zippori was encompassed by a wall during the era of
Joshua.
Iron Age findings Evidence from ceramic remains indicates the site of Sepphoris was inhabited during the
Iron Age, 1,000–586 BCE.
Hellenistic period; Hasmoneans Actual occupation and building work can be verified from the 4th century BCE, with the
Hellenistic period.
Roman and Byzantine periods It appears that Sepphoris remained predominantly Jewish through
late antiquity. Herod seemingly built a royal palace-fortress that doubled as an arsenal, likely positioned within the acropolis enclosed by the city's wall. After Herod's death in 4 BCE, a rebel named Judas, son of a local bandit, Ezekias, attacked Sepphoris, then the administrative center of the Galilee, and, sacking its treasury and weapons, armed his followers in a revolt against Herodian rule. Antipas expanded upon Herod's palace/arsenal, and built a city wall. The new population was loyal to Rome.
Maurice Casey writes that, although Sepphoris during the early first century was "a very Jewish city", some of the people there did speak
Greek. A lead weight dated to the first century bears an inscription in Greek with three Jewish names. Several scholars have suggested that Jesus, while working as a craftsman in
Nazareth, may have travelled to Sepphoris for work purposes, possibly with
his father and
brothers. The Jerusalemite
Josephus, a son of Jerusalem's priestly elite had been sent north to recruit the Galilee into the rebellion's fold, but was only partially successful. He made two attempts to capture Sepphoris, but failed to conquer it, the first time because of fierce resistance, the second because a garrison came to assist in the city's defence. Around the time of the rebellion Sepphoris had a Roman theater, and in later periods, bath-houses and mosaic floors. Rejected by Sepphoris and forced to camp outside the city, Josephus went on to
Jotapata, which did seem interested in the rebellion, – the
Siege of Yodfat ended on 20 July 67 CE. Towns and villages that did not rebel were spared and in Galilee they were the majority. Coins minted in the city at the time of the revolt carried the inscription
Neronias and
Eirenopolis, "City of Peace". After the revolt, coins bore depictions of laurel wreaths, palm trees, caduceuses and ears of barley.
George Francis Hill and
Peter Schäfer consider that the city's name was changed to
Diocaesarea in 129/30, just prior to the
Bar Kokhba revolt, in
Hadrian's time. Before moving to
Tiberias by 220, some Jewish academies of learning,
yeshivot, were also based there. Galilee was predominantly populated by Jews from the end of the 2nd century to the 4th century CE. As late as the third-fourth centuries, Sepphoris is believed to have been settled by one of the twenty-four
priestly courses,
Jedayah by name, a course mentioned in relation to the town itself in both the
Jerusalem Talmud (
Taanit 4:5) and in the
Caesarea Inscription. Others, however, cast doubt about Sepphoris ever being under a "priestly oligarchy" by the third century, and that it may simply reflect a misreading of Talmudic sources. Aside from being a center of spiritual and religious studies, it developed into a busy metropolis for commerce due to its proximity to important trade routes through Galilee. Hellenistic and Jewish influences seemed blended together in daily town life while each group, Jewish, pagan and Christian, maintained its distinct identity. In the aftermath of the
Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus of 351–352, Diocaesarea, the epicenter of the revolt, was razed.
Philostorgius, speaking of these times, wrote: "The Jews of Diocæsarea (Sepphoris) also took up arms and invaded Palestine and the neighboring territories, with the design of shaking off the Roman yoke. On hearing of their insurrection, Gallus Caesar, who was then in
Antioch, sent troops against them, defeated them, and destroyed Diocæsarea." Diocaesarea was further affected by the
Galilee earthquake of 363, but rebuilt soon afterwards, and retained its importance in the greater Jewish community of Galilee, both socially, commercially, and spiritually. Towards the end of the 4th century, church father
Epiphanius described Sepphoris as predominantly Jewish, a view strongly supported by
rabbinic literature, which sheds lights on the town's sages and synagogues. As a diocese that is no longer residential, it is listed in the
Annuario Pontificio among
titular sees.
Early Muslim period The fourth century saw Jewish Zippori losing its centrality as the main Jewish city of the Galilee in favour of Tiberias, and its population dwindled away. in 634. Later, the city was incorporated into the expanding
Umayyad Caliphate, and coins were minted in Sepphoris for the
Jund al-Urdunn by the new rulers. A stone-built
aqueduct dating to the early Umayyad period (7th century CE) has been excavated. Saffuriya was engaged in trade with other parts of the empire at the time; for example, cloaks made in Saffuriyya were worn by people in
Medina. Umayyad rule was replaced by
Abbasid rule. and a church dedicated to
Saint Anne, the mother of
Mary, mother of Jesus, who is believed to originate from here. This became one of their local bases in the kingdom, and the town was called in or
Sephoris. but by 1259, the bishop experienced unrest among the local Muslim farmers. Saffuriyyah was captured between 1263 and 1266 by the
Mamluk sultan
Baybars. In 1596, the population was recorded as consisting of 366 families and 34 bachelors, all Muslim. Saffuriyya was larger than neighboring Nazareth but smaller than
Kafr Kanna. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to a press for olive oil or grape syrup and "occasional revenues"; a total of 31,244
akçe. 3/24 of the revenuer went to a
Waqf. A number of important scholars came from the village during this period, including the historian, poet and jurist
al-Hasan al-Burini (d. 1615), the
qadi (head judge), al-Baq'a al-Saffuri (d. 1625) and the poet and qadi Ahmad al-Sharif (d. 1633). built a fort on the hill overlooking Saffuriya. In the early 19th century, the British traveller
J. Buckingham noted that all the inhabitants of Saffuriya were Muslim, and that the house of St. Anna had been completely demolished. In the late 19th century, Saffuriyya was described as village built of stone and mud, situated along the slope of a hill. The village contained the remains of the Church of St. Anna and a square tower, said to have been built in the mid-18th century. The village had an estimated 2,500 residents, who cultivated 150
faddans (1 faddan = 100–250 dunams), on some of this land they had planted olive trees. A population list from about 1887 showed that Sepphoris had about 2,940 inhabitants; all Muslims. In 1900, an elementary school for boys was founded, and later, a school for girls.
British Mandate period According to the
British Mandate's
1922 census of Palestine,
Saffuriyeh had 2,582 inhabitants; 2,574 Muslims and 8 Christians, where the Christians were all Roman Catholics. By the
1931 census the population had increased to 3,147; 3,136 Muslims and 11 Christians, in a total of 747 houses. In summer of 1931, archaeologist Leroy Waterman began the first excavations at Saffuriya, digging up part of the school playground, formerly the site of the Crusader fort. The land in the area was considered highly fertile. while 102 dunams were classified as built-up land. Multiple olive oil factories were located nearby, and children attended one of two schools, divided by gender. On 1 July 1948, the village was bombarded by Israeli aircraft. Following the collapse of the resistance, all but 80 of the villagers fled. Some made their way northwards toward
Lebanon, finally settling there in the refugee camps of
Ain al-Hilweh and
Shatila and the adjacent Sabra neighborhood. Others fled south to Nazareth and the surrounding countryside. After the attack, the villagers returned but were evicted again in September 1948. The works of the poet
Taha Muhammad Ali, a native of Saffuriyya expelled from the town, and their relationship to the landscape of Saffuriya before 1948, are the subject of
Adina Hoffman's
My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness (Yale University Press, 2009). The area remained under
martial law until the general lifting of martial law in Israel in 1966. Most of the remains of Saffuriya were removed in a late-1960s program to clear depopulated Arab villages. The site of the Arab village was planted with pine trees. By 2011, five books about the Palestinian village history had been published. On 20 February 1949, the Israeli
moshav of
Tzippori was founded southeast of the older village. Saffuriya is among the Palestinian villages for which commemorative Marches of Return have taken place, typically as part of
Nakba Day, such as the demonstrations organized by the
Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced (ADRID). ==Archaeological park==