An archeological excavation conducted ahead of a railway expansion near Binyamina in northern Israel has uncovered two well-preserved statues from the late Roman period. The news was reported June 15 by the Israeli Antiques Authority (IAA), which carried out the excavation.
Dating to approximately the 4th century CE, the marble busts are thought to depict prominent figures from the Greco-Roman world, with one bearing an inscription with the name “Lycurgus.” According to Dr. Peter Gendelman, the IAA’s expert on the history of the nearby town of Caesarea—for 650 years the Roman capital of Judea, Syria Palaestina, and Palaestina Prima successively—there were two historical figures with that name: the first was the founder of Sparta; the second was an orator of the 4th century BC. “It may be one of these figures, but the research is only beginning,” Gendelman said.
The sculptures were discovered lying face down in an in an empty Roman-Byzantine wine collection vat. “They were buried when the winepress went out of use,” the IAA said in a statement. “At this stage, it is not known why the statues were hidden here, perhaps to protect them.”
“In the Roman period, statues of this kind were displayed both in public buildings and in the homes of members of the elite, who sought to associate themselves with the cultural and intellectual world of antiquity,” Gendelman noted. “Not far from the discovery site, remains of a bathhouse were previously uncovered, and the statues may have decorated a luxurious villa belonging to one of Caesarea’s elite.”
Eliran Oren, director of the excavation with Avishag Reis, agreed. While the statues were found in what seems to have been an agricultural complex, the bathhouse suggests that the site may have been a wealthy suburban estate associated with the port city. “Another possibility,” he says, “is that they came from Caesarea [itself], about ten kilometers away.” Regardless, “These are not statues that would have stood in a local farmhouse.”
Oren said that the statues clearly depict real people rather than archetypal figures; if one of them really does depict the founder of Sparta, it would be an especially important discovery, since he was an historical figure who lived hundreds of years before the sculpture was made.
According to Oren, statues this well preserved are extremely rare, not only in Israel but in general. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” said Oren and Reis. “The most remarkable finds often appear when you least expect them—and in this case, they emerged on the final day of excavation.”
