28 November 2021
This blog post is in memory of Uri Ilan ז"ל, Israeli hero of courage and patriotism. You can find out why at the end.
One November morning, Yonatan and I set out to find and explore and impressive, though not oft-visited, ruin of a Roman temple and its surrounding town. The identities of the town and the temple are still shrouded in mystery, because no identifying inscription has been uncovered in the archaeological excavations carried out there annually since 1999, under the direction of Professor Andrew Overman of the Classics department of Macalester College of St Paul, Minnesota.
The site, known simply as the Omrit ruins or Horvat Omrit (חורבת עומרית), had undergone a preliminary survey in 1974 by a team headed by G Foerster of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which found substantial structures with numerous architectural features still standing, some in situ, as well as an extensive complex with multiple buildings, a colonnaded way, and an ornate, extremely well-preserved temple-like building. The site sits in the foothills of the Hermon Range, just above the Druze Holy tomb of Nebi-Yehuda, at the foot of Givat Azaz (Tel Azaziyat), a Syrian fortress that was conquered by the 51st Battalion of the Golani brigade on 9th June 1967; the area surrounding Omrit is still heavily mined. It is about 4 kilometres southwest of Banias and sits near the crossroads of the ancient Tyre–Damascus and Scythopolis–Damascus routes, on the border of Galilee and Iturea, to which it connected with a colonnaded street.
Remnants of the colonnaded street, which remains largely unexcavated, to the north of the temple.
After a brush fire cleared the area in 1998. Professor Overman came across the site, and began the long involvement of Macalester College in its excavation, together with Gabi Mazor of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Omrit sat within the disputed and unruly region of Iturea and it may have marked the entrance into Iturea or the related region of Banias. This rugged, mountainous area changed hands several times during the first century BCE. At the end of the Hellenistic period the region was part of the Ituraean kingdom until the year 36 BCE when Panion (Banias) was turned over to Cleopatra, who leased it out to Zenodorus the Ituraean. But after the Battle of Actium, Augustus handed it over to Herod, who was charged with restoring order to it. With a mixture of his usual brutality and audacious building, Herod brought the region under his and Augustus’ control, as described in Josephus.
When these matters were laid before Caesar, he wrote back to Varro to destroy those nests of robbers, and to give the land to Herod, that so by his care the neighboring countries might be no longer disturbed with these doings of the Trachonites [one of three unruly tribes to the northeast of the Jordan and south of Damascus]; for it was not an easy firing to restrain them, since this way of robbery had been their usual practice, and they had no other way to get their living, because they had neither any city of their own, nor lands in their possession, but only some receptacles and dens in the earth, and there they and their cattle lived in common together. [...] But when Herod had received this grant from Caesar, and was come into this country, he procured skillful guides, and put a stop to their wicked robberies, and procured peace and quietness to the neighboring people.
The Antiquities of the Jews, Book XV, sections 345-6, 348.
The gift of the region to Herod was probably part of Augustus’ policy of maintaining the eastern frontier of the Roman empire against the Parthians. According to Josephus, Herod built an Augusteum (a temple of the imperial cult) in honour of the emperor, one of three that he constructed in Banias, Sebastia and Caesarea Maritima. Josephus, who mentions in both The Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish War that the temple was built entirely of white stone, does not state that it was built in Banias (Panium), but 'hard by' it or 'in Zenodorus's country'.
And when Cæsar had farther bestowed upon him another additional country, he built there also a temple of white marble, hard by the fountains of Jordan: the place is called Panium.
Wars of the Jews I, XXI, 3
So when he had conducted Cæsar to the sea, and was returned home, he built him a most beautiful temple of the whitest stone, in Zenodorus's country, near the place called Panium.
Antiq. XV, 363
Thus, given Omrit's proximity to Banias and the presence of an ancient temple there, we will presently come to the arguments that this is the temple to which Josephus referred, rather than the temples that were built at Banias itself.
The temple is still impressive today. Even a novice with a modicum of rationality can see that the temple's foundation walls appear to be a wide casemate, in-filled with rubble, yet the inner wall is of beautifully smooth and moulded ashlars―on the in-filled side! It appears that a perfectly-fine quality temple was extended by building new walls around it, and taking down the old walls only to the level of the floor. This is indeed what happened!
In the first construction phase―dating to the end of the 1st century BCE or the beginning of the 1st century CE―the temple was built upon a podium, 14 metres by 20 metres, and about 2.5 metres high, with a broad staircase ascending to it from the east. The roof was 22 metres from the ground. The pediment over the entrance was carried on four columns, leading to a vestibule and cella (inner chamber), and there was an underground crypt whose walls are coated with colored and moulded plaster.
Moulded masonry and applied plaster moulding (right)
The temple’s bema (raised sanctuary area) is built of moulded ashlars. Large segments of frescoes appear in red-black, with yellow, beige, and faux marble, including a large intact section in faux marble style on the outer wall of the podium of the first temple along its southwestern corner.
Faux marble frescoed onto plaster on the outer wall of the podium
The temple―which was built over the ruins of a shrine dating to the second century BCE, which was found under the Roman podium―was a dry construction of headers and stretchers with a rubble core, its ashlars precisely, if not perfectly, fitted. It was highly ornate. This style of imperial cult temple―tall and narrow―developed from about 25 BCE and was adopted throughout the empire, especially in the Eastern Greek settlements. Herod played a major role in promoting and establishing the style, and Omrit is justifiably viewed as another of Herod’s building projects devoted to the emperor, whatever the truth of its identification as the Augusteum. But the evidence is there in the style and quality of the building, as well as its proximity, 'hard by' Banias.
A temple built by Herod closely resembling the first temple at Omrit appears on a coin minted by Herod’s son Philip, commemorating the establishment of the city of Caesarea Philippi at Banias. The coin represents Herod’s support for and by Augustus with an image of temple with a single row of four columns, and its similarity to the first temple at Omrit suggests that this was indeed the Augusteum referred to by Josephus. However there is an alternate theory that a temple found on the western side of the cave of Pan at Banias might be the Augusteum.
In the second construction phase―at the beginning of the 2nd century CE―the size of the temple was increased by enlarging the podium on three sides; the staircase was also made wider and the row of four columns at its top made to six, with a row of Corinthian columns set along the sides of the structure. Many of these large capitals were found fallen and scattered around the building and remain today.
Several fragments of Greek inscriptions were uncovered at Omrit. One marble inscription reads “Aphro,” almost certainly Aphrodite. Another reads “Autokra…/.ureliu.,” which probably should be reconstructed as “Autokrator” and “Aurelius.” Among the marble reliefs found, one features a priest bearing a cornucopia standing between two fluted columns in the temple. A distinctive marble sculptured fragment from the frieze depicts a slain deer still within the grasp of its predator. Another striking marble piece appears to be a sphinx or griffin, which adorned an entrance to part of the temple. Several large fragments of altars have been found and reconstructed.
The temple was destroyed by an earthquake that struck in 363 CE. In the Byzantine period, an industrial area was located north of the temple site, and a small chapel was built just east of the temple, re-using the Roman masonry.
The Byzantine phase of the site appears to have been one of vibrant trade and commercial life, with many coins from the period having been found. A second earthquake in the middle of the eighth century CE seems to have brought about the final destruction of the site and its abandonment. In the thirteenth century there was a brief period of transient occupation, of which several crude homes, a shared courtyard space, some tabuns (ovens), and copious bone and charcoal material have been found.
Today, although only part of the site has been excavated, it appears that huge quantities of masonry collapse remain to be uncovered, on all sides of the temple. It is clear that little if any masonry has been removed from the site over the intervening centuries, because the site was so remote from any settlement. Thus the podium was preserved in its entirety, as was the staircase leading up to it. Fragments of statuary and inscriptions were also recovered in the excavation. One of these may make reference to Aphrodite, a marble statue of whom was found years ago in the fields at the foot of nearby Tel Dan and can now be seen in the Bet Ussishkin Museum there. It is possible that the origin of the statute was in the temple at Omrit.
Various masonry, including (from top left, clockwise) modillions and rosette coffers from the temple cornice; the left hand corner of the pediment over the entrance staircase; a Corinthian capital; and a niche, possibly for a statue, at the right hand foot of the staircase.
To the south of Omrit is a memorial to Corporal Uri Ilan (אורי אילן). Born in 1935 in kibbutz Gan Shmuel, he joined the Golani Brigade in 1953. On 8 December 1954, together with his team of four soldiers, he came to this spot, near Tel Faher, below the Syrian fortress at Tel Azaziyat (Givat Azaz) to replace batteries for a secret wire-tapping device that the IDF had installed. Thefour comrades were Lieutenant Meir Mozes (Commander of the Golani Regiment) and three paratroopers, Sergeant Meir Yaakovi (Commander of the Squad), Corporal Yaakov (Jackie) Lind and Sr. Gad Castelnitz. All five soldiers were captured by the Syrians and taken into custody in Quneitra, whence they were sent to al-Mazzah prison in Damascus for interrogation. They were sent to separate cells and tortured and, believing the false claims of his captors that his comrades had been killed, on 13 January 1955, Uri hanged himself in his prison cell, using a rope made from the fabric of the mattress cover. In his clothing, Ilan hid nine notes addressed to his homeland, Israel, and his family. The most famous is a scrap of paper on which he wrote the Hebrew words "לא בגדתי. התאבדתי", which means: "I did not betray. I committed suicide," that is to say, he chose to end his own life so as not to reveal military secrets under torture. Another of the notes, punctured with a wooden toothpick, read "Everybody has already been killed, I'm waiting for my sentence, I don't know anything about the rest. Bury me next to Gaby. I am not a traitor. Uri Ilan." Uri's suicide and the notes he left behind set off a great outpouring of grief in Israel, but also a sense of national pride. In 1955, Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan wrote to members of the Ilan family, "We will keep the original notes in the army archives," and they remain there to this day.
On 13 January 1955 Uri's body was returned to Israel by the Syrians, and he was buried on 14 January 1955 in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel. On 29 March 1956, after 15 months in captivity, the four surviving Israeli soldiers who were captured were returned to Israel in exchange for 41 Syrian soldiers who were prisoners in Israel. Tour guide, Gil Brenner initiated the construction of the Uri Ilan Trail - We Didn't Betray, which marks the walking route of Uri Ilan and his comrades. The trail was inaugurated in the winter of 2016, the monumental markers made by the sculptor Yuval Lufen from Kibbutz Ginosar.
