Concordia Students Find Good Fortune at Archaeology Site

ST. PAUL, MN (09/27/2010)(readMedia)-- – Concordia University, St. Paul students and their professor unearthed a rare fragment of fresco (wall painting) depicting Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, during the 11th season of excavations this summer at Hippos of the Decapolis above the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel.

Tyche was a tutelary deity that governed the prosperity and fortune of a city and was venerated in ways particular to individual cities. The Tyche of Hippos was depicted with abundant, flowing brown hair topped by a corona muralis, a crown in the form of the fortifications of a city. In a previous season, the Concordia team recovered an inscription that invoked Tyche, attesting to her importance to the city of Hippos.

"Very few frescoes from this period have survived other than those at Pompeii," said Dr. Mark Schuler, who has led the Concordia excavation teams at Hippos for 11 seasons. "To find a fragment with an identifiable face is quite extraordinary."

Under the direction professor Schuler, a team of twenty four students and volunteers from Concordia University, St. Paul, began this year's excavations in a residential compound that appeared, by the quality and complexity of its construction, to belong a prominent citizen of Hippos. The St. Paul team was aided this year by a contingent from Concordia Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta led by Dr. Steve Chambers, who made the actual discovery. The fresco was found amid destruction fill on a mosaic floor near a fountain in an inner courtyard of the residence. Artistic analysis by Concordia University Art professor Keith Williams suggests that the wall painting dates to the late Roman or early Byzantine period (3rd – 4th centuries CE).

The goddess Tyche was not the only mythological figure to be discovered in this same compound. The group also discovered a beautiful relief of a maenad etched in bone., Maenads were female followers of Dionysus, the god of wine, often from the upper classes in cities, who were inspired to ritual frenzy through a combination of dancing and intoxication.

"It is fascinating to discover the presence of these Graeco-Roman female goddesses well into the Byzantine period when Hippos had become a prominent Christian center," Schuler said. "Although the cultural meaning may have changed over time, there is little doubt these objects were present well after Christianity had prevailed over more ancient beliefs."

Since 2002 the Concordia University, St. Paul Department of Religion and Theology has sponsored the Northeast Insula Project at the Hippos/Sussita Excavations under the direction of professor Mark Schuler. The project is one component of a larger excavation at Hippos under the auspices of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, directed by Professor Arthur Segal and Dr. Michael Eisenberg, co-director. The city of Hippos is located within Sussita National Park.

Hippos, now known as Sussita, was erected on a mountaintop rising to the east of the Sea of Galilee during the 2nd century BCE. The city existed during the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad periods until it was destroyed by a violent earthquake in 749 CE. It is one of the cultural-geographical group of Decapolis cities – a region in which Jesus conducted some of the miracles described in the New Testament.

Concordia University, St. Paul is a comprehensive, private university of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and one of 10 schools that comprise the Concordia University System. Established in 1893, Concordia offers more than 40 liberal arts majors, including business administration, education, fine arts, science and church professions. Concordia is a regional leader in accelerated undergraduate and graduate programs in business, education, criminal justice and Christian outreach. Concordia is the only private university in Minnesota to offer NCAA Division II athletics for men and women. On the web: www.csp.edu.

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Background Information: http://hippos.archaeology.csp.edu

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