Mansions on the Outskirts of Byzantine Caesarea

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Note: The remains of three mansions from the late Byzantine period (late sixth to mid-seventh century CE) have been uncovered on the outskirts of Caesarea, 500— 1,500 m outside the city wall (see fig. 1). Interest in the Caesarea mansions, parts of which have been excavated since 1955, was recently aroused due to renewed excavations conducted in two of them, which we called 'Mansion of the Birds Mosaic' and 'House of Blessings for the Farmer' (figs. 1-6 and 1-7 respectively). The new information from the 'Mansion of the Birds Mosaic' has shown that the beautiful mosaic floor which was discovered there in 1955, decorated with round medallions, each containing a bird (figs. 2, 3), was not part of an open church, as proposed by Sh. Yeivin, but rather the prestigious court of a mansion, as suggested by R. Reich and others. The new excavation turned up cross-shaped handles and the surface of a sigma table assembled of glass plates. Part of these plates were produced by the 'gold glass' technique and decorated with a cross (figs. 7—10). Findings from all three mansions indicate that they were occupied by Christians who filled leading administrative and economic offices in the province of Palaestina Prima and its capital city, Caesarea. The construction of mansions outside the limits of a fortified city is not characteristic of walled cities in late-Byzantine Palestine, and it seems that the case of Caesarea is unique.