‘Wondrous’ Roman busts unearthed in ancient winepress in northern Israel

Archaeologists excavating near the coastal town of Binyamina recently unearthed two remarkably well-preserved marble busts from the ancient Roman period, hidden face-down in the pit of an ancient winepress, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.

The 1,700-year-old statues, possibly depicting prominent figures from the Greco-Roman world, may have been hidden due to fears that early Christians would destroy them, researchers said. The artifacts will be on public display at Tel Aviv’s MUZA – Eretz Israel Museum beginning this week.

The discovery of the two protomes – sculpted heads and upper torsos from the Roman period – was made three weeks ago, on the last day of an excavation funded by Israel Railways as part of a massive infrastructure project designed to double the coastal rail line between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

The project, known as the High-Speed Coastal Railway, will eventually allow trains to travel at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour and cut travel times between the two cities to about 30 minutes, IAA noted. Like many large construction projects in Israel, the railway expansion required extensive archaeological investigations before work could proceed.

The excavation uncovered a sprawling Byzantine-era wine-production complex with treading floors, filtration basins and collection pits for fermenting grape juice, Eliran Oren, one of the excavation’s directors, told The Times of Israel.

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“We found the types of things that we would normally find in a site like this: jars, coins strewn around, pieces of glass and metal,” said Oren, who directed the dig along with Avishag Reiss. “But on the last day of the dig, we found this very big surprise. The really big discoveries always turn up on the last day.”

The statues stand about 55 centimeters (22 inches) tall and weigh roughly 60 kilograms (132 pounds) each, Oren noted.

When workers told archaeologist Michael Sorotskin that they saw something sticking out of the ground, “there was a feeling that we were about to discover something that really shouldn’t be there,” Sorotskin said in a statement. “Suddenly, we saw that this was not the usual pottery — it was marble. Then, slowly, slowly, the two statues were revealed.”

“I’m still struggling to find the right words,” Sorotskin added. “It is simply wondrous.”

Historic mysteries

The circumstances surrounding the discovery raised several questions, including the question of who the images represent.

One protome bears a Greek inscription preserving the name of Lycurgus, a name that is recognized by historians of the era.

“One possibility is that this is Lycurgus of Sparta, the founder of the doctrine of education and military discipline for which Sparta is remembered,” Oren said. “But that’s a complicated thesis because historians only began mentioning him hundreds of years after he supposedly lived, so we don’t even know whether he was a real or fictional character.”

Another possibility is that the bust represents Lycurgus of Athens, a famed statesman and orator who lived in the 4th century BCE. It is possible that the statue will eventually prove to be one of these figures, but the research “is still in its early stages,” Oren said.

A second mystery concerns how the busts arrived in Binyamina hundreds of years after they were created.

While researchers dated the statues to the second or third century CE, during the height of Roman rule in the region, the winepress where they were found appears to have been constructed centuries later, Oren noted.

Most likely, the site was built during the Byzantine period, roughly between the fifth and seventh centuries CE, meaning the statues were already antiques when they were buried.

Both the statues and the winepress were dated using historical clues, Oren said. More precise dating technologies may be used at a later stage.

“These were probably valuable statues that were dear to their owners and preserved for several generations,” Oren said. Quite possibly, they were brought from nearby Caesarea, one of the region’s major Roman cities, he added.

Such statues were common in wealthy cities at that time, noted Peter Gendelman, an IAA specialist on the Caesarea region.

“During the Roman period, statues of this type were displayed both in public buildings and in the homes of the elite, who sought to connect themselves to the cultural and spiritual world of antiquity,” Gendelman explained in a statement. “Not far from the discovery site, remains of a bathhouse were previously uncovered, and it is possible that the statues decorated a luxurious villa of a Caesarea resident.”

A third question is why the statues were hidden in the winepress. The two figures were buried next to each other with their heads down, indicating that they were intentionally buried that way.

“We don’t know yet if it was due to fear of war, or theft, or conflicts that were being fought at the time between the Christian world and the pagan world,” Oren said.

By late antiquity, as Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, many pagan temples and monuments were being vandalized or destroyed, and statues associated with the Greco-Roman world were frequent targets, Oren noted.

“What is certain, however, is that the winepress and the statues are not from the same period,” he added. “Perhaps the owners buried them, hoping to come back and collect them at a later point when the situation got quieter. We still don’t know exactly.”

The statues will be unveiled for the first time at an archaeological conference this week at Tel Aviv’s MUZA – Eretz Israel Museum, and will be on public display at the museum throughout the summer months. After the initial display, the statues will undergo a process of cleaning, conservation, and further research, IAA said.