thumb|Aerial view of Sepphoris, 2013
thumb|Remains of Crusader/Ottoman tower in Sepphoris, 1875. Note doorway rebuilt under Daher al-Umar.
right|thumb|200px|The same Crusader/Ottoman tower after rebuilding. The upper part was used as a school from the early 1900s until 1948.
Sepphoris ( ; ), known in Hebrew as Tzipori ( Ṣīppōrī) ( ), is one of the most excavated and studied archaeological sites in Israel. Over time, the site was home to many civilizations. It was a Jewish city during classical antiquity, and was the epicenter of second century Jewish life. In the modern era it was the Palestinian town of Saffuriya, which was the second largest in the Nazareth Subdistrict after Nazareth itself.
Sepphoris is located in central Galilee, north-northwest of Nazareth. It lies above sea level and overlooks the Beit Netofa Valley. The site holds a rich and diverse historical and architectural legacy that includes remains from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods.
Sepphoris was a significant town in ancient Galilee. Originally named for the Hebrew word for bird, the city was also known as Eirenopolis and Diocaesarea during different periods of its history. In the first century CE, it was a Jewish city, the home of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–135, Sepphoris was one of the Galilean centers where rabbinical families from neighboring Judea relocated. In late antiquity, Sepphoris appears to have been predominantly Jewish, serving as a spiritual and cultural center, though it also housed a Christian bishopric and maintained a multi-ethnic population. Remains of a synagogue dated to the first half of the fifth century were discovered on the northern side of town.
Since late antiquity, Sepphoris was believed to be the birthplace of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the original village where Saints Anna and Joachim are often said to have resided, where today a fifth-century basilica is excavated at the site honouring the birth of Mary. The town was later conquered by Arab Rashidun forces during the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant and remained under successive Muslim rule until the Crusades. Before the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Saffuriya was a Palestinian Arab village with a population of approximately 5,000 people at the time of its depopulation. Moshav Tzippori was established adjacent to the site in 1949. It falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council, and in had a population of .
thumb|"Mona Lisa of the Galilee", 4th-century Roman mosaic in Sepphoris
The area where the remains of the ancient city have been excavated, occupied until 1948 by the Arab village, was designated an archaeological reserve named Tzipori National Park in 1992. Notable structures at the site include a Roman theatre, two early Christian churches, a Crusader fort partly rebuilt by Daher al-Umar in the 18th century, and over sixty different mosaics dating from the third to the sixth century CE.
Names
Zippori / Tzipori; Sepphoris
In Ancient Greek, the city was called Sepphoris from its Hebrew name Tzipori, understood to be a variant of the Hebrew word for bird, tzipor – perhaps, as a Talmudic gloss suggests, because it is "perched on the top of a mountain, like a bird".
The name of the city changed during the years (see below sections), but during the Trajan's reign the city had again the name Sepphoris as we can see from the city's coins that bore the inscription "ΣΕΠΦΩΡΗΝΩΝ" ("of the people of Sepphoris").
Autocratoris
Herod Antipas named it Autocratoris (Αὐτοκρατορίδα). Autocrator in Greek means Imperator and it seems that Antipas named the city after the imperial title to honor the Augustus.
Eirenopolis and Neronias
Sepphoris issued its first coins at the time of the First Jewish War, in c. 68 CE, while Vespasian's army was reconquering the region from the rebels. The inscriptions on the coins are honouring both the emperor in Rome, Nero (r. 54–68), and his general, Vespasian, as they read "ΕΠΙ ΟΥΕϹΠΑΙΑΝΟΥ ΕΙΡΗΝΟΠΟΛΙϹ ΝΕΡΩΝΙΑ ϹΕΠΦΩ" meaning 'Under Vespasian, 'Eirenopolis-Neronias-Sepphoris'. and polis is a city). Pancracio Celdrán interprets this name choice as the result of the city's cultural synthesis between three elements – Jewish faith, moderated by the exposure to Greek philosophy and made more tolerant than other, more fanatic contemporary orthodox Jewish places, and a pragmatism which suited the Roman ideology. Celdrán notes that the name Sepphoris was reinstated before the end of Antoninus Pius's rule. This gesture was done in honour of the visiting Roman emperor and his identification with Zeus Olympias, reflected in Hadrian's efforts in building temples dedicated to the supreme Olympian god. Celdrán notes that the name Sepphoris was reinstated before the end of Antoninus Pius's rule.
History
thumb|right|200px|A map of ancient [[Galilee. The Historical Atlas by William Shepherd, circa 1923.]]
thumb|Crusader fortress and Roman amphitheater
Canaanite and Israelite Zippori in Hebrew Bible, Mishnah, Talmud
The Hebrew Bible makes no mention of the city, although in Jewish tradition it is thought to be the city Kitron mentioned in the Book of Judges (1:30 ).
According to Mishna 'Arakhin 9:6, the old fortress of Zippori was encompassed by a wall during the era of Joshua.
Iron Age findings
Evidence from ceramic remains indicates the site of Sepphoris was inhabited during the Iron Age, 1,000–586 BCE.
Hellenistic period; Hasmoneans
Actual occupation and building work can be verified from the 4th century BCE, with the Hellenistic period.
Roman and Byzantine periods
It appears that Sepphoris remained predominantly Jewish through late antiquity. Herod seemingly built a royal palace-fortress that doubled as an arsenal, likely positioned within the acropolis enclosed by the city's wall.
After Herod's death in 4 BCE, a rebel named Judas, son of a local bandit, Ezekias, attacked Sepphoris, then the administrative center of the Galilee, and, sacking its treasury and weapons, armed his followers in a revolt against Herodian rule. Antipas expanded upon Herod's palace/arsenal, and built a city wall. The new population was loyal to Rome.
Maurice Casey writes that, although Sepphoris during the early first century was "a very Jewish city", some of the people there did speak Greek. A lead weight dated to the first century bears an inscription in Greek with three Jewish names. Several scholars have suggested that Jesus, while working as a craftsman in Nazareth, may have travelled to Sepphoris for work purposes, possibly with his father and brothers. The Jerusalemite Josephus, a son of Jerusalem's priestly elite had been sent north to recruit the Galilee into the rebellion's fold, but was only partially successful. He made two attempts to capture Sepphoris, but failed to conquer it, the first time because of fierce resistance, the second because a garrison came to assist in the city's defence. Around the time of the rebellion Sepphoris had a Roman theater, and in later periods, bath-houses and mosaic floors. Rejected by Sepphoris and forced to camp outside the city, Josephus went on to Jotapata, which did seem interested in the rebellion, – the Siege of Yodfat ended on 20 July 67 CE. Towns and villages that did not rebel were spared and in Galilee they were the majority. Coins minted in the city at the time of the revolt carried the inscription Neronias and Eirenopolis, "City of Peace". After the revolt, coins bore depictions of laurel wreaths, palm trees, caduceuses and ears of barley.
George Francis Hill and Peter Schäfer consider that the city's name was changed to Diocaesarea in 129/30, just prior to the Bar Kokhba revolt, in Hadrian's time. Before moving to Tiberias by 220, some Jewish academies of learning, yeshivot, were also based there. Galilee was predominantly populated by Jews from the end of the 2nd century to the 4th century CE.
As late as the third-fourth centuries, Sepphoris is believed to have been settled by one of the twenty-four priestly courses, Jedayah by name, a course mentioned in relation to the town itself in both the Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit 4:5) and in the Caesarea Inscription. Others, however, cast doubt about Sepphoris ever being under a "priestly oligarchy" by the third century, and that it may simply reflect a misreading of Talmudic sources.
Aside from being a center of spiritual and religious studies, it developed into a busy metropolis for commerce due to its proximity to important trade routes through Galilee. Hellenistic and Jewish influences seemed blended together in daily town life while each group, Jewish, pagan and Christian, maintained its distinct identity.
In the aftermath of the Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus of 351–352, Diocaesarea, the epicenter of the revolt, was razed. Philostorgius, speaking of these times, wrote: "The Jews of Diocæsarea (Sepphoris) also took up arms and invaded Palestine and the neighboring territories, with the design of shaking off the Roman yoke. On hearing of their insurrection, Gallus Caesar, who was then in Antioch, sent troops against them, defeated them, and destroyed Diocæsarea." Diocaesarea was further affected by the Galilee earthquake of 363, but rebuilt soon afterwards, and retained its importance in the greater Jewish community of Galilee, both socially, commercially, and spiritually.
thumb|Ancient water system
Towards the end of the 4th century, church father Epiphanius described Sepphoris as predominantly Jewish, a view strongly supported by rabbinic literature, which sheds lights on the town's sages and synagogues. As a diocese that is no longer residential, it is listed in the Annuario Pontificio among titular sees.