Gabriel Mazor, Walid Atrash & Gerald Finkielsztejn, Bet She’an IV. Hellenistic Nysa-Scythopolis. The amphora stamps and sealings from Tel Iztabba

Abstract

The Hellenistic city of Nysa-Scythopolis was first founded as a fortress and administrative centre on the southern hill Tel Bet She’an by Ptolemy II Philadelphus and re-founded on the northern hill Tel Iztabba by Antiochus IV around 175–170 BCE. A conflagration during the Hasmonean war of 108/107 BCE destroyed the whole area. The Roman city was constructed 57–55 BCE in some distance south-east of the Hellenistic remains, so Tel Iztabba offers the precise terminus ante quem of 108/107 BCE for all finds. The conquest of the city is an important boundary within the chronology of Rhodian amphora stamps (end of period V/beginning of period VI) basic for absolute dating in Hellenistic times. The importance of the full publication of the stamps from this context is eminent, given that even a considerable number of excavations between 1940 and 2015 have uncovered a mere 5 % of the city area.