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Lili Eylon

The story has an unusual genesis. A routine aerial survey flight noted objects on the ground in the aftermath of a bush fire. While archaeologists Gideon Foerster and Ehud Netzer had already dug some test squares in the area in the mid-70’s, time and winds had all but covered them up.

What now emerged on the charred, blackened earth were large fragments of white stone columns, obviously ancient. The fire had highlighted the spectacular potential of the site. The Israel Antiquities Authority was quickly notified, and they, in turn, contacted Professor J. Andrew (Andy) Overman of the Classic Department of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Professor Overman applied for a preliminary license to survey and dig some test squares. And things began to roll.

Amir Drori, the military general who had fought on this very hill in 1967 had in the meantime become the director-general of the Israel Antiquities Authority (and has since resigned). During his presence in the Six Day War, it was destruction that was the unfortunate sign of the day. Amir Drori’s visit to the site this time signified discovery, research, preservation and protection of a remarkable Roman temple.

In July 2000, at the end of the second season, it was clear to all that the significant finds uncovered during the 6-week-long dig would justify many more seasons of excavating. The Macalester College team at this northernmost site in the Galilee was directed by Professor Andy Overman and included Associate Director archaeologist Jack Olive and 35 other participants from all parts of the United States and Canada.

The American archaeological team at the Omrit site were joined by Aaro Soderlund, a field architect from Finland. He serves as teacher and researcher at the Helsinki University of Technology and is an expert on Roman architecture in the Middle East. Soderlund helped to photograph, measure and draw the architectural fragments, as well as, based on these, form hypothetical reconstructions and their virtual models. 

Violence on the part of nature – probably one of the earthquakes occurring in the 4^th, 6^th and 8^th centuries – had sent the walls of a building tumbling down, smashing stones one upon another. And through the centuries all became weather eroded.

The Omrit site

These days, with the latest technological equipment, architectural fragments can be documented and visualized in real time in 3D; archaeologists need no longer wait for weeks or months before views of the discoveries become known to them. This permits them to respond to the visualization and check controversial points in the field instantly.

Soderlund, aided by his son Osku Soderlund, who works as a support person at a Helsinki firm dealing with CAD visualization, has already documented a dozen digs in the Mediterranean area.

The technological tools Soderlund brought along were Macintosh G3 Powerbook (12 Gb, 160 Mb,250MHz), ArchiCAD 6.5, a Sony Mavica 10x digital camera and a scanner.

To date some 400 architectural fragments have been located via about 1000 XYZ’s tachymeter soundings - these fragments include drums, cornices, friezes, plinths, capitals and beams – all entered into an archaeological GIS.

"We believe that our temple had eight Corinthian columns in the first phase, and 24 in the second; they measured 9m in height and 1m in width. You know," comments Soderlund," unlike other forms of architecture which are more or less free style, classical architecture - Greek, Hellenistic, Roman - is characterized by a logically systematic arrangement: for instance, when we find one column, we can assume there will be a corresponding part on the other side of the building."

First phase Temple - front

The building had once been a large luxurious Roman temple, built at first in the first century, and then enlarged in the second or third. The width of the building was some 20 meters, its length more than 25. Later, with a change of rulers in the country, the temple metamorphised into a Byzantine church. "The same stones and the very walls were recycled and used in different eras," says Aaro Soderlund, a specialist on classical architecture. "

It was evidence of an inner nave colonnade plus remnants of Byzantine church lamps which led the team to believe that a church had stood on this site. But what the researchers discovered was that instead of walls, only ditches appeared, making them think that these nave walls had been stolen and used to build the nearby still extant medieval fortresses.

First  phase Temple - back

This is how Soderlund describes his procedure at the site.

1. "First we locate fragments in the field with GPS and tachymeter to put into GIS.
   

Attican Base, one of architectural fragments

1. Second step is photographing them digitally and entering into a GIS picture bank.
   

2. Then in the field we measure and draw the fragments.
   

3. In the studio, the field drawings are inked, scanned and entered into GIS.
   

4. The relevant material is then compared with similar architectural fragments found, e.g. in Bet Shean, Israel and Jerash, Jordan." Further comparisons are made with images found on coins of Roman temples minted in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon as well as on paintings, mosaics, etc. "This is indirect evidence for dating and for obtaining information concerning missing parts."
   

5. Via CAD modeling of the architectural fragments, a library of 3D objects is created, with their elements put in proper order.
   

Square base

1. Then comes the in situ evidence – artifacts found still in their original location with wall lines and columns – this indicates the size and form of the building.
   

2. On the basis of all this we can now form a computerized hypothesis model. This hypothesis can change from day to day, as new finds are unearthed. The hypothesis layer is clearly marked from the evidence layer by a different color."
   

3. And there is another element - an old Roman named Vitruvius who in 25 BCE published 10 books on the theory of architecture. All these – Vitruvius’ classical theories, the picture bank, the 3D library, the hypothesis which may develop with each day’s new discoveries, the finds uncovered in the field - combine, during digging time, to make a temporary virtual model.

"With ArchiCAD 6.5 which is fully 3D, we can walk in the virtual model and change it as we walk in it," says Soderlund. "This makes it so much easier to refine complicated forms, such as those in a Corinthian capital."

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