Bet She'an

The excavation of the Byzantine city of Bet She'an in Israel. The initial excavations were carried out between 1921 and 1933, and uncovered extensive remains from several eras of earlier occupation, including Canaanite and Hellenistic cities built on the site.

Town in Israel, at the southeastern end of the Plain of Jezreel (Esdraelon); population (1997) 15,000. Excavations begun here in 1921 have produced a complete history of the site from about the 16th century BC. A large Roman amphitheatre, with 5,000 seats in 15 tiers and nine exit gates, is now completely excavated. In Old Testament times the site was known as Betshan. Bet She'an was called Scythopolis in the New Testament and Bessan by the Arabs and Crusaders.

Relics hed at Bet She'an is a Canaanite temple, and a basalt tablet showing a lion and a dog representing Nergal, the god of death, and guardian of the temple. Other temples found point to Bet She'an as the centre of a serpent cult, and suggest that the name was derived from Shakhan, an early Mesopotamian serpent deity. Other finds, of types unknown elsewhere in Israel, include a large Graeco-Roman temple, various gravestones of Canaanite and Egyptian kings, and a circular Byzantine church.