“The Clinic” and the “Avenue of the Apostles”

Overview

In 1999, excavators began focusing on uncovering the remains of the Hellenistic-Roman period courtyard house across the street from the Vintner’s House, which came to be dubbed “the Clinic” due to the sorts of finds it has yielded. These include small ceramic vessels like unguentaria, as well as fine metallic instruments such as scalpels and the like. The site also yielded a Roman military hammer, or dolabra, and a pure silver coin bearing the likeness of Alexander the Great. The residence is somewhat similar in size and construction to other assemblages in the residential quarter.

For a time, the Clinic was jokingly called Luke’s Clinic by student volunteers who knew the tradition about St. Luke being a physician, even though there is no evidence the Evangelist ever visited Bethsaida let alone resided there. The light-hearted humor continued when a road perpendicular to the Roman pavement above was found to break 90-degrees down the slope in front of the Clinic. The street, jokingly dubbed “Avenue of the Apostles,” because it would have been the shortest distance from the Fisherman’s House to putative docks at the mouth of the Jordan River, overlayed an earlier, Hellenistic-period street opening to a broad plaza. During the 2014-2016 seasons, a bracket-shaped niche was uncovered that faced the rising sun. Several Antiochus III coins were found close to the structure. It is likely the niche once housed a statue to Apollo, Antiochus III’s patron deity.