Hundreds of painted fresco fragments dating back to the second century C.E. were discovered by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in August 2016. Uncovered at the Tzipori National Park, the fragments depict a man holding a club, the head of a lion, horned animals, birds, and other basic images. Zeev Weiss, team director and professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, hailed the discovery as significant, because “it’s actually the first time that we know that they painted those figurative images. It’s kind of a revolution for them.” These images are rare, as Weiss explains, “we’ve been digging there for 35 years, and I have to say that most of the finds did not include figurative images.”
These paintings are the first, only, as well as earliest record of figurative images adorning walls at the excavation site. Similar depictions have been found in the walls of the palace of Herod Antipas in Tiberias.
