Introduction: A History of Gamla

As every history, that of Gamla draws from various sources and suffers shortcomings. The written sources, archaeology and even the personal experiences of the archaeologists at the site join forces to provide what might be termed—at best—a patchy and hazy glimpse of life at the site in antiquity, shedding quite a bit of light on certain periods and events and precious little on others. This history is also inevitably subjective. As is apparent in the efforts of the contributors to the volumes of the Gamla Excavations Final Report, heavy use is made of Josephus as a source with