The second finding is a lead weight with Greek inscriptions from the 23rd year of Agrippa II, referencing two agoranomoi, enabling its dating to either 71/2 or 82/3 CE.

--Gustaf Dalman[6]Magdala has been described as the "capital of a toparchy" and compared to Sepphoris and Tiberias in that it had "administrative apparatus and personnel" though not to the same extent.

The walls of the 120-square-metre (1,300 sq ft) main hall were decorated with brightly colored frescoes and inside was a stone block carved with a seven-branched menorah.

[12] In the 8th and 10th centuries CE, Christian sources write of a church in the village that was Mary Magdalene's house, where Jesus is said to have exorcised her of demons.

[12] The anonymously penned Life of Constantine attributes the building of the church to Empress Helena in the 4th century CE, at the location where she found Mary Magdalene's house.

[2] Christian pilgrims wrote of visiting the house and church of Mary Magdalene from the 6th century onward, but little is known about the village in the Mamluk and early Ottoman period, indicating it was likely small or uninhabited.

[19] Richard Pococke visited "Magdol" around 1740, where he noted "the considerable remains of an indifferent castle", which in his opinion was not the biblical Magdala.

[14][23][24] During his travels through Syria and Palestine in 1838, Edward Robinson described el-Mejdel, as he called it, "a miserable little Muslim village, looking much like a ruin, though exhibiting no marks of antiquity."

After the miraculous feeding of four thousand, which appears to have taken place in the country east of the lake, Jesus 'took ship and came into the coast of Magdala;' for which Mark the Evangelist writes Dalmanutha.

"[25] In his account of an expedition to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea in 1849, William Francis Lynch reports that it was "a poor village of about 40 families, all fellahin," living in houses of stone with mud roofs, similar to those in Tur'an.

[26] Arriving by boat a few years later, Bayard Taylor describes the view from path winding up from shoreline, "[...] through oleanders, nebbuks, patches of hollyhock, anise-seed, fennel, and other spicy plants, while on the west, great fields of barley stand ripe for the cutting.

The roof which was flat, consisted of trunks of trees placed across from one wall to another, and then covered with small branches, grass and rushes; over which a thick coating of mud and gravel was laid.

"[30] In 1881 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described al-Majdal as a stone-built village, situated on a partially arable plain, with an estimated population of about 80.

[33] The Jewish agricultural settlement of Migdal was established in 1910–1911 on land purchased by Russian Zionists Jews, 1.5 kilometers (0.93 mi) northwest of the village of Al-Majdal.

On the lakeshore about 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) south of the village, was a perforated black stone mentioned by Arab travellers in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

[39] Benny Morris writes that the inhabitants were persuaded by the headmen of [neighbouring Jewish] Migdal and Kibbutz Ginosar to evacuate their homes; the villagers were paid P£200 for eight rifles, ammunition and a bus they handed over.

The only remaining village landmark is the neglected shrine of Muhammad al-'Ajami, a low, square, stone structure topped by a formerly whitewashed dome.

"[14] In 1991, Petersen visited the maqam of Muhammad al-Ajami, describing it as a small square building with a shallow dome supported by squinches.

Albright) held that Tarichaea was to be recognised in the name Migdal (Magdala), admits that during the large archaeological excavations conducted at the site, no remains of fortifications or a destruction layer were found.

[18] Alfred Edersheim cites the Talmud as evidence for this naming practice, which describes several Rabbis as 'Magdalene' or residents of Magdala.

However, some Greek manuscripts give the name of the place as "Magadan", and more recent translations (such as the Revised Version) follow this (Matthew 15:39).

Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund suggested that Taricheae was to be identified with the nearby ruin, Khurbet Kuneitriah, between Tiberias and Migdal.

[45][58] At the beginning of the 20th century, R. Lendle, a German architect purchased some land from the Arab villagers to carry out excavations, but no reports were made of the findings.

[32] The remains of a church with an apse and a stone inscribed with a cross and the date 1389 were found near Birqat Sitti Miriam (Arabic: "The Pool of Our Lady Mary") on the Franciscan-owned grounds.

[12] Between 1971 and 1977 Magdala was partially excavated by Virgilio Canio Corbo and Stanislao Loffreda of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem.

[12][32] The excavations were hindered by the water from underground springs, as well as the destruction wrought by the bulldozing of the Arab village which pushed many ancient artifacts towards the sea.

[32] The mosaic of the Byzantine monastery was badly damaged, though part of the geometric and cross design of red, white, blue and ash-coloured stones could still be seen.

[60] Other artifacts discovered in the excavations of the 1970s include a needle and lead weights for repairing and holding down fishing nets, and numerous coins.

Another cache of coins found there contained 74 from Tyre, 15 from Ptolemais, 17 from Gadara, 14 from Scythopolis, 10 from Tiberias, 9 from Hippos, 8 from Sepphoris and 2 from Gaba.

[61] In 1991, during a period of severe drought, the waters of the Sea of Galilee receded and the remains of a tower with a base made of basalt pillars was revealed about 150 feet (46 m) from the shoreline.