59 RURAL GALILEE AND RAPID CHANGES (c) The excavations at Capernaum have painted a picture of a medium- to large-sized village consisting primarily of large liv- ing units. A public building was possibly found in the earliest stratum of the synagogue 51. (d) Likewise, at Gamla, evidence was found of differentiated living units with several public buildings. The synagogue might be the best known public building, but it was not the only one. A commercial neighborhood was also discovered, including a large olive oil ex- traction plant, a flour mill and a street of shops. Though Gamla was outside the perimeter of Antipas’ reign, the coins of Antipas outnum- bered those of Philip, and there is a good reason to believe that ac- tivity involving both areas took place 52. To sum up, this short ‘survey of excavations’ ― which of course needs to be enlarged with all material available, including the exciting new excavations currently taking place in rural Galilee ― provides us with another glimpse of the socio-economic pulse of rural Galilee. It is striking that the local villages and towns seemed to have been expanding and thriving in the same period as the two urban centers, namely Sepphoris and Tiberias, were also expanding. No general economic decline is attested. 5. Specialization and Commerce The issue of small-scale industrial activity is particularly worthy of further consideration, as a number of archaeologists have argued for a certain pattern and level of commerce on this basis. We will briefly discuss the findings of three of these archaeologists. Firstly, we have the seasoned Galilean archaeologist and excavator of Yodefat, Modechai Aviam, who argues in a recently published study that the inhabitants of this city “lived their lives between prosperity and simplicity, but not poverty” 53. He supports this claim by pointing to the finds of a “wealthy quarter”, a flour mill, an olive press, some luxurious artifacts, a very high number of clay loom weights indicating textile production and four pottery kilns. 51 Cf. e.g. A. RUNESSON, The origins of the synagogue: a socio-historical study (Coniectanea Biblica 37; Stockholm 2001) 182-184. 52 Cf. eg. D. SYON – Z. YAVOR, “Gamla 1997-2000”, ‘Atiqot 50 (2005) 1-35. 53 AVIAM, “Socio-economical”, 30.