Bet She'an is a tel, or a city that has layers of civilization on top civilization. In this case there are 6 thousand years of different people living there, from the Chalcolithic (4th C. BCE), Canaanite, Israelite, Greek, Roman, Early Muslim, just to name a few. It is a fascinating place to walk around because you can see where the archaeological digging has uncovered where one group has literally built on top of another. For instance, the main avenue was Greek built and lined with columns and pools on either side. Then another group came and paved over the street and the mosaics, but you can see places where they show through. The Romans built public bathrooms where it appears that both men and women used them with no apparent division of the sexes. One guide came by and said that if an important person (I assume like a senator or business person) was having a meeting and had to go to the bathroom, they would walk the entire group to the bathroom and continue the meeting or lecture while sitting on the toilet. Now I don't know how true that was, but it was a funny story. The bathrooms consisted of marble posts coming out of the walls so that you could sit between them and do your business.
Come back later to this post, for I will upload some pictures when I get a chance (connection taking too long right now)
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