The ancient city of Sebastia, known in biblical times as Shomron (Samaria), served as the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. Although its ruins are in the Israeli-controlled portion of the West Bank, the adjacent Arab village is under the control of the PA. As a result, excavations there are stalled. Due to security concerns, Israel allows tourists to visit only a few days each year, while the PA avoids any mention of the city’s biblical connections. Ilan Ben Zion writes:
Fragments of houses, walls, and a palace from the Iron Age remain [in Sebastia]. After its destruction by the Assyrians in 721 BCE, the city became the provincial capital of the conquered region. Under the Greeks it again flourished, but was destroyed by Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus. Then his son Alexander Jannaeus rebuilt the city and repopulated it with Jews.
During the Roman era, King Herod renamed it after Augustus Caesar—sebaste is the Greek equivalent of “Augustus.” At its height, Sebastia was a major city and entrepôt; the remains of its Roman theater, temple, palaces, forum, hippodrome, and marketplace are still visible today.
In the centuries of its long decline, Sebastia was a major Christian site, as underlined by the ruins of a Byzantine church dedicated to John the Baptist, where legend says he was executed and his head interred. . . .
The PA’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ brochure avoids any mention of Israel or a Jewish connection to the site. It notes that Sebastia was “an important administrative and political regional capital during the Iron Age II and III” and was “a major urban center during the Hellenistic period,” but makes no reference to the Israelite Kingdom or the Hasmoneans.
Read more on Times of Israel: http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-ancient-israels-capital-politics-and-neglect-squelch-historical-resonance/