A note from Tamar Lasson Weissman.
Shalom R' Bechhofer.
Listening to your audio shiur on Yerushalmi Rosh HaShanah 11b and your suggestion that since Tzfat didn't exist as such in the Mishnaic/Talmudic era, we should read it צפה/צפת as a translation of חמיין. I just came across some archaeological sources (one is a mosaic floor in a 5-6th c BK in Caesarea and the other is an inscribed pillar from a BK in Teiman) that both list the exile to the Galil of the כ״ד משמרות הכהונה, and specify that פשחור was in צפת. Maybe this is evidence of a small village called Tzfat even that early on, which would provide for a different reading of the Yerushalmi.
I'm attaching a photo of the Caesarea mosaic. It's 12 lines in -- you'll notice that the other villages mentioned are all in the same vicinity. Anyway, food for thought and thank you for making your shiurim accessible.
Oh, and one more interesting note about dating Tzfat: in citadel excavations, they found an Alexander Yannai coin (not that that itself indicates that Tzfat existed, or by that name, in the era of the Hasmonean kings). Such an interesting topic!
One additional detail:
Josephus writes that fortified "צפף" against the Roman onslaught, but to no avail.
Also perhaps indicates a Galil צפת.
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