Abstract
Situated along the central Levantine coast, Herod the Great’s city of Caesarea Maritima stood as a Roman beacon on the Judean shore (fig. 15.1). Mithraism was one of an array of cults identified within the city. The cult complex is, to date, the only mithraeum excavated within the modern borders of Israel. The discovery and excavation of the mithraeum under the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima (JECM) began in the summer of 1971, with excavations conducted in 1973 and 1974. In the area south of the Herodian harbor along the seaside, several large sand dunes designated as Field C included