Huqoq (Lower Galilee) and its synagogue mosaics: preliminary report on the excavations of 2011-13

Magness, Jodi; Kisilevitz, Shua; Britt, Karen; Grey, Matthew J.; Spigel, Chad

doi:10.1017/s1047759414001263

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…However, during the late medieval period an even larger monumental building was constructed directly on top of its remains, with a similar orientation, and reusing much of its earlier architectural elements (Magness et al 2018: 74-86). This later building, currently dated to the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries (Magness et al 2020; thereby revising 2018), reused the earlier synagogue's eastern and northern walls but was expanded to the south and west. The stylobate and pedestals were lifted from the earlier synagogue and incorporated into the floor of this building, which was a meter higher than that of the earlier synagogue.…”

Section: The Lingering Functionality Of Synagogue Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The publication is found here: https://doi.org/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.9.3.0278 20 tiered benches running along its outer walls (Magness et al 2018: 85). While the excavators earlier presumed that this later building was also used as a synagogue (Magness et al 2018: 85), recent evidence and insights have led them to question this functioning, and other possibilities remain open (Magness et al 2020).…”

Section: The Lingering Functionality Of Synagogue Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Huqoq synagogue site is primarily known for its unique pictorial program of the well-preserved mosaic floor of its fifth-century synagogue. See, e.g.,Magness et al 2014;Britt and Boustan 2017. …”

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confidence: 99%

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A Sustained Presence: Synagogue Buildings in Galilee during the Early Islamic Period and Later

Bonnie¹

2021

Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies

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The majority of archaeological studies on late antique monumental synagogues focus their discussion on the origin and production of these buildings, their decoration, and their use. How these buildings were used, experienced, and remembered in subsequent periods remains little explored. Following a building-biography approach, this article aims to explore how the building remains of synagogues in Galilee persisted into the early Islamic period and beyond, and what the physical state of these monuments and the small finds found within them tell us about how later communities used, viewed, and remembered these spaces. The article explores the remains of several synagogue sites in eastern Galilee using archaeological data, medieval Muslim and Jewish traveler accounts, and early modern depictions of ruins.

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Section: The Lingering Functionality Of Synagogue Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Lingering Functionality Of Synagogue Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Sustained Presence: Synagogue Buildings in Galilee during the Early Islamic Period and Later

Bonnie¹

2021

Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies

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“…Worth noting, however, are the surprising findings from Huqoq, whose floors may be among the most spectacular of any discovered in Roman Palestine: see Grey 2013: 553–89; Magness et al . 2014; Magness et al . 2016; Magness et al .…”

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confidence: 99%

Memory, Postmemory, and Place in the Synagogues of Roman Syria

Stern

2019

Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies

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Considerations of Jews in antiquity commonly emphasize the role of common institutions (such as the Jerusalem Temple) and shared traumatic experiences (such as exile) in generating distinctive modes of memory formation and memorialization. This paper takes a different approach. By drawing from recent discussions of memory and postmemory developed in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and visual studies, and by considering diverse data from wall paintings, ceiling decorations, inscriptions, graffiti, and mosaics, the ensuing analysis demonstrates how variegated were the practices and dynamics of memory among Jews living in Roman Syria and elsewhere. Asking different types of questions about memorial practices documented in synagogues and surrounding buildings in Dura-Europos and Apamea challenges regnant assumptions about commonalities in Jewish memory and argues for a more localized and spatial approach to Jewish memory practices, the dynamics of which were as personal as they were collective, and as particular as they were locally contingent.Syria, can assist efforts to triangulate more locally inflected insights into Jewish life and memory practices.Syria, in particular, offers a critical test-site for a contextual reconsideration of memory and memorial practices among ancient Jews, because archaeological evidence for regional Jewish populations remains relatively rich and abundant. 4 Only in Syrian Apamea, for instance, did excavators uncover the best-preserved synagogue floor from anywhere in the ancient Jewish diaspora as an intact mosaic carpet, replete with geometric designs and dedicatory inscriptions. 5 And only in the remarkably preserved town of Dura-Europos did excavators discover an ancient synagogue that retained its standing walls, decorated with narrative scenes interpreting the Hebrew Bible; an elaborate ceiling, whose tiles were painted with fanciful designs and commemorative inscriptions; and components of walls and doorways, encrusted with scores of memorial graffiti. In the case of Dura, moreover, exemplary preservation of neighbouring buildings ensures something commensurately unusual: an ability to examine how substantively did certain dimensions of local Jews' memory practices emerge from (and respond to) those of their immediate cultural environments.This paper argues that attention to certain images and texts from the Dura-Europos synagogue, when compared to examples from other Durene buildings and from synagogues in Apamea and elsewhere in the region, reveals how complex and localized certain aspects of ancient Jewish practices of memory and memorialization were, both regionally and chronologically. As such evaluations ultimately indicate, memory practices were neither uniform among Jews throughout ancient Syria, nor were they likely so elsewhere in antiquity. They were not, moreover, wholly or identically related to traumatic events of 'global' proportions, such as the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (70 ce). 6 Analysing identifiable epigraphic, architectural, and dec...

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“…586 Magness et al 2014;Britt and Boustan 2017;Magness et al 2018;Magness 2021. 587 Britt andBoustan 2017;Erlich 2018;Fine 2018;Gordon and Weiss 2018;Talgam 2018. 588 Magness et al 2018, pp.…”

Section: Placing the Magico-religious Coin Phenomenonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coin Deposits from Ancient Synagogues in Late Antique Palestine

Rassalle¹

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Tine Rassalle: Coin Deposits from Ancient Synagogues in Late Antique Palestine (Under the Direction of Jodi Magness)During archaeological excavations over the last century, fifty-seven separate coin deposits have been found in ancient synagogues from Late Antique Palestine and the Diaspora. This project provides an overview of these deposits, the buildings they were discovered in, and the specific coins they contained. Based on their archaeological contexts and an analysis of the Jewish religious and socio-economic circumstances of Late Antiquity, I argue that there are seven possible reasons for why these deposits were placed inside a synagogue building. This dissertation project gives an overview of these categories and explores the different economic and symbolic functions coins in sacred spaces could have had in ancient Jewish society. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIt is now time to thank everyone who helped me get to this point. First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my adviser, Dr. Jodi Magness. When I was looking for a PhD position somewhere in the world, it was Jodi who made it possible for me to come to UNC. Not only did she accept my application, she also secured the funds so that I could be here. There will never be enough words to express how much that meant to me. Second, my dissertation committee, Drs. Jennifer Gates-Foster, Evyatar Marienberg, Zlatko Pleše, and Nathan Elkins. Jennifer, thank you for always giving me honest and open feedback, even if it was difficult to hear. You made me a better scholar, critic, and colleague, and I'm confident your advice will forever help me in my career. Evyatar, thank you for taking the time to sit with me to ponder on this dissertation topic, and for your detailed feedback on my draft. Your notes made me feel confident in what I was doing and helped me to keep my eye on the target. Zlatko, thank you for the many hours together drinking coffee and reminiscing about Europe. One day I hope to visit you in Croatia! And last, Nathan, thank you for your numismatic insights and for your recommendation letter to the ANS. Without you, I would have never had the courage to start learning about ancient coins. Thank you all! The research for this dissertation was made possible through a number of grants and fellowships from the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, the Digital Innovation Lab, the Department of Religious Studies, and the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. If not for these institutes, I would have been unable to travel to Israel and collect v the data needed for this project. I am grateful for everything these organizations do for graduate students at

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Huqoq (Lower Galilee) and its synagogue mosaics: preliminary report on the excavations of 2011-13

Cited by 8 publications

References 9 publications

A Sustained Presence: Synagogue Buildings in Galilee during the Early Islamic Period and Later

A Sustained Presence: Synagogue Buildings in Galilee during the Early Islamic Period and Later

Memory, Postmemory, and Place in the Synagogues of Roman Syria

Coin Deposits from Ancient Synagogues in Late Antique Palestine

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