Synagogue Complete
ID: 166
Building type: unknown
Context:
urban
Site:
Caesarea
Description:
Initial clues to a synagogue at this coastal site emerged in the 1920s, when a capital carved with a seven-branched menorah was recovered on the shoreline north of the Crusader-period settlement. Postwar investigations uncovered two superimposed mosaic pavements belonging to the synagogue. Later campaigns penetrated to archaeologically sterile deposits roughly 7 meters below the surface and identified five stratigraphic phases. The earliest activity (Stratum 1) comprised Hellenistic domestic construction. A subsequent phase (Stratum 2) may have preserved the first synagogue, tentatively dated to the reign of Herod, though this remains uncertain. In the next stage (Stratum 3) a Roman cistern was installed. A synagogue was then established in the third century (Stratum IV), set on a fill of debris. Measuring approximately 18 by 9 meters, it faced south and was entered from the short eastern elevation. Mosaic remains from this level include a dedicatory text naming Iulis and fragments of a Hebrew inscription listing the priestly courses. Adjacent to one of the synagogue walls, excavators found a cache of about 3,700 bronze coins, the vast majority minted under Constantius II (r. 337–361 CE). The deposit was likely concealed shortly before the building’s destruction around the mid-fourth century. In the mid-fifth century (Stratum V), a new synagogue rose on the ruins of its predecessor, possibly during a lull in persecutions in late Roman Palestine. This structure featured a long, narrow hall (approximately 11 by 2.6 meters) paved with white mosaic enlivened by some colored motifs. An inscription naming Beryllus, the archisynagogus, belongs to this phase. Additional epigraphic finds include a column inscription by Theodorus for the salvation of his daughter Matrona; two columns bearing seven-branched menorahs, one of them marked with the monogram of Patricius; and a marble slab with the name Marutha. The building certainly remained in use into the sixth century, with minor repairs perhaps extending into the seventh. No later occupation has been detected at the site. For further discussion: - Avi-Yonah, M. 1993. “The Caesarea synagogue.” The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, 278–280. - CIIP II, Caesarea, Synagogue inscriptions, 54–55. - Milson, D. W. 2007. Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine: In the Shadow of the Church, Leiden, 332–334. https://synagogues.kinneret.ac.il/synagogues/caesarea/