Synagogue Complete

ID: 195

Building type: unknown

Context:

urban/rural

Site:

Inscriptions:

300

Description:

Sukenik contested Ben‑Zvi’s proposed chronology, emphasizing that the piece’s stylistic features align with those of the synagogues at Kefar Bar’am and Nabratein in Galilee; on that basis, he assigned the inscription to the later Roman period. This view stood in contrast to Ben‑Zvi’s earlier interpretation, which associated the object with a twelfth‑century synagogue known from a medieval Samaritan source. The artifact itself was recorded in isolation, with no accompanying architectural remains. As for its publication history, Ben‑Zvi first issued a Hebrew report in 1935; in 1941 Taylor republished the inscription without knowledge of the preceding studies, prompting Ben‑Zvi later that year to respond and note both his own and Sukenik’s prior work. For further discussion, see: Barag, d. 2009. Samaritan writing and writings [in:] H. M. Cotton, R. G. Hoyland, J. J. Price, D. J. Wasserstein (eds), From Hellenism to Islam Cultural and Linguistic Change in the Roman Near East, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 314-315. Ben-Zevi, I., and Albright, W. F. 1941. “The Beit El-Mā Samaritan Inscription.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 84, 2–4. https://doi.org/10.2307/1355135. Taylor, W. R., and Albright, W. F. 1941 “A New Samaritan Inscription.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 81, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.2307/1355158.