Synagogue Complete
ID: 20
Building type: basilical synagogue
Context:
rural
Inscriptions:
Description:
The complex is laid out with three principal components: a rectangular main hall measuring 20.4 m by 18.65 m; an eastern courtyard that measures 11.25 m across its front; and a portico extending along the building’s principal frontage. The façade with the portico faced south, toward Jerusalem. Two inscriptions are attested: a Greek text incised on a column within the nave and an Aramaic text on a column situated in the courtyard. The chronology of the monument is contested. The first excavators, relying on architectural criteria, assigned it to the 2nd–3rd centuries CE. Later excavation campaigns led to a reassessment, placing it in Late Antiquity, with a terminus post quem in the late fifth century. Plan after Foerster 1971, p. 128. Courtesy of the Israel Exploration Society. © synagogues.kinneret.ac.il Further reading: - Lofreda, S., and V. Tzaferis. 1993. “Capernaum,” in E. Stern (ed.), New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, vol. 1, 291–296. - Magness, J. 2012. The Archaeology of the Holy Land: From the Destruction of Solomon’s Temple to the Muslim Conquest, Cambridge University Press, 308–309. - Milson, D. W. 2007. Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine: In the Shadow of the Church, Leiden, 335–336. - https://synagogues.kinneret.ac.il/synagogues/capernaum/