Eshtemoa synagogue

Eshtemoa Synagogue
Hebrew: אשׁתמע
Religion
AffiliationJudaism (former)
RegionHebron Hills (Daroma)
Ecclesiastical or organisational status
StatusRuins
Location
Locationas-Samu, West Bank
CountryState of Palestine
Location of the former ancient synagogue in the West Bank
Coordinates31°24′03″N 35°04′01″E / 31.400792°N 35.067075°E / 31.400792; 35.067075
Architecture
TypeBroadhouse
Completed4th–5th century CE
Eshtemoa synagogue
Ruins of the Eshtemoa site in 1975
Site notes
Excavation dates1935–36, 1969–70
Archaeologists

The Eshtemoa synagogue is an ancient Jewish synagogue, dating from the late-Roman and Byzantine periods, uncovered in the modern town of as-Samu' (ancient Eshtemoa) in the southern Hebron Hills of the West Bank, Palestine.

The synagogue is a rectangular building oriented roughly east-west, with an eastern exedra. Three entrances in the east wall lead from the exedra into a single large prayer hall. Inside, the northern wall is especially massive and incorporates three elevated niches: a central, wider niche flanked by two narrower ones. Benches of ashlar stone run along much of the northern and southern walls, and both the exedra and the hall were paved with mosaic floors, including a decorated pavement.

During the Islamic era the synagogue was converted into a mosque. The site was excavated in 1935–36 and 1969–70.

Archaeological research

The ancient synagogue came to light in modern As-Samu, today a Palestinian Arab town generally identified with Eshtemoa, the Levitical city of Judah mentioned in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Samuel.[1] Eusebius, a Christian bishop writing in the late Roman period, describes Eshtemoa as a large Jewish village.[2] Scholars had long suspected the presence of a synagogue there, thanks to early travellers who noted carved stones bearing menorahs and other Jewish motifs reused in village homes, though the exact spot remained uncertain until the 1930s.[3]

In November 1934 Leo Aryeh Mayer and Adolf Reifenberg surveyed as-Samu to search for the location of a synagogue. At the highest point in the village they identified the standing remains of a wall. After delays due to a reluctant landowner, Mayer and Reifenberg began excavations in late 1935 and work was curtailed in 1936 due to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. A part remained inaccessible due to the presence of houses that had been built on the site after the synagogue had fallen out of use.[4] They established the layout of the synagogue and described, among other features, a recessed niche 2.08 metres (6 ft 10 in) above ground level in one of the walls that the excavators interpreted as well have held the Torah ark.[5] A much fuller exposure of the building followed in 1969–70, when Ze'ev Yeivin directed a systematic excavation that removed later additions and domestic structures in order to reveal the original synagogue more completely.[6]

Architecture and description

The synagogue at Eshtemoa was a rectangular building and measured 17.0 by 27.5 metres (55.8 by 90.2 ft) externally.[7] It is a "broad-house" type, which is uncommon amongst synagogues in Palestine.[8][9] The western wall is the best preserved part of the synagogue and in the 1930s stood to a height of 8.35 m (27 ft).[10] The synagogue had an open-fronted porch or exedra on the eastern side, approached by three broad steps.[3] These steps were constructed directly over an earlier paved roadway, showing that the synagogue was built after the road and aligned independently of it.[3][2] Two large stone pillars flanked the porch, and column bases found on the upper step indicate that a row of columns once supported its roof.[3] Portions of a mosaic floor survive in this area, including the remains of a dedicatory inscription in Aramaic in which a donor, Eleazar the priest, and his sons are commemorated.[3] It is one of several synagogues from the same era found in this region, alongside the examples of Susiya, Maon, and 'Anim.[11][12]

Three doorways in the eastern façade led from the porch into the main hall, with the central entrance significantly wider than the flanking ones.[3] These openings, framed by carved mouldings, do not lead into aisles but into a single broad interior space. This arrangement is considerably different from the multi-aisled plan in some northern synagogues as documented in Galilee.[3] The eastern wall was built of large, well-cut ashlar blocks, and later alterations, probably after the synagogue had ceased functioning, closed the two smaller entrances and narrowed the central one using reused masonry.[3]

Inside, the building was designed without interior columns; its roof was instead carried by exceptionally thick walls, particularly the northern one.[3] Set into the middle of that northern wall are three elevated niches, including a large central recess with two smaller ones on either side.[3] A raised platform or bema, now largely destroyed, projected from the base of these niches into the hall. Four seven-branched menorahs were discovered carved onto door lintels and one of them is displayed in Jerusalem's Rockefeller Museum.[13] Remains of marble menorahs were also found, indicating that the central niche once held the Torah ark while the side niches likely supported menorah stands, an arrangement known from other Judean synagogues.[6] Along the northern and southern walls of the synagogue were built two long benches, one on top of the other, of which only remnants remain.[6]

The main hall originally had a mosaic floor, though only patches survive today.[6][2] These include areas of geometric decoration and sections paved with larger white tesserae, probably representing later repairs.[6] The southern side of the hall underwent significant alteration when the building was converted into a mosque after the Muslim conquest of the Levant, with the installation of a semicircular mihrab (Niche in a mosque indicating the direction of prayer) and internal partition walls that divided the space into multiple rooms.[6]

Later history

Islamic era

During Muslim rule the synagogue was converted into a mosque and a mihrab was added in its southern wall. There are several theories when the conversion took place. Mayer and Reifenberg who excavated the site suggested the Umayyad period; local tradition holds that it happened during Saladin's rule in the 12th century;[14] and scholar Robert Schick suggests that the conversion may have taken place in the 10th century.[15]

A Crusader church was constructed near the eastern side of the synagogue in the 12th century.[6]

Modern era

Many architectural elements of the building have been reused in the modern village.[16]

Following the Six-Day War in 1967 Israel occupied the West Bank. Excavations followed at Eshtemoa in 1968 and 1970,[17] and later buildings on the site were removed.[18] In 2024, the synagogue was the targeted in an arson attack. Local settler activists described it as an attempt to "erase the site's Jewish identity".[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Yeivin, Ze’ev (2004). "The Synagogue at Eshtemoa' in Light of the 1969 Excavations". 'Atiqot (in Hebrew). 48 (1): 59*. doi:10.70967/2948-040X.2222. ISSN 2948-040X.
  2. ^ a b c Negev, Avraham Negev; Gibson, Shimon (July 2005). Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 167–168. ISBN 978-0-8264-8571-7. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Yeivin, Ze’ev (2004). "The Synagogue at Eshtemoa' in Light of the 1969 Excavations". 'Atiqot (in Hebrew). 48 (1). doi:10.70967/2948-040X.2222. ISSN 2948-040X.
  4. ^ Mayer, L. A.; Reifenberg, A. (1939). "The Synagogue of Eshtemoa - Preliminary Report" (PDF). Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society. 19: 315–316. OCLC 873183425.
  5. ^ Mayer, L. A.; Reifenberg, A. (1939). "The Synagogue of Eshtemoa - Preliminary Report" (PDF). Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society. 19: 319–320. OCLC 873183425.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Amit, David (n.d.). "es-Samua'". In Ben-Yosef, Sefi (ed.). Israel Guide - Judaea (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country) (in Hebrew). Vol. 9. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, in affiliation with the Israel Ministry of Defence. pp. 146–149. OCLC 745203905.
  7. ^ Yeivin, Ze’ev (2004). "The Synagogue at Eshtemoa' in Light of the 1969 Excavations". 'Atiqot (in Hebrew). 48 (1): 63*. doi:10.70967/2948-040X.2222.
  8. ^ Mayer, L. A.; Reifenberg, A. (1939). "The Synagogue of Eshtemoa - Preliminary Report" (PDF). Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society. 19: 319–320. OCLC 873183425.
  9. ^ Negev, Avraham; Gibson, Shimon, eds. (2001). Archaeological encyclopedia of the Holy Land. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-8264-8571-7.
  10. ^ Mayer, L. A.; Reifenberg, A. (1939). "The Synagogue of Eshtemoa - Preliminary Report" (PDF). Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society. 19: 316. OCLC 873183425.
  11. ^ Werlin, Steven H. (2015). Ancient synagogues of Southern Palestine, 300-800 C.E.: living on the edge. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-29840-8. OCLC 918997476. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  12. ^ Amit, David (1998), "Architectural Plans of Synagogues in the Southern Judean Hills and the 'Halakah'", Ancient Synagogues, Volume 1, Brill, pp. 129–156, doi:10.1163/9789004532359_013, ISBN 978-90-04-53235-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  13. ^ Yarden, Léon (1971). The tree of light: a study of the Menorah, the seven-branched lampstand. East and West Library. p. 151. ISBN 9780852222805. Retrieved 29 September 2010 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Yeivin, Ze’ev (2004). "The Synagogue at Eshtemoa' in Light of the 1969 Excavations". 'Atiqot (in Hebrew). 48 (1): 73*. doi:10.70967/2948-040X.2222. ISSN 2948-040X.
  15. ^ Schick, Robert (1995). The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule: A Historical and Archaeological Study. Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 2. Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press.
  16. ^ Greenberg, Raphael; Keinan, Adi (2009). Israeli Archaeological Activity in the West Bank 1967-2007: A Sourcebook (PDF). Ostracon. p. 136. ISBN 978-965-91468-0-2.
  17. ^ Greenberg, Raphael; Keinan, Adi (2009). Israeli Archaeological Activity in the West Bank 1967-2007: A Sourcebook (PDF). Ostracon. pp. 4–5, 136. ISBN 978-965-91468-0-2.
  18. ^ Yeivin, Ze’ev (2004). "The Synagogue at Eshtemoa' in Light of the 1969 Excavations". 'Atiqot (in Hebrew). 48 (1): 62*. doi:10.70967/2948-040X.2222. ISSN 2948-040X.
  19. ^ Sharon, Jeremy (26 September 2024). "Fire targets synagogue in southern West Bank. Settler activists call it terrorist hate crime". The Times of Israel.

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