The Synagogue of Apamea

 

The synagogue was identified in 1934 during the Fourth Season of excavations by the Mission archéologique belge under the directorship of Fernand Mayence.

The first indication of a synagogue emerged with the discovery of a mosaic floor at a depth of approximately 1.50 meters. The mosaic, which was in a perfect state of preservation, carried a Greek inscription (1) relating to a donation by a "ruler of the synagogue of the Antiochians" of part of the pavement on January 7, 703, of the Seleucid era (392 CE). In the course of the season and subsequent campaigns, it became clear that two consecutive churches shared hallowed ground with the synagogue in the 5th and 6th centuries; the churches were built directly over the smaller 4th-century synagogue, which was merged with the larger ecclesiastical structure.

The Belgian excavation reports were destroyed in two separate fires at the Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels, in 1944 and 1946. Nonetheless, we should be grateful that, two years before the calamity, Eleazer Sukenik of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, published the plan of the mosaic floor.

The attached photograph represents a specimen of the floor mosaic currently held at the National Museum of Damascus; it features another Greek inscription translated as follows: “Eupithis, having made a vow for the welfare of herself and her husband and her children and all her household, made the place." 

1. άρχισυνάγωγος των Άντιοχέων

Adapted from Adam Blitz. Ghosts of Apamea in The Times of Israel (April 28, 2014).