Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 21, 2024

Boustan, the historian of Judaism, agrees, adding that the theme of Gods deliverance through human warriors in the face of foreign domination is something that comes across very strongly.

And yet, some generations after it was built, the synagogue was mysteriously abandoned. Given the regions long history of catastrophic seismic activity, its not hard to imagine an earthquake leaving the synagogue so damaged that it was thought to be unsafe even though it continued to stand. Eventually parts of the building collapsed, destroying sections of the mosaics. Another tremor may have delivered the final blow.

It wasnt burned. It wasnt taken apart, says Martin Wells, the projects architecture specialist from Austin College in Texas. My guess is an earthquake.

In any case, some 800 years after the synagogue was constructed, the region came to be ruled by the Mamluks, a Muslim dynasty based in Egypt. A Mamluk road, part of a network connecting Cairo and Damascus, ran right by the village and brought a flow of merchants and pilgrims. As the area became prosperous once again, the Jewish people who remained repaired the fifth-century synagogue while also expanding it and adding a thick, concrete-like basewhich, fortunately, protected the mosaics.

In a scene from the biblical Book of Judges, Samson has used his mighty strength to kill this shield-bearing Philistine soldier, who has collapsed on the ground. Two other scenes also celebrate the legendary leader.

Beginning in the 15th century, commercial traffic in the area slowed. The synagogue appears to have been abandoned again, and it gradually tumbled to the ground. So it remained until the archaeologists arrived.

(Read our original coverage, from 2015, of the mosaic's discovery.)

Twelve years after they first started digging, Magness and her team completed their fieldwork in the summer of 2023. The site remains backfilled to protect the mosaics and has been turned over to the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jewish National Fund to develop plans for tourism. IAA archaeologist Avni predicts this jewel in the crown of Israels cultural heritage will become one of its greatest attractions.

The digging may be done, but there is much excavated materialnow in storage in Jerusalemto be analyzed, and many mysteries remain to be solved, Magness says. My team and I will be coming back for years.

Photographer and National Geographic ExplorerPaolo Verzone lives in Italy and Spain. His images of the new Grand Egyptian Museum in the November 2022 issue were awarded first prize for science and natural history by Pictures of the Year International.

This story appears in the April 2024 issue of National Geographic magazine.

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An archaeologist suspected something special was buried here. She was right. - National Geographic

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