Two
synagogue sites have been excavated at Hammat Tiberias. The context in which they were built is that Tiberias became the seat of the
Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court of religious law, from 193 CE to the late 4th century, when Emperor
Theodosius I prohibited its activity.
Hammath Tiberias North The first synagogue was discovered on the lake shore, the site being now covered by a hotel. It was uncovered in 1921 by
Nachum Slouschz who was working under the sponsorship of the
Jewish Palestine Exploration Society (JPES) and the
Department of Antiquities, was a watershed event in the history of
archaeology in the Land of Israel as the first archaeological dig conducted under Jewish auspices. Synagogue A, as it is known to archaeologists, stood on the shore of the
Sea of Galilee, some 500 metres north of the city's south wall. The synagogue had the shape of a square basilical hall with a courtyard. a 4th-century synagogue (boasting the famous mosaic floor), apparently destroyed by an early-5th-century earthquake; and a much larger synagogue built in the 5th-6th centuries above the older one, and eventually destroyed in the 8th century. and a group of Greek inscriptions flanked by two lions. Next to the Torah shrine in the first panel are also other Jewish ritualistic objects: two of the
four species of plants (the
lulab and
ethrog), the
shofar horn, and
incense shovel. Nine of the 12
zodiac signs in the second panel survived intact. The signs are arranged counterclockwise, with four women symbolizing the manifestation of the four seasons in nature in the corners.
Libra is represented by a nude male uncircumcised figure, which led to speculations that the artist was not Jewish. Helios is driving his
quadriga and holding the celestial sphere and a whip. The large inscription from the third panel mention names are of donors and consists of nine squares, two of which are dedicated to one major contributor: "Severus, the pupil of the most illustrious Patriarchs, has made this blessing. Amen." The "patriarchs" seem to be the Jewish community leaders. However, all the personal names in the inscriptions are Greek. This fact, along with the depiction of the Greek god Helios and the naked figures, are not unique to this ancient synagogue and seem to indicate a degree of self-confident cohabitation of Judaism with pagan Hellenistic cultures. The name Severus occurs several times in the inscriptions, which lead the excavators to name the building the "Synagogue of Severus". ==See also==