Diaspora Synagogues of the Roman Empire
DIASPORA SYNAGOGUES
The Dura Europos Synagogue and the Sardis Synagogue are examples of a Jewish architectural style known as the Diaspora Synagogue, referring to the synagogues built in the provinces of the Roman Empire. A dynamic and underrecognized architectural tradition, Diaspora Synagogues share many similarities in interior/exterior architecture, as well as where they were located in their surrounding cityscapes. Despite the common scholarly characterization of Diaspora synagogues as being stylistically varied in their architecture, the buildings have much in common with each other. Most Diaspora synagogues were located centrally in their surrounding townscapes and many served as the heart of their respective communities. In the Greco-Roman world, Diaspora synagogues were united against the Greek temple model of worship, the religions of which were primarily sacrifice-oriented. Instead of temples that were dedicated to housing the cult statue of a god and providing the backdrop for ritual sacrifices, synagogues were centers of communal religious worship and celebration. The erection of most Diaspora synagogues can be located within a specific chronological period – the third and fourth centuries CE – during which the most major construction work occurred. The majority of extant synagogal inscriptions can be affirmatively dated to this period as well, which indicates that these centuries represented the temporal birth of a recognizable style of Diasporic synagogal architecture. This style primarily consisted of a complex of rooms and spaces surrounding a main congregational hall, mirroring some elements of Greco-Roman temple architecture. Many Diaspora synagogues housed fountains or other water elements, possibly suggesting that they were used as mikvaot (Jewish ritual baths), although little textual evidence exists to affirm this.
Dura Europos Synagogue – Dura Europos, Syria
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Dura Europos (or Dura-Europos) Synagogue is a third-century C.E. Diaspora Synagogue built in Dura Europos, Syria under the Roman Empire. Controlled by myriad powers before and after its Roman annexation, Dura Europos was a city of immense cultural and linguistic diversity. Artifacts found at the site span hundreds of years, many languages, and distinct cultures. Very little temporal evidence remains, but scholars surmise that Roman occupation of Dura Europos may have begun as early as 165 CE. Many pagan temples (specifically for the Roman military) were built in Dura Europos under Roman rule, as was the city’s synagogue, rebuilt in 244/245 CE. Although the time period during which the synagogue was active was relatively short – it was buried and abandoned as a part of Rome’s defense against incoming Sasanian troops in 256 CE – what remained when it was officially uncovered in 1932 provided evidence of a dynamic Jewish community in the ancient Syrian city, and an important example of Diaspora Synagogue architecture. The excavation of the synagogue, and the discovery of its figural wall paintings, further proved the existence of a complex Jewish iconographic tradition.
FORMAL QUALITIES
The Dura Europos Synagogue was located on the periphery of the city of Dura Europos, Syria, most likely due to the structure’s original use as a private residence. The synagogue was situated directly adjacent to the House of the Roman Scribes and up the street from the Christian Building, suggesting the existence of a community of minority monotheistic religions in the majority pagan city. Both the design and plan of the synagogue reflect a combination of Mesopotamian and Diasporic temple architecture. The building’s plan was oriented to the west, towards Jerusalem, and was eventually expanded to create a complex of rooms organized around a central courtyard. The mud-brick and stone synagogue uncovered by archaeologists was much larger than the original, with an expanded assembly hall – with an aedicula for the Aron Kodesh centered on the western wall, facing Jerusalem – and an open courtyard on axis with the hall’s new entrance. The peristyle courtyard and aedicular Aron Kodesh evoked the pagan temples of imperial Rome, such as the Temple of Bel built by Romans in Dura Europos. The assembly hall’s inner walls were lined with benches for communal prayer towards the Aron Kodesh and its adjacent bimah. The clear focus of the synagogue’s plan was to encourage community assembly and collective celebration of the Jewish religion.
Wall Paintings
The four walls of the assembly room were covered in panels of these paintings done in a unique style found elsewhere in Dura, with frontal and isocephalic depictions of biblical characters. The Aron Kodesh on the western wall was likewise ornately painted with a representation of the Temple of Solomon with the Ark of the Covenant inside. The image of the Temple is likely symbolic due to its depiction as a traditional Roman temple, with Corinthian columns supporting a decorative architrave; the Aron Kodesh is similarly portrayed as a Roman post-and-lintel structure. Surrounding the image of the Temple are multiple emblematic images representing objects important to Jewish religious ceremonies and holidays – a menorah, an etrog, and a lulav.
Reason for Inclusion
The discovery of the Dura Europos Synagogue four years after the excavation of the Beth Alpha Synagogue in Israel further evidenced that the Second Commandment ban on figural imagery did not inhibit the creation of figural iconographic ornamentation in Jewish synagogues. Furthermore, the synagogue can be easily added to an art historical survey course curriculum, to be taught alongside other structures from the Roman Empire.
Sardis Synagogue – Sardis, Turkey
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Sardis Synagogue is a Diaspora Synagogue built in the third century C.E. in the ancient city of Sardis, Turkey, under the Roman Empire. This synagogue is thought to be the largest synagogue ever discovered in the “ancient world,” capable of accommodating one thousand worshippers. The size of the Sardis synagogue alone hints at its importance in the ancient Jewish world, but several other elements contribute to its grandeur and singularity in the “canon” of ancient synagogal architecture.
FORMAL QUALITIES
The monumental Sardis Synagogue was, like many Diaspora Synagogues, adapted from a previously existing structure into a Jewish worship space. The size of the synagogue is due to the building’s original use as a Roman basilica with a colonnaded row of shops; the space is thought to have been built as a bath-gymnasium complex. Similar to other Diaspora Synagogues, albeit with a major difference in scale, the synagogue did comprise several buildings; the entrance alone was a twenty-meter-long colonnaded atrium with a monumental fountain in front, which was publicly available to Jews and gentiles alike. Indeed, the Sardis Synagogue was truly the center of its community, as it occupied a prominent position in the Sardis city center, indicating that much of the city’s community and culture were organized around the temple. The complex’s main hall measured 59 x 18 meters and was unusual in its arrangement of worship seating; benches were located in a semicircle filling an apse at the back of the structure. Furthermore, instead of having two stories of seating to separate male congregants from female worshippers, there was only one seating area, either indicating mixing of the sexes or exclusion of women from the synagogue altogether. An intricately carved marble table was placed centrally in the apse for the reading of the Torah, which was most likely stored in one of two aediculae erected after 360 CE (the construction of Torah niches, or aediculae, only became common practice for Diaspora synagogues in the fourth century CE).
REASON FOR INCLUSION
The example of the Sardis synagogue is significant due to its monumental scale and stylistic idiosyncrasies, indicating the breadth of synagogal architecture within the provinces of the Roman Empire. While it is true that Diaspora synagogues frequently had more uniting them as a style than they had separating them, there were still important stylistic differences in the different communities of the Empire. The Sardis synagogue is considered to be “the single most important building left to [modern Jews] by the Jews of the ancient world” due to its evident importance in the Jewish community of Sardis in the Roman Empire (Edwards, 814).
SOURCES
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- Baird, Jennifer. Dura-Europos. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
- Berger, Pamela. “The Temples/Tabernacles in the Dura-Europos Synagogue Paintings.” In Dura Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity, edited by Lisa R. Brody and Gail L. Hoffman, 123-140. University of Chicago Press, 2011.
- Edwards, James R. “A Nomen Sacrum in the Sardis Synagogue.” Journal of Biblical Literature 128, no. 4 (2009): 813-821.
- Ghiuzeli, Haim F. “The Ancient Synagogue of Sardis, Turkey.” ANU – Museum of the Jewish People. Accessed February 12, 2022. https://www.anumuseum.org.il/the-ancient-synagogue-of-sardis-turkey/.
- Hoffman, Gail L. “Theory and Methodology: Study of Identities Using Archaeological Evidence from Dura-Europos.” In Brody and Hoffman, Dura Europos, 45-70.
- Levine, Lee. I “Diaspora Synagogues.” In The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, 250-310. Yale University Press, 2005.
- Rajak, Tessa.“The Dura-Europos Synagogue: Images of a Competitive Community.” In Brody and Hoffman, Dura Europos, 141-154.
- Rutgers, Leonard Victor. “Diaspora Synagogues: Synagogue Archaeology in the Greco-Roman World.” In Sacred Realm: The Emergence of the Synagogue in the Ancient World, edited by Steven Fine, 67-95. Oxford University Press, 1996.