The Oldest Original Synagogue Building in the Diaspora: The Delos Synagogue Reconsidered

by Monika Trümper

Hesperia, Volume 73, Issue 4
Page(s): 513-598
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4134903
Year: 2004
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ABSTRACT:

The original function of the synagogue on Delos has long been contested, and can be determined only through analysis of the architectural history of the building. In this article, the author reconsiders the history of the building's construction on the basis of fieldwork to date. Five phases of construction are distinguished: two predate 88 B.C. and the remaining three date between 88 and the end of the second century A.D. The structure's most characteristic features--a large hall, a water reservoir, orientation toward the east, and an isolated location on the eastern seashore--are not consistent with those of a private house, a meeting place for an association, or a pagan cult building, but rather confirm its function as a synagogue from the earliest phase onward.