Newly revealed 5th century mosaics a kaleidoscope of Jewish and secular imagery

TOI. By AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN 19 November 2018, 4:21 pm

Archaeologist Jodi Magness started to excavate the Galilean village of Huqoq to put to rest a decades-old academic debate. Then she found mosaics and the site just keeps on giving

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In one panel, the Tower of Babel is being constructed using a wide-variety of mechanisms and pulleys. Illustrating the strife that came hand-in-hand with its construction, fights break out in the background among people of differing skin colors, garbed in diverse clothing and with a variety of hairstyles.

With the release of the full depictions of the complex ensembles, certain themes are made more clear, such as the immense power and reverence accorded to water, as well as the well-grounded biblical and historical knowledge of the artisans.

“The synagogue just keeps producing mosaics that there’s just nothing like and is enriching our understanding of the Judaism of the period,” Magness told The Times of Israel last summer.

When still standing, the synagogue would have been a technicolor whirl of painted walls and columns, a perhaps cacophonous counterpoint to the detailed, colorful mosaic flooring. Remains of plaster chips show pigments including daubs of pink, red, orange, and white.