From Synagogue Furnishing to Media Event: The Magdala Ashlar

In memory of Alf Thomas Kraabel (1934–2016). For Kraabel’s contributions to the study of ancient Judaism, beginning with the Sardis synagogue, see A. Thomas Kraabel, J. Andrew Overman, and Robert S. MacLennan, Diaspora Jews and Judaism: Essays in Honor of, and in Dialogue with, A. Thomas Kraabel (Atlanta, 1992). Many thanks to R. Steven Notley and Peter Schertz for their many insights and for reading my manuscript, and to Aren Maier for drawing my attention to the souvenirs sold at Magdala. I also thank Mordechai Aviam, Donald Binder, Jordan Ryan, Rina Talgam, and Jürgen K. Zangenberg for sharing their work and thoughts with me. The anonymous peer reviews have been most helpful, and for that I am grateful. I also thank Father Eamon Kelly for his solicitousness toward me as I have come to understand the site. I first spoke about the Magdala synagogue and its ashlar at “Unearthing Magdala: Where History, Archaeology and Religious Traditions Meet,” a conference organized by the Center for the Study of Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins in Nyack Few periods in the history of Jewish art and visual culture evoke as wide an interest among the scholarly community and within the general public as Roman antiquity. Even the names given to this period reflect its significance: devout Christians refer to it as the “time of Jesus,” the “intertestamental,” and New Testament periods; classicists speak of the Roman Empire; and many Jews know it as the period of “The Second Temple, Mishnah, and Talmud.” Western culture harbors an interest in Jews, their texts and artifacts that is quite remarkable. Within the religious studies community, Jewish art and visual culture of this period is often perceived as an alternate window into the culture of this pivotal era – a direct link to “our” culture heroes unencumbered by later religious tradition and scribal influence.1 It is as a gateway to Jesus beyond the books to Jewish life beyond the Talmudic rabbis – sometimes called upon to affirm tradition, though more often to transform or subvert it. In modern Israel, the history and archaeology of this period are ever present, whether directly through archaeological discovery or more subtly through street names, the national “symbol,” the reproduction of ancient Jewish coins on modern currency and stamps, the subtle presence of mosaic art in modern and historic patterns in the public sphere, and particularly in the rhetoric of modern Israel as the fulfillment of “a hope two thousand years old” in both state and popular contexts.2 While the rhetoric of archaeology as Israel’s national pastime may have faded, each new discovery of an ancient synagogue, interesting coin, or even a glass fragment with the image of a menorah continues to be national and international news. Western society’s interest in Jewish visual culture in Roman antiquity is not satiated by the supply. Each new discovery is subject to far more scrutiny and interest than might be the case with a larger corpus of artifacts. Discoveries are often portrayed as windows through which to view the very different world views that feed and give sustenance to popular and scholarly approaches to the Jewish past – and particularly to Jewish visual culture. This essay focuses upon one of these discoveries, the so-called