A University of Wyoming professor was part of a team that excavated a mosaic floor decorating the interior of an ancient synagogue building.
The synagogue was unearthed in June by a joint American-Israeli team of scholars and students at Huqoq, an ancient Galilean village, just fives miles from Capernaum and Magdala.
Paul Flesher, UW Religious Studies Program director, oversees the database system and supervises the computer work for the expedition that made the discovery.
“Most historians believe that this was a period when this region was occupied by the downtrodden and impoverished,” Flesher says. “This discovery is a significant indication that the region was much more prosperous than what is commonly perceived.”
The mosaic, which is made of tiny colored stone cubes of the highest quality, includes a scene depicting Samson placing torches between the tails of foxes (as related in Judges 15). In another part of the mosaic, two human (apparently female) faces flank a circular medallion with a Hebrew inscription that refers to rewards for those who perform good deeds.
One of the students in the Religious Studies Program, Courtney Callison of Cypress, Calif., who came to UW to study ancient archaeology, was assigned to the excavation project in Israel last year. The program plans to send other UW students to participate in the project during the next four years.
The discovery also provides evidence against the influence of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, whose extensive law code outlawed pagan religions and forbade Jews from building new synagogues. Flesher says the monumental synagogues of Huqoq and surrounding villages show that Justinian’s law was not being followed in Galilee.
