The newly discovered floor
For the first time, a beis knesses was discovered in the Golan dating back to the period of Roman rule, bearing a mosaic which sheds light on the style and design of ancient synagogues.
Several sections of a mosaic were found in an archaeological dig of the synagogue in the ancient settlement of Megdolia in the Golan Heights. Researchers surmise that this beis knesses probably served the community towards the end of the Bayis Sheini period, in the first century CE until the end of the third century. It teaches much about the changes that took place in the Jewish settlement there.
"This find is an ancient testimony of the use of colored, ornamented mosaics up to the third century CE," said the director of the excavation, Dr. Michael Osband, adding, "This is a period of which we hardly have any knowledge regarding the Jewish settlement in the Golan in particular, and of the few relics of synagogues in Eretz Yisrael in general. In the third century, we see an interesting amalgamation of the continuation of the traditional style of batei knesset from the period of Bayit Sheini regarding the form of seating and the architectural design which was not particularly decorative, combined with a new blend which eventually became the popular form in synagogues, such as a colored mosaic."
