While some scholars interned or accepted this summer, 11 UNC scholars and specialists participated in an excavation at an ancient Jewish synagogue in Israel.
The organization unearthed mosaics about 1,600 years old in a synagogue in Huqoq, a village in the Lower Galilee.
Led by archaeologist and UNC professor Jodi Magness, the team discovered an unprecedented depiction of two biblical heroines.
“This is the first time the depiction of those two biblical heroines has been found in ancient Jewish art,” Magness said in an email. they represent this episode in the mosaics. “
The earliest known descriptions of the heroines Deborah and Jael, also Yael, can be found in the e-book of The Judges of the Torah and the Christian Old Testament.
In the book, Judge Deborah, leader who encouraged the Israelites to victory over the Canaanites. Jael killed Sisera, the general of the Canaanite army, and delivered Israel from King Jabin of Canaan, according to the Old Testament.
This is the tenth season that UNC archaeologists are performing in the Huqoq excavation task after the cancellation of the last few seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Magness, task manager, and Dennis Mizzi, deputy task manager and professor at the University of Malta. , directed their excavations this summer to the southwest of the synagogue.
Part of the floor is a giant mosaic panel divided into 3 horizontal stripes, representing an account of the fourth bankruptcy of the Book of Judges.
Aislynn Grantz, a third-year UNC student majoring in archaeology and environmental studies, volunteered to receive information and paint about the excavations this summer.
“I was very interested not only in learning about Israel’s history and being informed with Dr. Magness, but also in how to dig and what it’s like to be informed in a boxing school,” Grantz said. “Especially through UNC, because we have such a strong bond around the world and we can engage with other academics from schools across the country. “
Grantz said that when the performances were discovered, it was a general day at the site until the band won the exciting news.
“Dr. Magnus calls all the scholars and you can see the emotion in their eyes,” Grantz said. “She tells us that we found a representation of Jael and Deborah, and that they are one of the first women in the Bible in you will never notice in a mosaic in Israel. “
Another mosaic found included a fragment of a dedicatory inscription in Hebrew, surrounded by panels depicting two vases with vines, according to an article on the website of the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. These vines become medallions that surround animals that eat bunches of grapes. .
Jocelyn Burney, a doctoral student in the University’s Department of Religious Studies, director of mastery of Israeli excavations this summer.
“Several of those panels show photographs that aren’t noticeable in any other synagogue from this period, and that includes the ones we discovered this year,” Burney said.
Regardless of major, interested undergraduates will have the opportunity to participate in the upcoming UNC Study Abroad excavation season.
“It’s exciting to be able to demonstrate the remains of buildings, artifacts and elements that haven’t been noticed in 2000 years,” Burney said.
Burney said this discovery was even more exciting because it is to locate depictions of female heroes in synagogue art from that express period.
“This is one of the first times we represent women, which has not only been to notice a more holistic aspect of the past, but also for students, women in archaeology, anthropology and history to see that ancient women played a very vital role. paper,” Grantz said.
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