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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
[FIGURE 34 OMITTED]
b. A colonnade closed off at the south and north ends that clearly would have belonged to the building, decorating its facade and serving to create a kind of vestibule (Fig. 34:b). It would, nevertheless, have been easily accessible from the public space to the east. The preserved north-south colonnade is conceivable in such a context, with an extension toward the north corresponding with the north wall of A and an unknown extension at the south. Yet it must be stressed that nothing remains of a north wall that is to be associated with this colonnade. On the contrary, the visible stuccoed exterior northeast corner of room A clearly speaks against such a possibility if this corner really was part of the first building. (99) Comparable colonnade-vestibules are found in several public and sacred buildings, opening into a space within a temenos or a public space. (100) In either case, such a colonnade would have distinguished the building as public or sacred.
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c. A simple courtyard without a colonnade and with unknown extent and accessibility (Fig. 34:c). This alternative requires a predecessor of the visible north wall, which creates the same problems encountered in alternative b. Given the size of the hall, for which parallels are cited below, such a plain courtyard is very unlikely.
d. A courtyard with a single colonnade in front of the western rooms (Fig. 34:d). As this is a modified version of alternative b, with an extension of the framing walls eastward, the pros and cons need not be discussed again. As with alternative c, however, convincing comparisons for the combination of such a large hall and a courtyard with a single colonnade are missing in the Delian record.
Since important objections have been raised to each of these alternatives, none of them can be safely and convincingly supported. Despite all the factors that weigh against it, it cannot even be entirely ruled out that the large hall was entered directly from public space. For now, alternative a is perhaps the most plausible and attractive one. This choice is supported by the fact that the long wall that later abutted the north face of the northeast corner of GD 80, and acted as the east facade of an insula, is aligned with the east wall of the large hall. Therefore, the latter could indeed have been the first facade of the building, distinguished at most by a colonnade in front of it. Both GD 80 and its northern neighbor later would have been extended eastward in correspondence with each other. (101)
Regardless of how the eastern part is reconstructed, the features that are safely assignable to the first building clearly exclude it from identification as a private house, which has, only recently, also been argued extensively and compellingly by Binder. (102) Even though all Delian houses include one large room, an oecus maior, that could have been equipped with three doorways, the dimensions of the hall of GD 80 far exceed the standards of private dwellings. (103) Further, the private oeci maiores are all integrated in a well-defined domestic context: they open onto a courtyard, usually provide access to one or two annex rooms, and are surrounded by additional living and service rooms. (104) By contrast, the large hall of GD 80 has convincing parallels in the large assembly rooms of buildings that served for the meetings of associations, such as the Etablissement des Poseidoniastes (GD 57, Fig. 35). These are also accessible via three doorways, have no annex rooms, open onto large peristyle-courtyards, and were clearly conceived to meet all the needs of the particular association, including assemblies and banquets (or symposia). (105) GD 80, however, lacks some features that have been identified as essential components of meeting places in Delos (none of which is situated on the shore): a large peristyle-courtyard; a latrine; commercial space such as shops, magazines, or workshops; and "sacred" space or objects such as shrines, niches, altars, stelai, and figurines that attest the veneration of gods. (106) In addition, the orientation of the large hall under discussion is remarkable because it does not open to the south, as is usual in Delos and elsewhere. (107) In comparable cases a differing orientation is due primarily to external factors, which seem to be missing here, since the building was established before its neighbors and without visible constraints regarding urban layout or topography. (108)
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