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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered

Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper

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Since the third phase occurred sometime after 88 B.C., the fourth phase must be dated accordingly, and could be assigned either to the last days of the Roman Republic or to the Imperial period. A late, Imperial, date might be supported by three antefixes with palmettes that were found in the water reservoir. (114) Bruneau compares them to examples of the first half of the first century A.D., and even to some from the middle of the third century. If they belonged to this building, the earlier date is more likely, (115) and they would testify either to a repair of the existing roof or to the construction of a new roof, for example, for the porticoes, in this period.

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According to current research, Delos was largely abandoned in the Imperial period and was reduced to a small settlement that occupied only a minor part of the former Hellenistic city--the western coast and the quarters immediately south and north of the Sanctuary of Apollo. (116) The Quartier du stade is usually thought to have been destroyed and deserted after 88 B.C. and, accordingly, must have been completely isolated by the end of that century. Therefore, the people who frequented GD 80 would not have lived nearby, but instead somewhere in the western part of the island.

This supposition requires comment. Two possible patterns of use can be conjectured. The first is that the users of the building in this phase (and probably in the previous phase) had owned it before 88 B.C., even from the beginning, and continued to frequent it because of its special importance and function. The second is that the original owners abandoned the building after its partial destruction or the decline of the quarter, the new proprietors choosing it deliberately because of its isolated location and transforming it according to their needs. It must be stressed, however, that some construction took place in the area to the north at the time of or after the completion of the granite walls. Also, the small harbor immediately north of GD 80 still could have been in use. One of the buildings on the shore might even have been fronted by a colonnade with a purely functional or decorative character. (117) For these reasons, the vision of a vast deserted quarter on the eastern shore of Delos must be considered with caution, as it may be attributable to the limited excavation of this quarter or to the modern interpretation of the archaeological evidence, or both, and need not fully correspond with the ancient reality.

Although building activities in Imperial Delos were largely confined to the reoccupation and remodeling of extant buildings, some new buildings were constructed, at least two Roman baths, for example. (118) Even if, as the finds suggest, commerce in Imperial Delos was mainly oriented toward the eastern Mediterranean, (119) there must have been some Roman influence, tangible for example in the presence of Roman thermal edifices and associated bathing customs. Within this larger context, the ongoing construction at GD 80 is more easily comprehensible, especially the strange amalgam of ambitious scale and modest construction that characterizes this phase. For the persons who owned and used this building it still must have been worthwhile to establish a three-winged peristyle or a monumental pi-shaped portico that dominated the small harbor. The unusual form of the three-winged portico might have been a result of Roman influence.

The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered

Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper

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