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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
(51.) See Bruneau 1970, pl. C.
(52.) If "additional rooms were connected to the south wall of the building in a (still) unexcavated area," as hypothesized by Binder (1999, p. 312), following Mazur (though without a page reference), the pivot and bolt holes would have been placed on the south side of this threshold: the normal direction of circulation requires a movement from the central distributional area, the courtyard, into the surrounding rooms. Yet this threshold is clearly planned for movement from south to north, from the outside of the building to the inside. In short, this is an entrance to the building and not to a room that was part of it. Since the visible south wall of the building displays no other doorways or evidence for them, the idea of an extension of this building to the south can be dismissed with certainty.
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(53.) These are the south doorpost of the doorway into B--the only doorway of the three entrances to A/B that was used until the end of the building's life--and the east doorpost of the west doorway between A and B; see Bruneau 1970, pls. D, E.
(54.) See Bruneau 1970, pls. C, D, with plan and elevation. Contrary to White 1987, p. 152, n. 76, no inscribed stone of the gymnasium (GD 76) was incorporated into this wall. White probably meant the stone bearing IG XI iv 1152, which is now situated immediately south of this wall, though its exact findspot and original position are unknown; see Bruneau 1982, p. 496, fig. 11. Binder (1999, pp. 299-300, n. 131), probably following White, also states that "this wall incorporates elements from the nearby gymnasium" and would, therefore, date to the period after 88 B.C.
(55.) That it was blocked is mentioned by Plassart (1914, p. 523). In theory, this could have occurred any time after the installation of the marble spoil wall, but despite its importance for the accessibility to and the use of room A, this fact is often overlooked, probably because today no traces of such blocking remain. See, e.g., Binder 1999, pp. 300, 308; Hachlili 1998, p. 38; McLean 1996, p. 195; Runesson 2001a, p. 187. White (1987, p. 148) does not discuss the accessibility of A and B, but he expressly points out that the throne in A (see below, p. 584) is opposite the north doorway in the spoil wall, which suggests that he took the doorway to be passable; in any case, his conjectured restoration (1987, p. 160, fig. 5) does not show a blocked doorway. Clearly, the blocking was removed during the excavation, as revealed by a photograph taken in 1912 (see Plassart 1914, p. 524) that does not show it.
(56.) Windows cannot be reconstructed in any of the walls with certainty, given the nature of the neighboring buildings and doorways.
(57.) White 1987, p. 148; see Bruneau 1970, pl. C. The dimensions of the niche are W. 0.18 m, H. 0.25 m, and it is 0.80 m above the floor. For the average dimensions, positions, and functions of the many niches in Delian walls, see Trumper 1998, pp. 68-76. In the large undivided hall one would have expected, at most, a set of symmetrically arranged decorative niches high up in the wall. The fact that many lamps have been found in the building might further support the identification as a lamp niche; see Plassart 1914, pp. 532-533; Bruneau 1970, pp. 484-485.
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