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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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(73.) The 1.70-m difference between the lengths of the remains of foundation a and the north wall of C does not allow for the installation of an east stylobate, portico, and facade. Without overemphasizing the matter of proportion it might, nonetheless, be mentioned that at 15 m, the courtyard (including a possible east wall) would have had a width equal to that of the western room complex (including the east wall but excluding the west; see the dimensions on Bruneau's plan [1970, pl. B]), a total of ca. 30.60 m, including all walls. Given that the building is ca. 29.20 m long (including walls), it would have been nearly square after the addition of the courtyard with three porticoes.

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(74.) Different terms are used to designate a stoa or portico with three wings. White (1987, pp. 149-151) speaks of a "tristoa," a word seldom used in ancient or modern literature. More often, scholars use "porticus triplex," which is also rarely mentioned by ancient writers; this term is formed and used on analogy with the betterknown "porticus duplex," or the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.], the exact meaning of which, however, is contested (is it a stoa/ portico with two aisles, two stories, or two wings?). Porticus triplex is usually applied to a free-standing portico with three long wings that frame a temple or a space. See Coulton 1971; 1976, pp. 3-4; LTUR 2, pp. 55-56, s.v. Domus Aurea: Porticus triplices miliariae (E. Papi); Gros 1996, pp. 95-97.

To avoid confusion, only the following undisputed descriptive term is used, the three-winged, or pi-shaped, portico--as opposed to the truncated three-winged peristyle, which is closed by a wall on the fourth side.

(75.) In this case the "side" entrance in the south wall of C would have been the only entrance. Support for alternative c is that this entrance could be closed, suggesting that accessibility to the building was restricted and could be controlled.

(76.) See above, n. 70.

(77.) On the western shore of the island numerous shops, buildings, and magazines were put up in a row, one next to the other; the beach and quays, paths, and roads in front of them were certainly not reserved for private use and secluded from the neighbors, but formed important arterial routes for commerce (Delos XXXIX, pp. 111-112). The eastern shore was assuredly less frequented and less important, but its beach and pathways could also have been public.

(78.) The external blocks of walls and stylobates were usually set first, with the work then proceeding inward. Normally, then, one of the central slabs would have been the last of a row of stylobate blocks to be installed; see Hansen 1991, figs. 1, 2. Because there are only a few pry cuttings preserved and visible here, it cannot be determined which of the slabs was the last one to be set. It is assumed that it was one of blocks 6-8/9, and the pry cuttings are counted accordingly. The conjectured south-north sequence of the known stylobate blocks, by length, is therefore as follows:

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

Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper

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