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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
MIXED GNEISS AND GRANITE WALLS
According to the relative chronology, two different sets of walls, or wall systems, were added to the first gneiss configuration. One consisted of mixed gneiss and granite walls that were thinner than those of the large hall but strictly parallel and orthogonal to them (Fig. 3). They define large parts of the visible D-complex, which was extended to the south and divided into several rooms when it was completely remodeled in a second phase.
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The inner partition walls of the D-complex (Fig. 9) are not sufficiently preserved to permit the identification of entrances or establish their relationships in all cases. (32) The west facade (of D1, D4-D6) is certainly bonded with the north wall of D5/D7, which itself, running east-west, divides the entire D-complex. The wall between D1 and D2 is bonded with this major east-west wall, but the corresponding wall between D2 and D3 abuts the east-west wall at its south end and, as noted above, the stucco on the north wall of D1-D3 (Fig. 8).
[FIGURE 9 OMITTED]
Other walls that were not bonded with neighboring walls also suggest that a differentiation of the D-complex took place after its extension south. (33) It is certain that the south and east facades of the D-complex were renovated in a later phase, because they differ in material and orientation from the mixed gneiss and granite walls and are not bonded with them (see below, under "Granite Walls," and Figs. 18, 19). Yet the original accessibility of this sector cannot be determined with certainty, and any discussion of it must be limited to the visible remains of the remodeled building: today, there is no doorway in the south wall and only a gap in the east wall leading from courtyard C to the largest room of the complex, D7. Although a threshold, well-made jambs (i.e., those built with larger, well-cut stones), doorposts (independent elements fitted against the jambs as parts of a door frame), and any other evidence for such features are missing, this gap probably corresponds to an ancient entrance. (34) According to this hypothesis, the D-complex would have been quite a secluded area with highly restricted accessibility. It is open to speculation whether the original east wall of D3/D7 was provided with more or larger doorways. As far as can be determined from its current state, room D7 must have functioned as a distributional space, probably giving access to D1-D3 and D6. If the wall between D1 and D2 continued to the north wall, access to D1 might have been limited to a kind of narrow corridor that remained after the (subsequent?) creation of D4 (Fig. 9).
[FIGURES 18-19 OMITTED]
Without the--entirely hypothetical--reconstruction of windows in the external and partition walls, the lighting of the D-complex seems problematic, because one single doorway to courtyard C would not have provided sufficient light for all the rooms. One of the rooms could have served as a courtyard or a light well, but clear indications (e.g., waterproof pavement, drain) of such a function are absent.
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