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The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
The possible expansion of the building to the south will have had implications for any construction to the east, but, as stated above, all discussion of the latter remains hypothetical.
WALL WITH MARBLE SPOIL MATERIAL
The second wall system to be added to the gneiss complex comprised only a single wall, the east wall of the large hall A/B (Fig. 10). It was made of gneiss and marble spoils, including inscribed blocks (statue bases and an inscribed dedication base) and plain blocks. (35) Both Bruneau and White ascribed the visible state of the wall to a renovation after 88 B.C., but Bruneau forthrightly admits that his hypothesis is fragile, "nee moins d'un reexamen de la ruine que d'un souci de vraisemblance historique, celui d'accorder la date de l'implantation des Juifs a Delos et celle de leur Synagogue." (36)
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[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]
In theory, the east wall could have been conceived as an imposing facade distinguished by its remarkable size and the decorative integration of marble blocks employed in its initial construction. The fact that an arch in the south wall of room B, which served as a relieving arch for the water reservoir, is made of reused marble blocks seems to support this possibility because the arch certainly dates to the first building. Evidence contradicting this view, however, is provided by the marble thresholds (Figs. 11-13). Plassart alone noticed that the steps of all three thresholds are each equipped with two sets of pivot and bolt holes. According to his hypothesis the inner, or east, sets of holes were carved when the threshold blocks (whose original contexts are unknown) were reused, in the first phase of GD 80's history. (37) The reuse of all three threshold blocks seems quite reasonable because, in Plassart's opinion, this wall of gneiss and marble spoils belongs to the first phase of the building's life, which would mean that there was no remodeling of the east wall, but an extensive integration of reused material from the outset.
[FIGURES 11-13 OMITTED]
On the other hand, the prospect that there were two successive east walls suggests that the two sets of pivot and bolt holes--which, it should be noted, are remarkably similar--in each threshold step correspond with two phases of the wall's history, or that they testify specifically to the existence of two successive versions of this wall. But a detailed analysis of the threshold blocks shows that they had to be adapted to an enlarged east wall and that, in opposition to Plassart, the outer, or west, sets of holes are later than the inner sets.
The majority of known Delian threshold blocks are laid out in such a way that the pivot and bolt holes do not lie within the thickness of the wall, or between the planes of the doorjambs, but just outside both in the interior, lower step of the threshold itself, so that the leaves of the door would not abut the doorjambs but the wall instead. (38) Whereas the inner, east holes of the threshold blocks in question are situated between the planes of the jambs, the outer, west ones correspond to the usual arrangement, being positioned just west of the wall (Figs. 11-13). In addition, parts of the visible wall cover some of the inner pivot holes. Finally, the outer holes are more crudely cut than the inner ones and are carved right next to or even into the west edge of the interior step of the threshold. Given the considerable depth of the thresholds, this seems unnecessary and puzzling as an original arrangement. (39)
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