Hurvat Amudim

Did You Know?

• An Aramaic inscription in the synagogue floor mosaic reads: 'Remembered well... bar Tanhum, who made this pavement of mosaic and roof. May he be blessed. Amen. Selah.'
• A second inscription reads: 'Yo'ezer the hazan and Simeon his brother made this gate of the Lord of Heaven.'
• The synagogue featured two rows of columns.

History

The site's name comes from the columns of the ancient synagogue that remained upright after the roof collapsed. G. Dalman proposed that this location is Kefar Uzziel, a village noted in rabbinic writings as the home of one of the 24 priestly families who moved to the Galilee starting in the 2nd century CE. He based this on the nearby Arab village of Uzeir, whose name is thought to be a changed form of Uzziel. The settlement was left empty by the late 4th century. Archaeologists have worked there several times. Victor Guérin found the synagogue in the late 1800s. In 1905, Heinrich Kohl and Carl Watzinger drew up a plan of the building. Yigal Levin’s 1979 dig placed the synagogue’s construction at the end of the 3rd or start of the 4th century. Oren Zingboim and Edna Dalali-Amos excavated the whole area in 2011. The following year, Gilad Tsinmon and Leah Porat dug on the western side, uncovering quarries, a burial cave, cut tombs, and pottery from the 1st century BCE through the 10th century CE.