Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Prinicipal Investigator Michael Satlow

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 tibe0002 tibe0002

Lower Galilee. Hammath Tiberias. 270 CE to 325 CE. Multicolored mosaic floor. Labels.

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line borders around each panel woman's bust Spring panel bead necklace on woman bracelet on woman garland on woman tunic on woman earrings on woman tunic (peplos) on woman wreath on woman glass bowl in woman's hand fruit in bowl stalk behind woman flower (lily?) behind woman leaves behind woman 270 CE to 325 CE Galilee Hammath Tiberias32.7685,35.5485 Synagogue of Severos Nave

Lower Galilee. Hammath Tiberias. Synagogue of Severos (in Stratum IIa). Central panel in the floor of the nave.

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 Creation Adding geo element with lat long coordinates to settlement adding period attribute to date element, with Periodo value.

תקופת ניסן

Spring

תקופת ניסן

The four seasons of the year in elaborate mosaic (see tibe0007, tibe0008, tibe0009). Geometric mosaics and and figurative elements of the mosaics inform the date range. Because of the uncertainty of paleography in Palestinian synagogues, and because at this synagogue the inscriptions seem to have been executed by craftsmen unfamiliar with the Hebrew alphabet, the script itself cannot provide chronological information. Each season is represented by a female bust with her head in three-quarter view. Spring is represented by a young woman in a sleeveless green tunic (or peplos), bead necklace, bracelet, and wreath of two large six-petalled flowers, holding a blue glass bowl of reddish triangular objects (fruit?) in her right hand. A stalk with leaves and a flower, probably a lily, appears behind her left shoulder. Other representations of the four seasons in Palestinian synagogues at Beth Alpha, Na'aran, and Isfiya have little in common with those here. More similarities exist between these and those of the "Roman Villa" at Beth Guvrin, but the nearest parallels are found in the mosaics at Antioch (in modern Turkey). The entire central panel of the synagogue floor has dimensions 3.3 m by 3.26 m, roughly a square. It encloses two concentric circles, with diameters of 3.2 m and 1.4 m. The smaller circle encloses a representation of Helios driving the solar chariot; the area between the two circles is split into twelve panels containing labelled representations of the Zodiac signs; and each corner of the square contains a labelled representation of the season corresponding to its three tangent Zodiac signs. All figures are oriented with their top ends, where their labels appear, towards the center of the circles. The spandrel-shaped season panels have black, brown, red, tan, and white line borders, each one, two, or three tiles deep. The use of Hebrew is notable, since by this period it had been superceded by Aramaic and Greek in everyday business of the synagogue. The orthography is "defective," not plene; for example, תשרי here appears as תישרי at Beth Alpha. The Seasons have the same defective spelling, however, at the 'En Gedi synagogue.

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