(Photo: Avram Gracier)
By Ruth Schuster - December 12, 2021
To the surprise of archaeologists excavating the Galilean town of Magdala, today known as Migdal, a second synagogue dating to the Second Temple period has been found.
It is the first time two synagogues from that time have been found in a single town, explain the archaeologists investigating the site. The newly unearthed one is smaller and apparently not as ornate as the first, which was found in 2009, but together they shed new light on the devotion of the people in this Jewish town some 2,000 years ago.
As is so often the case in Israel, the synagogues at Migdal were discovered in salvage excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority, together with the company Y.G. Contractual and the University of Haifa; and yet again the discoveries were made ahead of building new infrastructure.
The two synagogues were dated by other artifacts found at the site, including glassware, pottery and coins, excavation co-director Dina Avshalom-Gorni explains.
Read More: Haaretz