{"id":123,"date":"2005-07-01T15:42:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-01T15:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2005\/07\/01\/109\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:46:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T03:46:54","slug":"109","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/","title":{"rendered":"The Date of the Sardis Synagogue in Light of the Numismatic Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the 1960s excavations at the site of Sardis in Lydia brought to light the remains of a large and richly decorated synagogue building. The synagogue was installed in a pre-existing Roman bath and gymnasium complex along one of Sardis&rsquo; main thoroughfares. Based largely on the coins discovered beneath the mosaic floors, the excavators have dated the synagogue&rsquo;s construction to the mid- to late-fourth century C.E. In this paper I reexamine the numismatic evidence and conclude that the synagogue was constructed about two centuries later. Dating the synagogue to the mid-sixth century places the building and the Jewish community it served in a different historical setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the 1960s excavations at the site of Sardis in Lydia brought to light the remains of a large and richly decorated synagogue building. The synagogue was installed in a pre-existing Roman bath and gymnasium complex along one of Sardis&rsquo; main thoroughfares. Based largely on the coins discovered beneath the mosaic floors, the excavators have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[904],"tags":[7,10],"issues":[104],"region":[805],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-numismatics","tag-architecture","issues-104","region-turkey"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Date of the Sardis Synagogue in Light of the Numismatic Evidence | July 2005 (109.3) | American Journal of Archaeology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Date of the Sardis Synagogue in Light of the Numismatic Evidence | July 2005 (109.3) | American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the 1960s excavations at the site of Sardis in Lydia brought to light the remains of a large and richly decorated synagogue building. The synagogue was installed in a pre-existing Roman bath and gymnasium complex along one of Sardis&rsquo; main thoroughfares. Based largely on the coins discovered beneath the mosaic floors, the excavators have [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aja.journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-07-01T15:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T03:46:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Magness_Fig06_large.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"263\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"website\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"website\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"website\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f93c211048ad920b94c1e8abdb2053f0\"},\"headline\":\"The Date of the Sardis Synagogue in Light of the Numismatic Evidence\",\"datePublished\":\"2005-07-01T15:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/\"},\"wordCount\":122,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Magness_Fig06_large.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"Numismatics\",\"Architecture\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/\",\"name\":\"The Date of the Sardis Synagogue in Light of the Numismatic Evidence | July 2005 (109.3) | American Journal of Archaeology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Magness_Fig06_large.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2005-07-01T15:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:54+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/109\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Magness_Fig06_large.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Magness_Fig06_large.gif\",\"width\":400,\"height\":263,\"caption\":\"A marble table and lion statue, made of stones from earlier buildings (spolia), in front of the apse in the main hall of the Sardis Synagogue. 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