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Figure IX-4. Huseifa synagogue ritual objects: a pair of menorot flanking an inscription.
Figure IX-5. Tiberias synagogue ritual objects flanking inscription.
Esbus (Hesban), a semicircular apse, is decorated
with a pair of deer on either side of an inscription
contained in a medallion (Piccirillo 1993:
250, figs. 426). A pair of horned stags flanking an
inscription are rendered in row 1 of the inhabited
scrolls on the lower mosaic in Priest John’s
chapel in Khirbat Mukhayyat (Piccirillo 1993:
176, fig. 240).
A symmetrical design of pairs of identical animals
flanking vases, plants, or trees appears on
synagogue and church pavements. A pair of stags
flanking a plant are depicted on a repaired panel
at the entrance of the Na#aran synagogue on the
nave’s mosaic pavement (pl. X.1a). A pair of lions
on either side of a vase feature on a side panel
of the Beth She"an small synagogue pavement
(fig. VI-10) (Hachlili 1988: 330, 336, figs. X, 17,
26, 42). An amphora flanked by a pair of fruit
baskets decorates the entrance to the auxiliary
chamber of the cave-church at Khirbet ed-Deir
(Hirschfeld 1993: 251, pl. XVIIa).
The antithetically arrangment of a pair of birds
or peacoks flanking a basket or amphora decorate
panels of the mosaics (pl. IX.2a-d) at Kursi, at the
entrance to the North wing, (Tzaferis 1983: 26,
pl. XI: 4, he compares this design to the Tabgha
illustration, pl. XI.4); at Mamshit the design decorates
the nave of the 5th century West church