Untitled

pavements of Samarian synagogues and two
Christian chapels.
Examples of such designs of tetrastyle sanctuary
façades decorate the floor mosaics of two
Samaritan synagogues. The 4th-century Samaritan
synagogue at Khirbet Samara shows two
designs. One found between the row of benches
along the southern wall (Magen 1993b: 64 fig. 1;
1993a: 231- figs. 10,12-13,14a,b) renders an elaborate
structure consisting of four Ionic columns,
with a Syrian gable decorated by a large conch
in the centre and three rosettes in the three corners
of the gable. A structured double door, decorated
with panels and rings, is closed by a lock.
The door is partly covered by a curtain hanging
from rings along a rod attached to one of the
columns on the left. The other smaller structure,
less ornately represented, is found in the nave’s
mid-section geometric mosaic (Magen 1993b: 63,
figs. 5). It depicts a sanctuary façade consisting of
four columns, with a Syrian gable decorated by a
small conch and a veil tied to one of the columns
to the left concealing the door.
On the mosaic floor of the other 4th century
el-Hirbeh Samaritan synagogue, in a rectangular
panel in the centre of the nave appears a slightly
different design of a sanctuary 5 (Magen 1992:
71-72, fig. pp.69,70; 1993a: 241, figs. 19-23;
Hachlili 2001: 264-266).
The mosaic floor consists of three designs:
on the left is depicted a sanctuary with a fourcolumned
façade and a gabled tile roof, a pediment
decorated with a conch; over the entrance
a veil hangs, wrapped around a column to the
right. In the centre is the shewbread table topped
with various objects: bowls, goblets, and loaves
of bread; on the right appears a seven-branched
menorah flanked by two trumpets, an incense
shovel, a shofar (and probably remains of a lulav
and ethrog). A similar showbread table is rendered
in the centre of Band 4 of the Sepphoris
synagogue.
In the Samaritan synagogue mosaics at el-Hirbeh
and Hirbet Samara, the structures’ double
door in the centre is covered by a veil similar to
the one covering the ark in the mosaic of Hammath
Tiberias. The sanctuary designs on these
two Samaritan synagogue are very similar, which
5 Magen 1992, 70-72; figures on pp. 80, 88. A similar
design of an ark is found on a stone relief from Hirbet Samara
and Kefr Pahma as well as on Samaritan clay lamps.
the jewish symbols panel 31
might indicate an identical model or that the
depictions were created by the same artist.
Comparable designs appear on the wall paintings
from the third century CE Dura Europos
synagogue (pl. IV.4). A sanctuary façade is portrayed
on the arched lintel of the Torah niche
(Kraeling 1979: 54-65; Hachlili 1998: 98-101,
155-56, pl. III-1; Figure VII-41a). The outer frame
of the façade consists of two pairs of fluted columns
and an Egyptian-style capital, surmounted
by a moulded architrave. Within this is another
structure consisting of two columns, supporting
an arch decorated with a conch. A door with
two leaves ornamented with bosses is portrayed
within. Scholars interpret this type of sanctuary
as related to the design on a Bar Kokhba coin
representing the Temple façade.
A different sanctuary is represented similarly in
two panels, WB2 and WB3, of the Dura Europos
wall paintings (Kraeling 1979: 125-131; Hachlili
1998: 157-158, pls. III-11, 12; figs. III-38, VII-
41a; 2000: fig. 18: 1-7) as the façade and side of
a peripteros structure, with Corinthian columns
mounted on a stepped crepidoma supporting an
entablature and a tiled roof (pl. IV.4; fig. II-15).
The Corinthian columns are four (WB2) and
seven (WB3) along the side; with four (WB3) and
two (WB2) columns across the façade supporting
a pediment, its tympana decorated with a
rosette (WB2) and a rosette and rinceaux (WB3).
The cella is shown as a black interior framing a
veil and the Ark of the Covenant (WB2). Closed
double doors with panelled leaves are depicted in
WB3. The panels are interpreted by most scholars
as representing the Tabernacle and Solomon’s
Temple respectively.
The sanctuaries portrayed on the Dura Europos
synagogue wall paintings as well as the mosaics
of the Samaritan synagogue pavements might
be interpreted as describing the Jerusalem Temple
façade and its vessels (Hachlili 1998: 360-363). Yet
while the Dura paintings symbolize the Jerusalem
temple, the sanctuary design in the Samaritan
synagogues was more likely copied from, or influenced
by Jewish art, and might have symbolized
the façade of the Samaritan temple on Mount
Grizim; but note that Magen (1992: 72) suggested
that this is a rendition of the Tabernacle and its
vessels.
Symbolic motifs and religious elements are
rarely depicted on church floors, in view of the risk
of their being trodden upon (Hachlili 2000: 155).
Nevertheless, three examples of a kind of shrine