Talmudic village of Katzrin
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The Talmudic Village of Katzrin is an open-air museum near the town of Katzrin ( Hebrew קצרין Ḳatsrin ) in the Golan Heights occupied by Israel . It is dedicated to everyday life in Byzantine times . Katzrin is one of about 30 Jewish villages that existed on the Golan at that time and has the best-preserved synagogue .
Reconstruction basics
In addition to the archaeological findings from Katzrin, other sources were used to reconstruct the village:
In southern Syria and in the Golan there are buildings from the Byzantine era that have been preserved up to the level of the second floor, but this is not the case in Katzrin. But since they wanted to reconstruct a residential building up to the roof, these parallels were used.
Rabbinical sources were important to the concept of the Talmudic Village. Ann Killebrew and Steven Fine, archaeological and Judaic advisors, respectively, to the project admitted that the people of Katzrin were villagers and farmers, but not scholars. It is not known whether they organized their everyday life according to the rules laid down in the Talmud.
Ethnographic material from Druze villages in the Golan was also used for the establishment of the reconstructed rooms.
synagogue
The synagogue was built in the 4th century and expanded in the 6th century. It remained in use until the village was abandoned in the 8th century. The earthquake of 747, together with the generally deteriorating economic situation, was probably the reason for the residents to leave Katzrin.
The building has a trapezoidal floor plan of around 17.6 × 15.3 meters. Due to the lack of timber in the region, it was built entirely from basalt stones; the walls are still up to three meters high. The threshold above the main entrance is particularly decorated. It shows a wreath with a Heracles knot and pomegranates and amphorae on both sides. Two rows of four columns each structure the interior. The 6th century synagogue had a mosaic floor, which was covered with white screed during a later renovation. On the wall facing Jerusalem, steps led up to a stone platform ( bima ) on which the Torah shrine is believed to have stood. There was a low space under the platform that is being considered as a Geniza .
Residential houses
To the east of the synagogue, archaeologists excavated the remains of three houses. In Byzantine times, these were ensembles of up to 15 interconnected rooms in which an extended family lived together. The facility did not follow a specific plan, but rather met the needs of the respective family. The core of the ensemble was the triclinium , a larger room in which the family came together. The “Tyrian” inner courtyard is known from the Mishnah and is surrounded on three sides by buildings. There was also such a courtyard in Katzrin, where the archaeologists found a coin hoard. The approximately 9,000 bronze coins from around 350 AD are not of very high value because of the inflation at the time.
The interior design required replicas of everyday objects made of ceramic, metal and wood. The organic finds from the caves near Jericho and the Dead Sea were used as illustrative material, as well as ancient representations of such objects on mosaics or frescoes, and finally the Druze village culture.
At the entrance of the reconstructed, so-called house of Rabbi Akun , the visitor sees two ovens, flour mills and water containers. The first room one enters is a kitchen of the type the Talmud calls megerion . From there you get to the triclinium, where there is a seating area around a wooden table. In addition to this representative area, where guests were received, there were pantries and bedrooms on the upper floor that could be reached by ladder.
Web links
literature
- Ann Killebrew, Steven Fine: Qatzrin - Reconstructing Village Life in Talmudic Times . In: Biblical Archeology Review 17 (3/1991), pp. 44–57 ( online )
Coordinates: 32 ° 59 '26.88 " N , 35 ° 41' 47.95" O