A mosaic of a tiger hunting a wild goat dating to around 400 AD has been discovered in the remains of an ancient Roman synagogue in the Jewish village of Huqoq in Israel’s Lower Galilee.
Researchers who found the panel described it as “spectacular” and said it was just the latest in a series of “historically significant finds” from an ongoing project at Huqoq.
The dig was led by Professor Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to a Press release. Other institutions in the Huqoq Excavation Project consortium include Austin College, Baylor University, Brigham Young University and the University of Toronto.
The panel was found at the south end of the main hall of the synagogue. It features a Hebrew inscription framed within a crown and an Aramaic inscription on the sides and below the crown where there is a list of names believed to be either donors who funded the mosaics or artists who made them.
“The crown is flanked on either side by lions resting their front paws on the bulls’ heads,” the researchers said in a statement. “The whole panel is surrounded by a decorated border showing animals of prey pursuing other animals.”
The latest excavation also uncovered newly exposed sections of previously found mosaics that include a Philistine horseman and a dead Philistine soldier with a surprisingly classic face.
The meaning of the tiger hunting the wild goat, also known as the ibex, was not immediately clear, although other mosaics found at the site have been described as depicting stories from Jewish teachings, including two depictions of Samson from the book of judges.
Last year, the excavation team returned to site after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and discovered “the earliest known depiction of biblical heroines Deborah and Jael as depicted in the book of judges.”
Magness previously said the story might have resonated with the Jewish community of Huqoq at the time because it was “described as taking place in the same geographic region”.
Other stories depicted in art and artifacts found at the site tell tales of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, the building of the Tower of Babel, the swallowing of Jonah, and the construction of Noah’s Ark, among others.
The synagogue was finally rebuilt around 1,000 years later during the Mamluk Sultanate, a period of Muslim rule in the region.
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