User:ClaireMarieR/sandbox

Ceiling of the Dura-Europos synagogue

The ceiling was believed to have been created between 244 CE and 245 CE; it was part of the retransformation from which the Dura-Europos synagogue derived. It was around 7m tall and had dimensions of ​​13.65m x 7.68m, like the assembly hall. It was later found out that the previous synagogue was also decorated similarly, including tiles decorated with fruits, shapes, and flowers. However, the Dura-Europos synagogue's ceiling was made up of even smaller tiles than the previous ceiling; it occupied a larger space and had a wider variety of tile inscriptions.

The synagogue's ceiling is made up of repeated tiles and inscriptions. The ceiling is often compared to aerial mosaics, similar to coffered ceilings that supported the tiles, which were already discovered in western societies, such as Roman and Hellenistic cities. The original placement of the tiles, between 244 CE and 245 CE, has not been clearly stated, but each tile was around 0.37 to 0.42 m2 and about 0.045 m in depth. They were formed out of terracotta, which was heated, then decorated and plastered to the above ceiling. Imprints of brick and wooden beams were located on the ceiling tile at the time of the synagogue's build and made the tiles' placement clearer.

A Capricorn Tile from the Dura-Europos Synagogue Ceiling

The tiles are consistent with either pictorial images or inscriptions being displayed. There were about 20 different pictorial tiles that were repeated across the ceiling. They varied from sea animals, land animals, grains, and vegetation to faces and females. Often displayed are female faces, which have been counted to recur 23 times on the ceiling and usually follow a particular pattern. The available prototypes are considered goddesses such as "Flora" or "Demeter-Persephone." Female faces were among the most popular pictorial tiles. Other popular pictorial types include vegetation, which consists of about 41 roses/flowers, a centaur, and pinecones, among others. Other tiles have a goat's head attached to a fishtail, which is often classified as a sea-goat; others are thought to represent Capricorn and Pisces. Another theme was the evil eye; an example is a tile featuring a double-lidded eye with a snake on either side. The same tile also had a scab, which was thought to be a scorpion, and three nails above the eye, with the inscription 'IAO'. Several tiles, both inscribed and pictorials, had mystical and symbolic meanings. Even though it is debated, some scholars claim that the entirety of the ceiling symbolizes heaven and enteral immortality. However, some uncertainty remains due to the paint not being recognizable on the tile after sun exposure. A total of 234 tiles were discovered and brought back at the time of discovery. However, there may be more that were destroyed and different designs that had not been discovered.  

The inscribed tiles were written in Greek or Aramaic and followed a specific prototype. The tiles saved were mainly in Greek; the prototype was the tile painted black, with a black and red leafy wreath on it, where text was confined. One of the first tiles discovered, in Greek, reads "(Samuel [son] of Yedaya, elder of the Jews founded [the building])", naming Archisynagogue Samuel as the 'founder' in 245 AD. Often names were mentioned, and it suggested that they were donors or people involved in the creation, reconstruction, or decoration of the synagogue; it is not clear what their roles were, but their involvement is evident.

Further Reading

• Elsner, Jaś. “Cultural Resistance and the Visual Image: The Case of Dura Europos.” Classical Philology 96, no. 3 (2001): 269–304.

• Fine, Steven, Steven S. Fine, and Prof Steven Fine. Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Hopkins, Clark. The Discovery of Dura-Europos. First edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
• J.A. Baird. (2011). Photographing Dura-Europos, 1928–1937: An Archaeology of the Archive. American Journal of Archaeology, 115(3), 427–446. https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.115.3.0427

• Olin, Margaret. “‘Early Christian Synagogues’ and ‘Jewish Art Historians’. The Discovery of the Synagogue of Dura-Europos.” Marburger Jahrbuch Für Kunstwissenschaft 27 (2000): 7–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/1348714.

Portfolio

Main Contributions

• The original article had information about grounding; however, it needed more information on wall painting and ceiling tiles. The wall paintings were briefly mentioned, especially their iconography. However, the ceiling tiles were not addressed; therefore, I decided to dedicate my time to the ceiling tiles and construction.  

• I have split up the section of the Dura-Europos synagogue ceiling into different paragraphs, each signifying various additional areas. The first displays the general understanding of the ceiling, and the second is an overview of the specific tiles that will be covered. This is followed by a description of the pictorial tiles’ in the third section and ends with the inscribed tiles and their meaning.

• I also divided the references from further reading that I found helpful in researching this topic. Although some sources are not cited in the text and were not used directly, they created a starter method, which made me want to and allowed me to dive deeper into the Dura-Europos synagogue.
• The “The Excavations at Dura-Europos / Final Report 8. Part I, The Synagogue / by Carl H. Kraeling” book took a lot of work to come across and required a library visit. However, his book was intensively crucial for this work. It was the basis of all the areas I was interested in pursuing. This was also the book most of the other articles cited, as a reference, showing the value other authors place on this text.
• Another journal that had a significant impact on my contribution to the article was "Mapping Devotion in Roman Dura Europos: A Reconsideration of the Synagogue Ceiling" by Karen B. Stern.

Extra Effort

• Other editors and I used similar sources and could use each other's citations, as overlapping was common. Therefore I engaged with an editor of this article and created the citations that could then be re-used and also added to.
• An editor of this article and I shared information and findings to agree on how we should split up the work to avoid overlapping. However, we both needed the “The Excavations at Dura-Europos / Final Report 8. Part I, The Synagogue / by Carl H. Kraeling” book, so we had the ability to contribute to each other's work through the reading.
• Various books and journals were hard to find and needed to be read at the library; these included: “The Excavations at Dura-Europos / Final Report 8. Part I, The Synagogue, by Carl H. Kraeling”, “The Discovery of Dura-Europos. By Clark Hopkins” and “Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology” by Steven Fine. However, this was extensive work that was only partially useful. I used this as a basis but needed to do additional research for a further in-depth view of the Dura-Europos Synagogue ceiling.
• I also added images to demonstrate the tiles on the ceiling that could be found online and were available to the public.  
• I also added a citation on the Wikipedia article as an edit to a part I did not write, that I thought was necessary.

• The grounding research for this topic was complex because the primary reading took time to find. It was a large quantity of information and created a lot of uncertainty that took longer to gather than expected. This was due to the complete unfamiliarity with the topic I was faced with initially.

Bibliography

• Elsner, Jaś. “Cultural Resistance and the Visual Image: The Case of Dura Europos.” Classical Philology 96, no. 3 (2001): 269–304.
  • This paper is a reliable source; it was published by the University of Chicago Press and covers the history of how the Dura-Europos synagogue was found and the paintings it contains. Although this is not directly coherent with my contribution, it is still a necessary reading contributing to my research.
• Fine, Steven, Steven S. Fine, and Prof Steven Fine. Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • Cambridge University Press published this book, so it should be a reliable source. It also covers the topic in depth, so it helps establish notability.
• Fischer, J. A. (1955). THE SYNAGOGUE PAINTINGS OF DURA-EUROPOS. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 17(2), 69–75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43710126
  • This journal paper was published by the Catholic Biblical Association, so it should be a reliable source. It also covers the topic of the Dura-Europos Synagogue ceiling and helps establish notability.
• Garte, E. (1973). The Theme of Resurrection in the Dura-Europos Synagogue Paintings. The Jewish Quarterly Review, 64(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.2307/1453575
  • The University of Pennsylvania Press published this paper, so it should be a reliable source. It covers the topic of the Theme of Resurrection in the Dura-Europos Synagogue and helps establish notability.

• GOODENOUGH, E. R. (1961). Judaism at Dura-Europos. Israel Exploration Journal, 11(4), 161–170. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27924866
  • This paper seems reliable and was published by the Israel Exploration Society and contains important components about an in-depth study of the Dura-Europos Synagogue structure and other elements.

• Hopkins, Clark. The Discovery of Dura-Europos.First edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
  • This book is reliable and was published by a University Press. It is a valuable source for my article contribution and helps establish nobility.
• J.A. Baird. (2011). Photographing Dura-Europos, 1928–1937: An Archaeology of the Archive. American Journal of Archaeology, 115(3), 427–446. https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.115.3.0427
  • The Archaeological Institute of America published this journal, so it should be a reliable source. It covers the topic in-depth, gives visual evidence, and helps establish notability.
• Kraeling, Carl Hermann, Alfred Raymond Bellinger, and Frank Edward Brown. The Excavations at Dura-Europos / Final Report 8. Part I, The Synagogue / by Carl H. Kraeling ; with Contributions by C. C. Torrey, C. B. Welles and B. Geiger. The Excavations at Dura-Europos. New Haven: Yale University press, 1956.
  • This book is very reliable and covers an in-depth description of the discovery of the Dura-Euorpos synagogue, and many other scholars cite it. A University Press published it, and it is verifiable.  
• Olin, Margaret. “‘Early Christian Synagogues’ and ‘Jewish Art Historians’. The Discovery of the Synagogue of Dura-Europos.” Marburger Jahrbuch Für Kunstwissenschaft 27 (2000): 7–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/1348714.
  • This is a reliable paper published by a University Press and is verifiable. The text is a secondary source and covers the Jewish art history of the synagogue and the Jewish elements that could be included in my contribution.
• STERN, KAREN B. (2010). "Mapping Devotion in Roman Dura Europos: A Reconsideration of the Synagogue Ceiling". American Journal of Archaeology. 114 (3): 473–504. ISSN 0002-9114.
  • This is a reliable paper and covers a majority of the synagogue ceiling information for my article. It was published by the Archaeological Institute of America and helps establish nobility.