Materiality and Communal Bondage. The Archaeological Evidence of the Jewish Communities in Syria in the Second Half of the Fourth Century.

Abstract

Little is known about the Jewish communities of Syria at the end of the 4th century. We have literary sources such as John Chrysostom and Libanius but they provide little information about their practices and ideas. This paper aims to address the problem of Jewish identity in Syria from the epigraphic and archaeological sources of two of the most relevant cities in the area which we know had at least one synagogue: Antioch and Apamea. Based on the contributions of the “material turn” that suggests that objects are not mere representations or symbols but rather have agency and act by modifying the experiences of men, we will maintain that this material evidence –epitaphs in Beth She' arim and the diaspora, as well as the mosaic floor of the Apamea synagogue– are configured as social agents that build community bond. Local identity in late antiquity undergoes a transformation, from which the religious component becomes quite relevant in its formation. In this sense, it also becomes supralocal and the Jews of these cities are interested in relating to spaces that are significant to them, generating a kind of social networks that are shaped and produced, in turn, by the action of the objects and places linked to them.