Priene Synagogue

The Priene Synagogue is a former ancient Jewish synagogue, that was discovered in the modern-day town of Priene in Güllübahçe, Söke, in the Aydın Province, in the Aegean Region, on the western boundary of Turkey. The former synagogue building is now an archaeological site and Jewish museum.

The synagogue was discovered by archaeologists Theodor Wiegand and Hans Schrader in the western residential area in 1895–98. The synagogue dates from the 2nd century CE and was built into an older Hellenistic house. It consists of a main hall with two rows of columns forming a small basilica. Only one column was still in place. However, in the 1904 excavation report they mistakenly speculated that the structure was a house church.^[2]

In 1928, archaeologist Eleazar Sukenik identified the building as a synagogue, pointing to a niche for the Torah Ark. He also noted the carved menorah near the niche. It is known that hundreds of thousands of Jews lived in Asia Minor in the 1st century CE. Only two confirmed synagogues have been discovered: the Sardis Synagogue and this second one in Priene.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 2009 archeologists Nadin Burkhardt from the University of Frankfurt am Main and Mark Wilson of the Asia Minor Research Center in Izmir began an exploration of the synagogue in a dig sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society.^[3][4]

1. ^ With one source claiming 4th or 5th century.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Ancient Synagogue in Priene". Historic Synagogues of Europe. Foundation for Jewish Heritage and the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. n.d. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
2. ^ Schrader, Hans; Wiegand, Theodor (1904). Priene. Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen in den Jahren 1895–1898 (in German). Berlin. pp. 480–481. The excavation report online.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
3. ^ Wilson, Mark. "Letter from the Field: An Ancient Synagogue Comes to Light". Biblical Archaeology Review. Archived from the original on December 15, 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
4. ^ Burkhardt, Nadin; Wilson, Mark (2013). "The Late Antique Synagogue in Priene: Its History, Architecture, and Context". Gephyra. 10: 166–196.

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