This burial stone from the 5th century CE, found in Zoar, near the southern shore of the Dead Sea, shows the influence of Hebrew and Judaism on the kingdom of Himyar. The Kingdom of Himyar was unique in that it was a nationally Jewish kingdom located outside of the Land of Israel. The kingdom dates back to the early 2nd cent. BCE and in the 4th century CE it expanded from what is now Yemen into much of the southern part of Arabia. The Kingdom of Himyar converted to Judaism in the 4th century CE.

Yigal Bloch, ed., Yemen: From Sheba to Jerusalem (Jerusalem: The Bible Lands Museum, 2020).

These Epitaphs, found on catacombs in Venusia, Italy, date from the 4th to 6th century CE. The epitaphs give insight into the members of the community and their relation to one another as well as their status. The Epitaph of Faustina—pictured here—mentions that rabbis and apostles were present at her funeral; these figures may have been associated with the Patriarchate, which ceased to exist in the 420s. The use of Hebrew and the Menorah in the epitaph likely represent a process of communal Hebraization.

David Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe. Vol. 1: Italy (excluding the City of Rome), Spain and Gaul (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

These tefillin, found in the caves of Qumran (until late 1st cent.) vary in design, unlike today’s tefillin. The tefillin are pouches with scrolls inside with excerpts from the Shema and other texts now used in tefillin and mezuzot. One type of the tefillin models is reminiscent of the form prescribed by the rabbis. The variations in text and build of the tefillin could also be representative of the diversity of traditions used concurrently.

Yehudah Cohn, Tangled up in Text: Tefillin and the Ancient World (Providence, R.I: Brown Judaic Studies, 2008).

This mosaic (2.75x4.3 meters), found in Northern Israel in the Rehov Synagogue, now resides in the Israel museum. This mosaic was added to the synagogue in the 6th or 7th century in the antechamber and is made of black and white limestone tesserae. It is made up of a number of texts in Hebrew and Aramaic using early Palestinian spelling and grammar, primarily quoting the Jerusalem Talmud. The content of the texts teaches how halakhah relates to the economy and political geography of Jews in late ancient Palestine.

Yaacov Sussmann, “The Inscription in the Synagogue at Rehob,” in Lee I. Levine, ed., Ancient Synagogues Revealed (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981), 146-151.

The Magdala Synagogue Stone (.6 x .5 x .4 meters) from the Second Temple Period was found in a synagogue in Migdal on the Kinneret. The stone has imagery carved into it and mirrors elements of the Temple in Jerusalem including a Menorah. The use of the stone is unclear: it could have been used for Torah reading outside Jerusalem, contextualizing the synagogue as a religious center rather than purely social. Ultimately, though, the use of synagogues at the time remains unclear.

Isabel Kershner, “A Carved Stone Block Upends Assumptions About Ancient Judaism,” The New York Times, December 8, 2015 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/middleeast/magdala-stone-israel-judaism.html.

This inscription is from an Egyptian proseuche—a Greek word for “house of prayer” (some other inscriptions and texts describe “synagogues”—places of congregation). Inscriptions like this date from the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd CE. Jewish places of worship were widespread in Egypt and many were dedicated to Egyptian rulers, likely representing the legal acceptance of these prayer spaces. There are also dedications to Jewish members of communities, which suggests the diversity of social class and mobility among Jews.

Horbury, William, and David Noy. Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

These incense shovels were found in the Cave of Letters, near the Dead Sea, alongside remains relating to the Bar Kokhba revolt. It is not clear what the shovels were used for; there are suggestions that they were used to transport incense to and from the altar or maybe incense were burned on the shovels themselves. Contextualizing them is more difficult under the theory that the shovels were stolen from a Roman military camp. Another theory is that the shovels were used in cultic sites in Judea, since similar depictions of them are found in later synagogue iconography.

Richard A. Freund, Secrets of the Cave of Letters: Rediscovering a Dead Sea Mystery (Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books, 2004).

This ritual bath, termed mikvah anachronistically, was built by Hasmoeans around 125 BCE in Jericho. The two pools are located on the site of the Burial Palace in Jericho, which elites would come to from Jerusalem. There are different considerations about what can be learned from the building of this Mikvah, including its reflection of Hellenistic bathing practices and how Hasmoneans may have been using this building project to assert their power in Judea.

Danielle Steen Fatkin. “Invention of a Bathing Tradition in Hasmonean Palestine.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 50, no. 2 (May 14, 2019): 155–77.

These Jewish Catacombs in Rome date from the 3rd to 5th centuries CE. The catacombs show how Jews were integrated into society: they were dispersed throughout the city—the Jews were not restricted to one location; they have Greek and Latin inscriptions—the Jews were immersed in the local language; and they list diverse professions—they were integrated in the economy. Yet they still have explicitly Jews symbols, like Menorahs, showing they could be public about their faith.

Elsa Laurenzi, Jewish Catacombs: The Jews of Rome—Funeral Rites and Customs (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2013).