Specialists Restore 1,500-Year-Old Beit Alfa Synagogue Mosaic Showing the Binding of Isaac
Israel's parks authority sent more than a dozen conservators to clean and stabilize the Byzantine-era floor, made of more than 800,000 tiny stones and first uncovered in 1928.
See where this is ›BEIT ALFA, Israel —
Conservation specialists from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority spent this week working on the mosaic floor of the ancient synagogue at Beit Alfa National Park in northern Israel, All Israel News reported Nov. 8.
More than a dozen specialists took part. They gently cleaned the surface, stabilized loose stones and refilled gaps with a mortar similar to the original, a process known as repointing.
“Our responsibility is to preserve this mosaic so that future generations can be moved by it,” said Orit Bortnik, director of the authority's Archaeology and Heritage Division. She said more than 800,000 tiny stones make up the floor.
See where this is ›The mosaic shows scenes familiar to Bible readers: the Ark of the Covenant and the binding of Isaac, the account in Genesis 22 of Abraham offering his son on Mount Moriah. It also includes Helios in a chariot, the signs of the zodiac and four female figures standing for the seasons.
Greek inscriptions name the artists as Marianus and his son Hanina. An Aramaic inscription mentions the “reign of Justinian,” which scholars link to the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, who ruled from A.D. 527 to 565.
The floor was first uncovered in 1928 by Prof. Eleazar Lipa Sukenik of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His son, Yigael Yadin, became a leading archaeologist and the second chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. According to the report, at least eight synagogues from the Byzantine period with zodiac mosaics have been found in the region.
