Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered what they believe to be the remains of a synagogue dating from the 7th century C.E. that was dedicated by a grieving father to his deceased child.
The remains were found under a modern residential house at ongoing excavations in Side, an ancient port between Antalya and Alanya on southern Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Side has an important complex of ancient ruins, including a theatre, and extensive excavations have been going on there for decades.
Though historical sources had shown that Jews had lived there in antiquity, the discovery represented the first tangible evidence, the head of the excavations, Anadolu University Classical Archaeology Department professor Dr. Feriştah Alanyalı, told the Demirören News Agency (DHA).
She said the site was identified as a synagogue thanks to an inscription, with the depiction of a menorah, stating that a Jewish father had paid for its renovation in memory of his son.
“We excavated a synagogue from under a house,” she told DHA. “
An inscription in the middle of it, she said, read that a Joseph from Korakesion dedicated it to his son Daniel. Daniel, she said, was a baby who died at the age of 2-1/2; Joseph paid for the renovation of the synagogue in his memory.
There was a notable Jewish presence in ancient times what is today’s Turkey. An exhibition in Istanbul last month (November 2021) called Jewish Identity Engraved on Stones focused on the archaeological findings — including inscriptions and remains of synagogues — that demonstrate a Jewish presence that goes back more than 2,500 years.