Umm el-Qanatir, also spelled Umm el-Kanatir ( ar, ام القناطر, lit=mother of the arches, translit=Umm al-Qanāṭir), also known as Ein Keshatot ( he, עין קשתות, lit=spring of the arches), is an archaeological site on the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

, whose main phase is dated to the mid-5th–8th centuries. Excavations have revealed a Roman-period settlement, first inhabited by pagans and later by

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, who left behind the ruins of an exquisite synagogue when they abandoned the town after it being destroyed by the catastrophic 749 earthquake. The site is located 10 kilometres east of the

Dead Sea Transform The Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system, also sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Rift, is a series of faults that run from the Maras Triple Junction (a junction with the East Anatolian Fault in southeastern Turkey) to the northern end of the ...

, one kilometre southwest of Natur. Identification attempts based on Jewish sources have led to two possible ancient names: Kantur, mentioned by Rabbi Menachem di Luzano in his book ''Ma'arikh'' (16th/early 17th century); and Qamtra, the name of a place mentioned in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

and with a Jewish past dating back to the Byzantine period.Stephen Rubin
Discovering Jewish History on the Golan Heights
on the website of The Tower and The Tower Magazine

Etymology

The Arabic word ''qantara'', pl. ''qanatir'', can mean arch, a bridge built of stone or masonry, an aqueduct or a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

, and a high building. The name of the site derives from its location 200 metres from a natural spring that flows from the cliff into three basins that were once topped by monumental basalt arches, one of which has survived. Some Israeli authorities are starting to use the new Hebrew name of Ein Keshatot ("Spring of the Arches"), such as seen on official

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

s. The site is also being advertised as Rehavam's Arches, so named after former Israeli Minister of Tourism,

Rehavam Ze'evi Rehavam Ze'evi ( he, רחבעם זאבי ; 20 June 1926 – 17 October 2001) was an Israeli general and politician who founded the right-wing nationalist Moledet party, mainly advocating population transfer. He was assassinated by Hamdi Quran ...

History

Ancient town: pagan, then Jewish

The site is believed to have been a pagan Roman town that venerated the nearby spring. Jews began to settle in the vicinity in 23 BCE. Early Jewish inhabitants of Umm el-Qanatir established a flax industry there, using the water for washing and whitening flax from which they wove fine cloth. The textiles were sold to wealthy residents in the nearby towns of

Sussita Hippos ( grc, Ἵππος, , horse) or Sussita (Aramaic, he, סוסיתא) is an ancient city and archaeology, archaeological site located on a hill 2 km east of the Sea of Galilee, attached by a topographical saddle to the western slopes of the ...

and Beit Saida. The villagers may have engaged in mixed farming, and raised sheep and olives, although no terracing has been found. The catastrophic 749 earthquake brought the settlement to an end.

Syrian village

Local Syrian shepherds continued to inhabit the ruins of Umm el-Qanatir into the 1950s, reusing the carved stones. The Syrian census of 1960 listed a farm here with 90 inhabitants.

Ancient synagogue

Use in antiquity (5th-8th century)

It was apparently in the fifth century that the Jewish residents built a large synagogue, which they embellished during the sixth century. The building was long by wide and calculated to have been high, making it one of the largest of at least 25 ancient synagogues discovered in the region. It was destroyed in the Golan earthquake of 749, when the Jewish inhabitants left the shattered settlement.

Rediscovery

The existence of a synagogue at the site was first documented in 1884, by Laurence Oliphant and Gottlieb Schumacher. Studia Post Biblica, Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery, Dan Urman and Paul V.M. Flesher
/ref> Amid ruined walls and large blocks of stone, Oliphant discovered a stone carving of a vulture, a fragment of a cornice, a large triangular slab that he believes was placed on the lintel of the main entrance and fragments of Corinthian capitals. The vulture, a well-known motif in ancient

Jewish art Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people, from its formation in ancient times until the current age. Judaism itself is not a faith-based religion, but an orthoprax and ethnoreligion, pertaining to deed, practice, and identity. Jewis ...

, particularly in the Golan and Galilee, is visible on a double column and on the front gable of the synagogue and might come from the same workshop as the decorated

Torah shrine A Torah ark (also known as the ''Heikhal'', or the ''Aron Kodesh'') refers to an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark, also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' or ''aron ha ...

base from 'En Samsam, another Golan Heights site.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction of the synagogue is under way, supervised by Yehoshua Dray and Haim Ben-David of Kinneret Academic College and

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academi ...

. The project, inaugurated in 2003, uses special high-tech computer technology to code and digitally record the stones. Blocks are then labelled with RFID chips and a special crane lifts and inserts them in the correct sequence. With the help of this technology, archaeologists believe the synagogue is being restored with great accuracy.Technology bringing history back to life
/ref>

References

External links

Photos of Umm el-Kanatir
from the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive {{Authority control Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire Classical sites on the Golan Heights Former populated places on the Golan Heights Ancient synagogues in the Land of Israel Israel National Heritage Site Ancient Jewish settlements of the Golan Heights 8th-century disestablishments in the Umayyad Caliphate Establishments in the Herodian kingdom