Umm el-Qanatir#ancient synagogue

{{Infobox religious building

| name = Umm el-Qanatir

| native_name = {{langx|ar|ام القناطر}}

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| image = אום אל קנאטיר 2.jpg

| image_upright = 1.4

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| caption = Partially reconstructed synagogue, in 2016

| religious_affiliation = Judaism {{small|(former)}}

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| organisational_status = {{ubl|Ancient synagogue|Archaeological site}}

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| functional_status = Ruins; partially reconstructed

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| location = Golan Heights

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| country = Israel

| map_type = Israel Golan

| map_size = 250

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| map_caption = Location of the ancient former synagogue in the Golan Heights

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| coordinates = {{coord|32|50|58.92|N|35|44|16.18|E|region:SY_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

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| website = {{url|einkeshatot.org.il}}

| module = {{Infobox ancient site

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| alternate_name = {{langx|he|עין קשתות}}
(Ein Keshatot)

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| abandoned = 749 CE

| epochs = Roman period to Umayyad period

| cultures = Hellenistic, Pagan, Jewish

| archaeologists = {{nowrap|Yehoshua "Yeshu" Dray}} {{small|(reconstruction)}}

| public_access = Yes

| type = Settlement

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Umm el-Qanatir, also spelled Umm el-Kanatir ({{langx|ar|ام القناطر|lit=mother of the arches|translit=Umm al-Qanāṭir}}), recent Israeli name Ein Keshatot ({{langx|he|עין קשתות|lit=spring of the arches}}), is a former ancient Jewish synagogue and archaeological site, located on the Golan Heights, in modern-day Israel, whose main phase is dated to the mid-5th–8th centuries.{{cite web |author=Rubin, Stephen |url=http://www.thetower.org/article/rebuilding-jewish-history-on-the-golan-heights/ |title=Discovering Jewish History on the Golan Heights |work=The Tower Magazine |date= |access-date= }} Excavations have revealed a Roman-period Pagan and later Jewish settlement, who left behind the ruins of a synagogue when they abandoned the town after it being destroyed by the catastrophic 749 earthquake.{{cite web |url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/far-from-the-madding-crowd-2-ein-keshatot/ |title=Far from the Madding Crowd – 2 – Ein Keshatot |work=The Times of Israel |date= |access-date= }}{{Cite journal |last1=Peterson |first1=John |last2=Kovrigo |first2=Hila |date=2019 |title=שימור מורשת התרבות |url=https://www.iaa-conservation.org.il/images//SMH%2002_2019_wb.pdf |journal=שימור מורשת התרבות |volume=2 |pages=104–114 |lang=he }}{{cite news |author=Rosenberg, S. G. |url=http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=133379 |title=The synagogue of Umm el-Kanatir |newspaper=Jerusalem Post |date=February 19, 2009 |access-date= }} The archaeological site is located {{cvt|10|km}} east of the Dead Sea Transform,{{cite journal |first1=Neta |last1=Wechsler |first2=Oded |last2=Katz |first3=Yehoshua |last3=Dray |first4=Ilana |last4=Gonen |title=Estimating location and size of historical earthquake by combining archaeology and geology in Umm-El-Qanatir, Dead Sea Transform |journal=Natural Hazards |publisher=Springer Media |date=July 2009 |pages=27–43 |volume=50 |issue=1 |doi=10.1007/s11069-008-9315-6 |bibcode=2009NatHa..50...27W |s2cid=140623417 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225785700 |access-date=10 July 2020}} and {{cvt|1|km|mi}} 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);{{cite web |author=Yassif, Eli |url=https://www.academia.edu/7490484 |title=Intertextuality in folklore: pagan themes in Jewish folktales from the Early Modern Era |date= |access-date= }} and Qamtra, the name of a place mentioned in the Talmud and with a Jewish past dating back to the Byzantine period.{{cite journal |author1=Urman, Dan |author2=Flesher, Paul Virgil McCracken |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQyxvmYV-50C&pg=PA549 |via=Google Books |title=Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery |page=549 |publisher=Brill |edition=2nd |journal=Studia Post Biblica |number=47 (Themes in Biblical Narrative) |volume=1 & 2 |isbn=9789004112544 |access-date=5 September 2018 }}

Etymology

File:Um el Kantar1.JPG

The Arabic word qantara, pl. qanatir, can mean arch,{{cite book |first=E. H. |last=Palmer |author-link=Edward Henry Palmer |year=1881 |url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft |title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer |publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund |page=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/23/mode/1up 23] |access-date=10 July 2020}} a bridge built of stone or masonry, an aqueduct or a dam, and a high building.{{cite book |author=van Donzel, Emeri Johannes |author-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |title=Islamic Desk Reference |publisher=BRILL |year=1994 |page=24 |isbn=9789004097384 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zHxsWspxGIIC&pg=PA24 |access-date=10 July 2020 |via=Google Books }}

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 stamps.{{cite web |work=Israel Post |title=Israel's National Heritage – Landmarks |url=http://virtualstampclub.com/lloydblog/?p=243 |location=Ein Keshatot, Golan |date=February 11, 2014 |via=virtualstampclub.com |access-date=5 September 2018}} The site is also being advertised as Rehavam's Arches, so named after former Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Ze'evi.{{cite web |url=https://info.goisrael.com/en/golan-trail-umm-el-kanatir |title=To Rehavam's Arches |work=Israel Ministry of Tourism |date= |access-date=5 September 2018 }}

History

=Ancient town: Pagan, then Jewish=

File:אום אל קנטיר נוף.jpg

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.{{cite web |author1=Gurtler, Amy |author2=Haimann, Julie |author3=Simmons, Caroline |url=https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.gwu.edu/dist/6/1613/files/2018/11/Haimann-Gurtler-Simmons-wtlua9.pdf |title=Syrian-Israeli peace in the Golan: No walk in the park |work=IMES Capstone Serie |publisher=George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, Inst. for Middle East Studies |date=April 2010 |access-date=10 July 2020 }} 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 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.{{cite book |author=Kipnis, Yigal |title=The Golan Heights |publisher=Routledge |place=London and New York |year=2013 |page=244 |isbn= }}

Ancient synagogue

File:בית הכנסת העתיק קנאטיר.jpg

=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 {{convert|18|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} long by {{convert|13|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} wide and calculated to have been {{convert|12|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} 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. 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, 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 base from 'En Samsam, another Golan Heights site.{{cite journal |author=Ḥachlili, Rachel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JswUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA333 |via=Google Books |title=Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Land of Israel |journal=Motifs of Jewish Art | date=1988 |page=333 | isbn=90-04-08115-1 |access-date=5 September 2018 }}{{cite journal |author=Hachlili, Rachel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jRjhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 |title=Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current Research |page=147 |publisher=Brill |year=2013 |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section 1 |journal=The Near and Middle East (Book 105) |isbn=978-9004257733 |access-date=5 September 2018 }}{{cite web |url=http://cojs.org/en-samsam-2 |title=Torah shrine base |work=En Samsam |location=Golan Heights |access-date=5 September 2018 }}

=Reconstruction=

File:Um el Kantar9.JPG

Reconstruction of the synagogue was completed{{when?|date=October 2024}} thanks to Yehoshua Dray and Haim Ben-David of Kinneret Academic College and Bar-Ilan University. The project, inaugurated in 2003, used special high-tech computer technology to code and digitally record the stones. Blocks were then labelled with RFID chips and a special crane lifted and inserted them in the correct sequence.{{cite web |url=http://www.teva.org.il/english/?CategoryID=197&ArticleID=221 |title=For the Love of the Land: The Golan Heights |work=teva.org.il |date= |access-date= }} With the help of this technology, the synagogue was restored with great accuracy.{{cite web |url=http://english.cntv.cn/program/newsupdate/20100908/100791.shtml |title=Technology bringing history back to life |work=CNTV Canada |date=8 September 2010 |access-date= }}