Not ancient synagogues after all?

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Monumental Ancient Structure in Central Israel Isn’t a Synagogue After All. On the road to Beit Guvrin, Israeli archaeologists found two structures they thought were synagogues. Wrong both times (Viktoria Greenboim Rich, Haaretz).

Oddly, the article does not name the site where the two ruins are located. It appears to be Khirbet Midras (Horvat Midras, Hirbet Madras) on which more here and links.

Results like these illustrate how cautious we should be about identification of ancient ruins as certain types of buildings or as used for certain purposes.

I have some related thoughts here, albeit involving a much older site.

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