More on the ancient Jewish site in Phanagoria, Russia

ARCHAEOLOGY: Excavations of Early Synagogue by Black Sea Find Jewish Neighborhood. Phanagoria had a large Jewish community from the first century onward, served by a synagogue that would stand for 500 years – but not be rebuilt with the city (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Ms. Schuster delivers her usual thorough coverage, with new details and photos.

Regarding those manumission inscriptions that I mentioned in my previous post:

In service at the synagogue
Jews may have been in Phanagoria before the first century, but that is the time from which there is proof of their presence – in the form of manumission inscriptions the team unearthed from 16 and 51 C.E., Kuznetsov says. The inscriptions, written in ancient Greek, mention a "house of prayer" and a "synagogue."

"These are marble tablets which document the freeing of slaves," he says. More such records were discovered from the second century. The principle was that the slave could be freed on condition that they continue to serve at the synagogue, he adds.

Background here.

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