page_title: Huqoq
section_title: Mosaic iconography
hierarchical_section_title: Huqoq / Archaeology / Ancient synagogue / Mosaic iconography
caption_attribution_description: עברית: רצפת פסיפס שנמצאה בחוקוק בשנת 2012 הכוללת פני אישה וכתובת של שש שורות שחלקה נפגם הכוללת ברכה. המילים שזוהו בכתובת הם "...בכל מצותכן יהא עמלכן...שלום",English: Huqoq Inscription and face from the Ancient synagogue
context_page_description: Huqoq or Hukkok was an ancient Jewish village, located 12.5 km north of Tiberias.
  The area had been settled since ancient times and is mentioned in the Book of Joshua. The Arab village Yaquq was built at Huqoq's location, and a kibbutz named Hukok was established near the site on 11 July 1945.
context_section_description: The mosaic includes of the Biblical hero Samson. The figure of Samson appears twice: carrying the gates of Gaza, and tying burning torches to the tails of foxes. Samson and the foxes is an episode from the Book of Judges (Judges 15:1-8). During a battle with the Philistines, Samson catches 300 wild foxes, ties burning torches to their tails and sets them loose to set fire to Philistine grain fields.
  According to archaeologist Jodi Magness, the discovery is significant because "only a small number of ancient (Late Roman) synagogue buildings are decorated with mosaics showing biblical scenes, and only two others have scenes with Samson (one is at another site just a couple of miles from Huqoq)." 
  The mosaic also shows two human faces, apparently female, flanking a Hebrew inscription promising a reward to those who perform good deeds. In 2018, photographs of newly discovered mosaics were published in conjunction with a 70-page interim report of the excavations from 2014–2017. The new publication shows that the floor mosaic also  depicts Noah's Ark, the twelve Israelite spies (Numbers 13:1-33), and Moses' parting of the Red Sea, themes that are rarely, if ever, found in synagogues of the time. Other images show Jonah being swallowed by the fish and the building of the Tower of Babel. The mosaic also incorporates pagan Hellenistic images such as cupids and theatre masks, and an obscure cluster of important looking men, one of whom may be Alexander the Great, next to soldiers and war elephants. If Magness' theory is correct, this would be the only case of a synagogue being decorated with non-Biblical imagery. Another theory is that the two groups, one dressed in armour and the other in white robes, represent the alliance between the Seleucids and the high priest John Hyrcanus.
caption: Huqoq mosaic inscription and face
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