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An oil lamp found in the
ruins of Aquileia, a Roman city at the head of the Adriatic Sea. The Judaic
community of Aquileia numbered in the thousands. It was one of the major Judaic
centers of the period, and yet it is absent from history.
Photograph by the author, reproduced by courtesy of the Aquileia Museum |
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The Jews of Aquileia
A Judaic Community - Lost in History
Fact Paper
28
© Samuel
Kurinsky, all rights reserved
[Reprinted from:
Hebrew History Federation, Ltd. -
http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp028_aquilea.htm]
A Judaic
Community, Lost to HistoryMany
significant Judaic communities have disappeared without a trace and will be
forever lost in a historical limbo. There are others about which some meager
physical traces have survived, or about whom ancient literature offers a
passing, peripheral mention. There are also cases in which the type or quality
of an activity that took place in a town or a region reflects the existence of a
Judaic community. Taken together, such traces allow us to attempt to restore
that community to its historical context.
A prime example of historical omission, yet not an
untypical one, is that of a sizeable and dynamic Judaic community that existed
and flourished in Aquileia. Not even the Encyclopedia Judaica offers a
hint of the existence of this bustling Judaic community, a community that
numbered in the thousands and was vital to the development of Roman traffic to
the East and to the Roman exploitation of Central Europe.
The city of Aquileia was a major Roman
metropolis at the head of the Adriatic Sea, half-way between present-day Venice
and Trieste. We are fortunate in that some physical traces of its existence and
a few literary references to the community did survive. Most revelatory,
however, are indicative industries that flourished in the region. Roman
Aquileia, and several other towns of the region, were glassmaking centers, and
glassmaking was uniquely a Judaic art at the time.1
References to the production of silk textiles in the region, give us another
clue to Judaic presence, for, again, sericulture was then uniquely a Judaic art.2
The production of other types of textiles and a substantial dyeing industry,3
albeit not exclusively Judaic arts, were nonetheless strong indications that
Jews were active at their typical occupations in Aquileia.
The Port City of
Aquileia Aquileia was established by the
Romans as a major gateway to imports from the East, both of goods and artisans.
The city assumed increasing significance as the Roman legions established
outposts along the rivers that traverse the alpine Dolomites to lofty passes
into Pannonia and Nordica and out to all of Central Europe. The routes stretched
out as far as the Baltic coast. The port of Aquileia also acted as a funnel
through which products from the East and of Central Europe reached Rome itself.
The commercial traffic through Aquileia was not far second in importance to that
of the seaports opposite Rome itself along the Ligurian coast of the
Mediterranean.
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GLASSWARE PRODUCTION IN
NORTHEAST ITALY IN THE ROMAN PERIOD
The Romans constructed
roads from Rome to Aquileia, which became a hub for trade from the East. Jews
were prominent among the artisans and tradesmen who flocked into the region.
Glassware was first imported into, and then produced at Aquileia, Adria, Altino,
and the Istrian Peninsula, and later at
Padua (Padova) and Spina. Primary glassmaking was then introduced into the area,
and the art began to spread westward into northern Italy, only to diminish with
the Christian persecution of the Jews, and finally to disappear with the
invasion of the Huns. |
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The Judaic community of Aquileia is among the
many Judaic communities of substantial size and importance whose history has
escaped the attention of historians.4
There are two noteworthy exceptions. Yves-Marie Duval recognized that the
evident obliteration of a history is in itself proof that it existed. "There can
be no doubt," she wrote after studying the voluminous writings and
correspondence of
St. Jerome and others, that one
can abstract the existence of thousands of Jews in Aquileia and the region."5
Luila Gracco-Ruggini likewise proved to be a rare exception to the historians
who have relegated the Jews to a faceless presence among the Orientali
by taking note of the many oblique references to the notable Judaic
influence on Christian affairs in Aquileia, and to the record of the immigration
of Jews into Aquileia.6
Italian scholars of the region refer to a
large proportion of the Aquileian population as
Orientali, or "Easterners" and in some cases to Siriani,
or "Syrians," blanket terms that include Jews. A few of these scholars did take
cursory note of references to the Judaic presence in Aquileia and nearby towns
in Christian literature, but none delved further into the subject.6
A considerable Judaic population is manifested by the iconographic appearance of
numerous hellenized and latinized names of Levantine immigrants, but the Italian
archaeologists termed the immigrants Syriani, that is from
"Syro-Palestina," as the former Israel and Judah had been renamed by the Romans.7
The fact that a significant and sizable Judaic
community did exist is attested, as we shall see, by the certainty that at least
one, and probably several, sizeable synagogues existed. The Aquileian Judaic
community appears, indeed, to have been one of the largest and most economically
influential of the Diaspora, exceeded only by those of Rome and Alexandria.
There are also indications that eastern
merchants were active in the area long before the Romans arrived. Aerial surveys
show the existence of a pre-Roman city of which nothing is known.8
Who were the pre-Roman settlers who constructed this port and other such ports
along the northern littoral of the Adriatic? The indigenous tribes were not
seafaring people. The logical candidates for the establishment of a port
facility are either the Greeks or the Canaanites (the so-called Phoenicians). No
evidence of Greek culture has been found in the area. But there is one type of
evidence found that points further east. It consists of pre-Roman, distinctly
Levantine glass artifacts. They were found not only at Aquileia, but also in the
graves of peoples across the Alps.
Neither the people of the region nor the Greeks
were privy to the secrets of making glass or glassware at this early time.
There are two reasonable routes for the arrival of
glass artifacts in that region from the Levant, across southern Russia into the
Danube basin or through the Adriatic. During the Roman period evidence of the
actual production of glass and glassware suddenly appeared at Aquileia and at
other centers at the head of the Adriatic: Altino, Spina and Adria of the
western flank and around to the east at
Pola and the Istrian peninsula. The art began to spread through the Po
Valley and up into central Europe when its advance was terminated by the
invasion of the "barbarians" who swept in from Asia over the Dolomites and
effectively brought the advance of civilization to a halt in the area.
But we are getting ahead of our story. The
disastrous circumstances brought about by
Attila the Hun were but the last of the traumatic experiences suffered by
both the glassmaking industry of the region and the people who performed the
art. The introduction and development of the art of glassmaking are peculiarly
parallel to the introduction and growth of a Judaic community [see
The Judaic Origins
of Venetian Glass]. The decline of the industry is parallel to the
decimation of the Jewish presence by Christian persecution. The disappearance of
the art from the region coincides with the disappearance of the Jews from the
region’s records.
Industrial Evidence of
Judaic Presence It may be
that the upper Adriatic littoral was the first area of the European continent to
which the art of primary glassmaking arrived from the Levant, where it had been
practiced for two thousand years. Primary glass making is the production of
glass and glassware from raw materials rather than from previously manufactured
glass in the form of ingots or cullet (broken glass). It appears that the art
may have arrived in the region earlier or at least no later than it appeared
around Rome itself. At least, the earliest evidence extant of primary
glassmaking on the European continent comes from Aquileia.Imported glass
artifacts were also a conspicuous part of the Levantine cargos unloaded along
the five kilometers of canals that led in from the Adriatic to service the city.
Glassmakers soon followed. There is no doubt as to where these artisans came
from. The technology employed by them, and the physical characteristics of the
locally produced goods are identical to those made in and imported from the
Galilee and from Alexandria.
There do exist inscriptions that indicate a
significant Judaic presence in the great Roman port from the earliest period of
Roman influence, several centuries before the Christians made themselves felt in
the region. Many inscriptions identify the deceased by vocation, and often
specify that the deceased was either a slave or a freeman (but a foreigner). A
number of the industries thus documented are those in which the Jews were
dominant. The textile industry is well represented among these inscriptions, and
the complexity and sophistication of the industry is delineated by the fine
distinctions among the categories of the arts involved in the industry. This is
true of textile materials (wool, linen and silk), and in the quality of the
textiles produced. Thus, the vestiarii, the practicers of the art of
garment manufacture, were composed of tenuarii (the producers of fine
quality garments) and the centonarii (the producers of crude fabrics used
for slave’s’s clothing and for putting out fires!). Women were part of the labor
force, as exemplified by an inscription that identifies the deceased as
lanifica Trosia Hilara, a weaver-tailoress of woolen clothing.
The art of dyeing textiles is represented in
inscriptions about an infector
(dyer) and about several purpurii (specialists in the colors ranging from
purple and blue to crimson).9
The art of dyeing at the stage of development at which it was practiced in
Aquileia was largely a Judaic art throughout Europe into the modern age. The
capabilities of the less-developed pre-Roman indigenous population of the region
were far short of the sophisticated textile operations being performed in the
great Adriatic port. The large proportion of eastern immigrants in the Aquileian
population leaves little doubt that the weaving and dyeing industries were
conducted principally by the Jews among them.
The metal-working industry of Aquileia was likewise
complex. It was separated into lead-, iron-, gold-, and silver-smithing,
performed at first by imported eastern slaves. Lead was used largely for
conduits; One slave left a leaden tube to be used for his headstone, on which
was inscribed: Aq(uileiae) Iuvinalus f(acit) which translates to
"Iuvinalus of Aquileia made this". By the Roman period, bronze and ferric
metallurgy had long since spread across Europe, and therefore the fact that it
was being performed in the Aquileian area does not of itself indication the
ethnicity of the smiths. However, as in the case of weaving and dyeing
industries, the sophisticated state of Aquileian metallurgy together with the
largely hellenized or latinized names of its practicers weighs in favor of its
being performed by Easterners who formed the bulk of the Aquileian industrial
work force. The names of slaves are common among these industrial workers.
Two of the most intriguing of these individuals are
those of glassware producers. These names are remarkable for three reasons:
First of all because their vessels are among the earliest produced on the
European continent. Second, because of their rarity. They are among the first
few names of glassware producers appearing anywhere on earth. Third, because one
of these glassmaking slaves was a woman.
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The best-known of all the
glassmakers of the Roman period is ENNION, whose signature in Greek appears on
glassware imported from Eretz Israel, the "Land of Israel." Ennion is a
Greek transcription of the Hebrew name Ananiah. Vessels signed by an
equally famed glassmaker of the period "Aristeas of Sidon," have likewise been
found in Italy. A family tomb in Beth Shearim, Israel, bears the same
inscription and is probably that of the glassmaker’s family.
Photograph
courtesy of the Corning Museum of Glass. |
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Glassmaking was a mysterious art in Europe at
the turn of the Common Era.10
The production of glassware was just being introduced into Rome at this early
period.11
The introduction of the art into Aquileia is evidenced by the signatures molded
into the vessels. Two glass vessels were found in Linz, an Austrian city of the
Danube River that lies along the Roman route across the Dolomites. The vessels
bear the molded name Sentia Secunda facit Aquileiae vitra, which informs
us not only that the vessels was made in Aquileia but the feminine form of the
producer, Sentia Secunda, marks it as being that of a woman. She was also
a slave, as was another such glassmaker who proudly molded both his name and
slave status into his vessels: C. Salvius Gratus. Salvius was a name
which identified its owner as a slave, and which later carried on to become the
proud name of many Venetian families of high status and repute.
The shards of glassware bearing the name Ennion, that of a glassware
producer of Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel, have also turned up in the
ruins of Aquileia. The hellenized name Ennion appears on some thirty
extant samples of its bearer’s work. It a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew
name Ananiah, and is the best known of the few ancient glassmakers whose
names we know.12
Documentary evidence of a substantial Judaic presence
comes from Christian sources. The Judaic community, and the industries in which
they were dominant, both of which had flourished during the first few centuries
of the Christian Era, suffered through a particularly virulent persecution in
Aquileia.
Christianity was implanted into the Aquileian
region early on in apostolic times before the end of the third century. St.
Peter dispatched St. Mark to Aquileia from Rome, where it is presumed he wrote
or translated his Gospel into Greek. St. Hermagoras was born in Aquileia
and was consecrated the first bishop of Italy over a diocese that ranks next
only to Rome in antiquity. By the end of the fourth century, Valerian
presided in Aquileia over the bishoprics of Venetia,
Istria, Nordicum, Pannonia and Como.13
The destiny of the Jews awaited the resolution of
the initial struggle of the church against the pagans and the Arians, Christians
who regarded Jesus as human. Chromazio, the episcopal head of the church in
Aquileia, after crushing these "heretical" groups, turned his attention to the
Jews. A most malevolent repression ensued, and Judaic institutions were
demolished. From this period forward the presence of the Jews in Aquileia and
the contribution they had made to the development of the port was methodically
eradicated.
A Synagogue Razed
No Judaic structure survived into the fifth century, and physical traces of the
Jewish presence are relegated to a few literary, inscriptural, morphological,
and indirect references. The existence of at least one great synagogue is
attested by a funerary inscription of the third to early-fourth-century,
significantly dedicated to the daughter of the head of the elders of the
synagogue. "There cannot be any doubt that in Aquileia... at least until 388, a
synagogue existed,"14
unequivocally states Luila Cracco Reggini, a historian who who delved into
Chromazio’s campaign against the Jews and their influence. The fact that such a
synagogue existed cannot be denied, however, specifically because of a reference
to it by St. Ambrose after its destruction. Christian arsonists had been
accused of deliberately bringing about its destruction. Denying the allegation,
Ambrose penned a letter to Emperor Theodric in December 388, characterizing the
event as "an act of providence."15
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The
Paleo-Christian Museum of Monastero.
Photograph by the
author by courtesy of the Aquileian Museum |
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Ambrose resided in Aquileia, as did
St. Jerome. It is very likely that St. Jerome’s Aquileian experience led him
to pen a treatise, Romano Occupato, in which he complained bitterly and
resentfully that the Semitic artisans, mosaicists, and sculptors were
everywhere, and that not only was retail trade in their hands, but that they
also controlled the production and export of industrial products such as those
made of glass, silk and leather. He cited glassmaking as one of the trades "by
which the Semites had captured the Roman world."16
At Monastero, a suburb of Aquileia within sight of
the Roman ruins of the city, stands a simple but substantial modern structure
whose facade bears a bold inscription that proclaims it to be a "Paleo-Christian
Museum." The museum is essentially a large hall housing a magnificent mosaic
floor composed of a complex of geometric patterns. Some fifty of these inserts
distributed throughout the mosaic floor encompass the names of its donors.
Intruding upon the integral design of the floor is the stubble of the walls of a
subsequent building. The crude ashlar blocks rip through the masterfully wrought
mosaic patterns and through the names of the donors. It is clear that those
responsible for the walls were not merely indifferent to but contemptuous of the
mosaic remnants of a building that had stood on that very spot.
The mosaic floor was, despite the museum’s
name, clearly that of a synagogue. The floor was complete with a dedication to
the Sabbath and replete with a recurrent interwoven motif known in Italy as the
Nodo di Salomone
and elsewhere as "Solomon’s knot" or as "Solomon’s seal." This symbol of Solomon
appears in many Judaic structures of the period, as, for example, in the
Sicilian remnants of Judaic architecture to which "Jewish elements, such as the
‘Seal of Solomon’ were added."17
The sole remaining mosaic fragment of a floor of a synagogue of another vital
Roman port at Ostia, is of the Solomon’s seal. Likewise, the symbol appears
prominently as part of a mosaic synagogue floor found under the ruins of an
eleventh century church at Vercelli, a town south of Milan.
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A small section of the
mosaic floor housed in the Paleo-Christian Museum. The walls of an early
Christian structure cut crudely across the pattern of the mosaic. Solomon’s
Knot, a Judaic symbol, appears as a motif throughout the floor.
Photograph by the author by courtesy of the Aquileian Museum |
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Some fifty donors are acknowledged in
separate panels as financiers of a section of the mosaic floor. The names are in
Latin and Greek, but most of the names are of distinctly Hebraic character or
origin. The archaeologists and historians who first viewed the names were
astounded at the Hebraic origin of the names, and wrote frankly about their
observations. In 1949, Giovanni Brusin noted in The Grand edifice discovered
at Monastero in Aquileia, that "Both the Latin and the Greek epitaphs here
in evidence make manifest their Semitic origins." Francesco Vattoni upon
re-examining them in 1972, was more specific in The Judaic names in the
epigraphy of the Monastero of Aquileia. F, Cassola followed a few years
later in Aquileia and the Eastern Mediterranean by writing that the names
are "partly composed of classic names, Greek and Latin, but are predominantly of
semitic origin."18
One of these donors is registered as dedicating
fifty square meters of the floor to the Sabbath. An altar table of the original
structure survived. It stands in the museum bearing a label that identifies it
as being "of eastern design."
Adjoining the mosaic floor in the museum is a
platform on which are presented mosaic floors of small private dwellings
unearthed in the immediate vicinity of the erstwhile synagogue. The mosaics of
these floors are imaginatively arranged in different patterns, but each is even
more densely spotted with the "Solomon’s knot" than is the floor of the
synagogue. The distinctive design is a feature they all display in common.
Notwithstanding the unmistakable evidence housed in the museum presented by
these dwellings and the mosaic synagogue floor, the museum still insists on
identifying itself and its contents as "Paleo-Christian"!
Nearby Monastero, in a separate sector of
Aquileia, the elaborate floors and stumps of the walls of the sumptuous villas
of the former Roman overlords lie exposed. Many of these Roman houses have been
brought to light. Their floors are composed of magnificent mosaics, obviously
wrought by the same skilled artisans who laid the floors of the synagogue and
adjoining houses. Remarkably, they show no signs of the "Solomon’s knot" so
ubiquitous to the floors of the synagogue and small houses around it.19
It is the opinion of the author that not only is
the floor preserved in the so-named "Paleo-Christian Museum" of Monastero the
remnant of an ancient synagogue, but that the floor of an even greater
synagogue, perhaps the main synagogue of Aquileia, lies beneath the grand
basilica of Aquileia. It is more likely to have been the one for whose
destruction by Christian arsonists was stated by Ambrogion to have been nought
but "an act of Providence."
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One of many small mosaic
floors recovered from around the structure housed in the Paleo-Christian Museum.
Each floor has a different pattern but all of them incorporated the "Solomon’s
Knot" into their design. None of the Roman villas, clustered a short distance
away, employed the Judaic motif.
Photograph by the
author by courtesy of the Aquileian Museum |
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The basilica rises above a vast and
magnificent mosaic floor which had lain more than a meter below the actual floor
of the basilica before its accidental discovery. It extends the entire length of
the great basilica and passes below its presbytery out to an undetermined end.
As in the case of the Monastero superstructure, the base of the interior columns
of the basilica were implanted indiscriminately into and across the mosaic
panels.20
The major feature of the design of the mosaic is a grand tripartite depiction of
the story of Jonah being first swallowed by a sea monster, then being
regurgitated, and finally resting thankfully and prayerfully upon terra firma.21
A campanile,
or bell tower, rises majestically at a short distance from the basilica. Its
base likewise thrusts crassly through another set of mosaic floors of a complex
of buildings connected to that under the basilica. The mosaics of the basilica,
of the bell-tower, and of the connecting structures lay buried, unchronicled and
unremembered, until accidently discovered in 1962 as a consequence of repairing
the floor of the basilica. The base of the bell-tower cuts across the designs of
the magnificent panels with the same contemptuous disregard as do the walls at
Monastero., and as do the columns of the basilica in their march across the
underlying mosaics.
The design of all the floors, as at
Monastero, is a configuration of multiple panels. Many contain exquisite faunal
figures, others the portraits of donors, and all are interspersed with the
Nodo di Salomone, "Solomon's knot."22
An imaginative floral tracery combines the vast floor into a dynamic, integral
whole. Brilliant glass tiles are included in the tesserae that compose the
mosaics. Glass tesserae was known to be used in mosaics only in the Near East up
to this time. The brilliant renderings attest dramatically to the artistic and
technical competence of the mosaicists.
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At the center of the mosaic floor of the
Aquileian basilica is a grand tripartite illustration of the story of Jonah. The
section shown above is the central panel of that illustration showing Jonah
being cast from the belly of the sea monster.
Photograph by the author by courtesy of the
Aquileian Museum |
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The floors under the bell-tower
conjoined with that of the basilica The complex of buildings thus
delineated by the layout of the ancient floors is reminiscent of other
such synagogue complexes, as for example, that of Duro-Europus, in which
the layout of the floors and the function of the synagogue are
remarkable similar to those at Aquileia.23
The additional buildings, in addition to serving as administration
quarters, provided accommodation for passing Judaic pilgrims and
merchants.
The area of the floor under the basilica rivals,
and may prove to exceed, that of the hitherto largest synagogue of ancient time
at Sardis in Anatolia. The exposed area alone measures some eight hundred square
meters!
Implanted into the mosaic floor under the
basilica is a dedication to Theodric, the fifth bishop of Aquileia (308- 320
CE), which evidently refers to the construction of a structure about to be built
on the site. It is so crudely imposed upon the overall design that no one doubts
that it was a later insertion, not even those who vehemently deny any
association the mosaic floor may have had with a synagogue. It is undeniable,
moreover, that the basilica was a later construction. The implant does, however,
attest that the building with the mosaic floor had to have been in existence
before the year 320 CE. One writer assumes that the implant was inserted by the
Christian faithful well after Theodric’s death.24
The proposition that a structure of such scale and magnificence,. erected no
later than the end of the third century, could have been accomplished by a
Christian institution that had just been formed, an organization that was still
in the throes of divorcing itself from Arianism, strains one’s credulity.
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A section of the vast expanse of mosaic floor,
found under the floor of the Aquileian basilica. The floor is longer than that
of the great basilica. It extends past the presbytery to an undisclosed end. The
scenes of Jonah’s tribulation, of which the center panel is shown above, lies
further along past the top of the illustration. Solomon’s knot, a Judaic
motif, is repeated here as well as throughout the mosaic floors of the adjoining
buildings. Photograph by the author
by courtesy of the Aquileian Museum |
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Neither the scores of panels in the floor at
Monastero, nor those under the basilica, nor those under the bell-tower, nor
those in the floors connecting the bell-tower to the basilica contain a single
clearly identifiable Christian symbol!
A number of labored attempts have been made
to relate a few of the subjects of the various mosaic panels to Christian
hierology. The scene of an encounter between a rooster and a turtle is cited.
Such roosters, however, are also found in both Pagan and Judaic contexts.25
An imposing figure of Victory is likewise said to indicate a Christian
reference. The Victory figure, however, appears in the Judaic catacombs of Rome.26
A small mosaic panel simple figure of a young
shepherd boy would appear at first to be the most credible evidence of Christian
orientation, shepherding being a common metaphoric reference to Jesus. The
panel, however, is placed behind a column in an inconspicuous far corner of the
floor. The boy appears to be no more than 12 years old! Such an obscure location
and such an inconsequential representation would hardly be relegated to the
central figure of Christianity! Many other activities and occupations, rural and
urban, are likewise presented in small panels. When taken in context it is clear
that shepherding was merely one of such references.
The absence of Christian symbols carries over
to the imported and locally produced glassware, in which only "Old Testament"
religious themes are to be found. Biblical subjects are molded into a number of
glassware relics. A glass plate is decorated with an incised design of "Daniel
in the Lion’s Den."27
One plate features Abraham and Isaac in the foreground, and a facade of the
Temple of Jerusalem appears above their heads. The depiction of the Temple is
precisely the same as those in the context of Judaic iconography of the times.28
Yet it is likewise referred to as an example of "Paleo-Christian" art!28
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Another fragment, a gold-glass vessel bottom,
depicts Moses about to strike a huge desert rock to produce a miraculous stream
of water.29
Gold-glass is not glass of a gold color but composed of a design in gold foil
that is laminated between two layers of glass. The technology was developed in
Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel, where the earliest examples were found.
The bottoms of vessels containing such designs were carefully broken away and
imbedded into the walls of tombs. They were first used as plaques in tombs in
the Judaic catacombs of Rome. The practice of implanting gold-glass fragments in
tomb walls was later adopted by the early Christians.
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A glass fragment, found
in Aquileia, depicting Abraham and Isaac. The facade of the Holy Temple of
Jerusalem hovers in the background.
Photograph by the
author by courtesy of the Aquileian Museum |
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A gold-glass
vessel fragment depicting Moses about to strike a rock to obtain water. The
plaque is similar to those found in Judaic tombs.
Photograph by the
author by courtesy of the Aquileian Museum |
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The themes appearing in all these glass artifacts
are unlikely to have been employed by a Christian. Certainly the depiction of
the Jerusalem Temple facade cannot be construed as part of the roster of
Christian art.
Between the buildings that once stood under the
bell-tower and the basilica, lie the ruins of what was apparently a sizable,
marble-lined, eight-foot diameter, octagonal bathing facility. It is clearly a
mikvah, constructed, as Judaic law requires, with six steps leading down
into it and fed by a conduit that led fresh, spring-flowing water into it.
Archaeologists have determined that it replaced an even more ancient bath, one
that undoubtedly
preceded Christian presence.
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A featured design of the great
mosaic floor underlying the bell tower of the Aquileia basilica. It depicts a
ram bearing a sizable shofar, or ram’s-horn, a musical instrument employed
uniquely by Jews in their religious rites.
Photograph by the author by courtesy of the
Aquileian Museum |
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Yet, both these baths are represented to have
been baptismal founts!30
It should also be noted that both the Monastero and
basilica mosaic floors are oriented eastward toward Jerusalem.
The baptistry, rising close to the basilica on the
opposite side of the bell-tower, is likewise constructed on the ruins of a
pre-existing building that the authorities agree was a "heathen" temple. It
would seem that it is politically correct to recognize pagan ruins, but not
Judaic ones!
All the evidence lends credence to the proposition
that here in Aquileia stood the cultural and administrative center of a Judaic
community of impressive size and importance.
That is not all! Underneath still another basilica at nearby
Beligna di Aquileia, referred to as the "Basilica del Fondo Tullio," another
mosaic floor was found that, again, is devoid of Christian identification.31
A beautiful apsoidal mosaic section was removed largely intact and is also
featured in the "Paleo-Christian" museum at Monastero, Its shape, design, and
execution are remarkably similar to the semi-circular section of floor laid at
the foot of the seats of the elders in the synagogue at Sardis in Anatolia. They
are so much alike that it seems almost possible to substitute one for the other.
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The remnants of an eight-foot diameter,
marble-lined pool has all the characteristics of a mikvah, a Judaic
ritual bath. The spring-fed pool was constructed over a previous bath, one that
preceded the Christian Era. Two of the steps leading into that ancient bath are
visible.
Photograph by the author by courtesy of the
Aquileian Museum |
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No accounting of the excavation at Beligna di
Aquileia is extant. It probably took place soon after 1900. It leaves us with a
complete lack of information but much ground for speculation as to whether this
magnificent mosaic section of a floor could be yet another of the hundreds of
missing pre-Christian meeting-places of Judaic communities - that is to say -
synagogues.
The barbarian invasion under
Attila the Hun was no less destructive of the suffering remnant of the
Judaic community of Aquileia than it was of the Christians who had suppressed
them. The devastation of the area obliterated whatever traces of Judaic presence
was left by the Christians. The city was destroyed in 452, and again in 552,
when the citizens who had returned were driven away and the area ravished.
We are left to extrapolate the size and importance
of the Judaic community of Aquileia from the remaining physical traces of Judaic
presence, and from the economic and social parameters of the period. In
addition, we are confronted with prejudice that persists into the present day.
Notes:
- Documentation for the statement that glassmaking was
exclusively a Judaic art during this period can be found in
The Glassmakers
[http://www.hebrewhistory.info/books/glassmakers.htm]; An Odyssey of the
Jews. The major part of the dissertation above is taken from chapter 6 of
that book, pp.158-168, and from
The Eighth Day [http://www.hebrewhistory.info/books/eighthday.htm];
The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to civilization, chapter 14,
pp.277-285.
- See HHF Fact Papers 3; The Silk Route, A Judaic
Odyssey, and HHF Fact Paper15; Silk Making and the Jews.
- See Fact Paper 21: Dyemaking; A Judaic Tradition.
- Aquileia is missing from all Judaic atlases, as, for
example from the authoritative atlas of Martin Gilbert, Atlas of Jewish
History, rev.. Dorset Press, NY 1976.
- Yves-Marie Duval, "Aquilee et la Palestine entre 370 et
420,"
Antichita Altoadriatiche,, Udine, 1978.
- Luila Graeco-Ruggini, "Ebrei e Orientali in Aquilee,"
Antichita Altoadriatiche,, Udine, 1977,352-382.
- B. Forlati Tamaro, "Iscrizione greche di Siriani [SIC] a
Concordia,"
Antichita Altoadriatiche,, 1977, 383-392.
- Giovanni Brusin, "Orientali in Aquileia romana,"
Aquileia Nostra, 24, 25, 1953, 1954, 56-70.
- Silvio Panciera, Vita economica di Aquileia in eta
Romana, Aquileia, 1957, 24-25.
- See HHF Fact Paper 6-I, Glassmaking, A Judaic
Tradition, The Biblical Period
- See HHF Fact Paper 6-IIA, Glassmaking, A Judaic
Tradition, The Common Era; The Roman Period.
- Samuel Kurinsky, The
Glassmakers; An Odyssey of the Jews, New York, pp.
163-4, 217-18, 222 -23-24
[http://www.hebrewhistory.info/books/glassmakers.htm].
- F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic,
London, 1906, 24.
- Ruggini, Il Vescovo Cromazio e glu ebrei de
Aquileia, .Antichita altoadriatiche, 8, Udine,1975, 363.
- Ruggini, idem.
- St Jerome, "Orbe Roman Occupato," Comm. In Exekiel,
xxvii, in
Pat. Lat., 25, 313
- M. I. Finley, Ancient Sicily to the Arab Conquest,
Viking Press, New York, 1968, 167.
- Franceso Vattioni, "I nomi Giudaici delle épigrafi di
Monastero di Aquileia," Aquileia Nostri, Udine, 1972, 126-132;
Giovanni Brusin, "Grande edificio culturale scoperto a Monastero di
Aquileia, Aquileia Nostri, 1949, 26-30; F. Cassola, "Aquileia e
l’Oriente Mediterraneo,".Antichita altoadriatiche, 1977, 74.
- Luisa Bertacchi, "Nuovi Mosaici figurati di Aquileia,"
Aquileia Nostri, Udine, 1963, 20-84. Dr. Bertacchi is the Director of
the museum at Aquileia and of the "Paleo-Christian Museum", at Monastero.
- Paolo Lino Zovatto, "Archittetura e Decorazione nella
basilica Teodoriano di Aquileia," Aquileia Nostri, Udine, 1961-62,
42.
- Giovani Rinaldi, "I tre quadri di Jona nel mosaico
dell’aula Teodoriana," Antichita altoadriatiche, Udine, 1975, 42.
- Luisa Bertacchi, "Il mosaico Teodoriano scoperto
nell’iinterno del campanile di Aquileia, Aquileia Nostri, 1961-2,
Udine, 32-33.
- Ann Perkins, The Excavation at Duro-Europus,
Final Report 4, part 5, Yale Un. Press, 1963. See Plan 5, House H and
Synagogue, Field Plan."
- Antonio Carlini, "L’epigraphe Teodoriana di Aquileia,"
Aquileia Nostri, Udine, 1984, 55.
- Elizabeth Jastrzebowska, "Les Origines de la Scene du
Combat entre le Coq et la Tortue dans les mosaics chretiennes d’Aquilee,"
Antichita altoadriatiche, 8, Udine,1975, 93-107.
- Franca Mian, "La ‘Vittoria’ di Aquileia, Antichita
altoadriatiche, 8, Udine,1975, 131; Giovanni Brusin, "Il mosaico
paleocristiani di Aquileia e il libro di un Parocco Inglese," Aquileia
Nostri, 1963, Udine, 34.
- Rosa Barovier Mentasti, "La coppa incisa con ‘Daniele
nella fossa del Lioni," al Museo Nazionale Concordiese, Aquileia Nostri,
14 1943, 157-172.
- Luisa Bertacchi, "Due vetri paleocristiani [sic] di
Aquileia, Aquileia Nostri 38, 1967, 142-159.
- M. C. Calvi, "Il miracolo del fonte nel vetro dorato
del museo di Aquileia," Aquileia Nostri, 30, Udine, 1959, 38-48.
- Bruna Forlati Tomaro. "Recerche sull’aula teodoriano
nord e sui battisteri di Aquileia," Aquileia Nostri, Udine 1963,
86-100.
- Luisa Bertacchi, "Nuovi elementi e ipotesi circa la
basilica del Fondo Tullio," Aquileia Nostri, Udine, 1961-2, 48-06.
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