28 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The earliest known depiction of biblical heroines Jael and Deborah was discovered at a Jewish synagogue in Israel

The earliest known depiction of biblical heroines Jael and Deborah was discovered at a Jewish synagogue at Huqoq in Israel,

A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness recently returned to Israel’s Lower Galilee to continue unearthing nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics.

The team continues its 10th season of excavation this summer at a synagogue in the ancient Jewish village of Huqoq in Lower Galilee. Discoveries made this year include the first known depiction of the biblical heroines Deborah and Jael as described in the book of Judges.

This season, project director Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of religious studies in Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences, and assistant director Dennis Mizzi of the University of Malta focused on the southwest section of the synagogue, which was built in the late fourth-early fifth century C.E.

The newly discovered mosaic panels depicting the heroines are made of local cut stone from Galilee and were found on the floor on the south end of the synagogue’s west aisle.

Fox eating grapes depicted in the Huqoq synagogue mosaic. Photo: Jim Haberman)
Fox eating grapes depicted in the Huqoq synagogue mosaic. Photo: Jim Haberman)

The story of Deborah, a judge, and prophet who helped Israelite general Barak defeat the Canaanite army, is found in the fourth chapter of the Book of Judges. After the victory, the passage says, the Canaanite commander Sisera fled to the tent of Jael (Yael-a Kenite woman), where she drove a tent peg into his temple and killed him.

The uppermost register of the newly-discovered Huqoq mosaic shows Deborah under a palm tree, gazing at Barak, who is equipped with a shield. Only a small part of the middle register is preserved, which appears to show Sisera seated. The lowest register depicts Sisera lying deceased on the ground, bleeding from the head as Jael hammers a tent stake through his temple.

A fragmented Hebrew dedicatory inscription inside a wreath is also among the newly unearthed mosaics, which are flanked by panels measuring 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide and depicting two vases with budding vines. The vines form medallions that frame four animals eating clusters of grapes: a hare, a fox, a leopard, and a wild boar.

Mosaic depicting the construction of the Tower of Babel. Photo: Jim Haberman
Mosaic depicting the construction of the Tower of Babel. Photo: Jim Haberman

Sponsors of the project are UNC-Chapel Hill, Austin College, Baylor University, Brigham Young University, and the University of Toronto. Students and staff from Carolina and the consortium schools participated in the dig. Financial support for the 2022 season was also provided by the National Geographic Society, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Kenan Charitable Trust, and the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation, and the excavated areas have been backfilled. Excavations are scheduled to continue in summer 2023.

For additional information and updates, visit the project’s website: www.huqoq.org.

Cover Photo: Israelite commander Barak depicted in the Huqoq synagogue mosaic. Jim Haberman

Related Articles

A still life fresco discovered in new excavations of Pompeii Regio IX

28 June 2023

28 June 2023

Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Pompeii have uncovered a gorgeous still-life fresco depicting a platter covered in food and...

New study says earliest recorded kiss occurred 4500 years ago in Mesopotamia

18 May 2023

18 May 2023

The University of Copenhagen according to researchers, humanity’s earliest recorded kiss occurred around 4,500 years ago in the ancient Middle...

Rare gold gifts 2300 years old discovered in the famous Phoenician city of Carthage

17 August 2023

17 August 2023

Archaeologists excavating the sanctuary of Tophet, Carthage uncovered a collection of offerings, Tunisia’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs announced in a...

Storms uncover precious marble cargo from a 1,800-year-old Mediterranean shipwreck in Israel

15 May 2023

15 May 2023

Numerous rare marble artifacts have been found at the site of a 1,800-year-old shipwreck in shallow waters just 200 meters...

Structures in Turkey’s Panaztepe pointing out a 5,000-year-old settlement found

8 November 2021

8 November 2021

In the 5000-year-old Panaztepe settlement located in the Menemen district of Izmir, structures thought to belong to the oldest period...

A cobbled ford uncovered near Evesham could be the finest Roman example of its type in Britain

19 October 2022

19 October 2022

A cobbled ford believed to be of Roman construction has been discovered near Evesham in Worcestershire, England. If the path...

Archaeologists uncovered largest Bronze Age burial site of Nitra culture in Czech Republic

19 October 2024

19 October 2024

Archaeologists have uncovered the Nitra culture’s largest Bronze Age burial site near Olomouc in Central Moravia, during their rescue research...

Archaeologists found three large shipwrecks, 139 Viking Graves, and a ship-shaped mound in Sweden

21 October 2024

21 October 2024

Exciting discoveries in Sweden! Archaeologists were preparing to investigate a Stone Age settlement outside Varberg. But they came across a...

8000-year-old unique “fish-figure” small home tool found in Turkey

20 October 2021

20 October 2021

During this year’s excavations in the Yeşilova and Yassıtepe mounds in İzmir, a unique “fish-figure” small home tool was found....

The excavations in ancient city of Aizanoi discovered the statue heads of Dionysus and Aphrodite

11 December 2023

11 December 2023

The heads of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and Dionysus, the god of wine, were found in Aizanoi,...

Scientists may have discovered pieces of the Asteroid that caused the extinction of the Dinosaurs

14 May 2022

14 May 2022

Scientists are piecing together remnants of the day the extinction of the dinosaurs began. A tiny fragment of the asteroid...

Intact Bodies of Catalan Nobles Discovered in Santes Creus Monastery

11 March 2024

11 March 2024

A team of archaeologists and anthropologists found the human remains of a dozen members of the Catalan nobility dating back...

The Gallo-Roman Sanctuary Unearthed in France

30 June 2024

30 June 2024

During a recent archaeological excavation in the old Hôtel Dieu neighborhood of Rennes in north-western France, archaeologists discovered the remains...

Scientists unlock the ‘Cosmos’ on the Antikythera Mechanism

13 March 2021

13 March 2021

Scientists may have finally made a complete digital model of the 2000-year-old Cosmos panel of a mechanical device called the...

Archaeologists Discovered a New Pyramid Resembling Teotihuacán in Tikal

17 April 2021

17 April 2021

Researchers discovered a new pyramid complex in the Tikal in Guatemala. About 65 km south of El Mirador in the...