Umm El Kanatir - History

History

The site is believed to have been a pagan Roman town that venerated the nearby spring. Jews began to settle in the vicinity in 23 BCE. Early Jewish inhabitants of Umm el-Kanatir established a flax industry there, using the water for washing and whitening flax from which they wove fine cloth. The textiles were sold to wealthy residents in the nearby towns of Sussita and Beit Saida. The villagers may have engaged in mixed farming, and raised sheep and olives, although no terracing has been found.

In the sixth century, the Jewish residents built a large synagogue, apparently embellishing an earlier synagogue. The building was 18 meters (60 feet) long by 13 meters (43 feet) wide and calculated to have been 12 meters (40 feet) high, making it one of the largest of at least 25 ancient synagogues discovered in the region. It was destroyed in the Golan earthquake of 749.

Local Syrian shepherds continued to inhabit the ruins of Umm el-Kanatir into the 1950s, reusing the carved lintels and stones.

The existence of a synagogue at the site was first documented in 1884, by Laurence Oliphant and Gottlieb Schumacher. Amid ruined walls and large blocks of stone, Oliphant discovered a stone carving of an eagle, a fragment of a cornice, a large triangular slab that he believes was placed on the lintel of the main entrance and fragments of Corinthian capitals.

The eagle, a well-known motif in ancient Jewish art, is visible on a double column and on the front gable of the synagogue.