Moscow, Aug 14 (EFE).- Archaeologists uncovered the ruins of a first-century synagogue in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar Krai, billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s Volnoe Delo Foundation told EFE Monday.
“The analysis of the fragments of the preserved decoration allows us to conclude that the synagogue was erected at the turn of the millennium and existed for at least 500 years,” the foundation said.
The ruins were found on the coast of the Black Sea by the scientists of the Phanagoria Archaeological Expedition, named in honor of an ancient Greek city that was located west of modern-day Sennoy in Krasnodar Krai.
Inside the rectangular structure 21 m (69 ft) deep and 6 m wide were several menorahs, altars, fragments of marble steles, including one bearing the word synagogue in the original Ancient Greek.
The team also came upon tablets with dates from the first century.
The structure has features characteristic of the Second Temple period (597 BC-AD 70) of Jewish history and likely remained standing until the middle of the sixth century, when Phanagoria was sacked and burned by barbarian tribes.
Volnoe Delo said that the discovery supports accounts from Byzantine and Arab chroniclers about the existence of a substantial Jewish community in Phanagoria. EFE mos/dr
