The Priene Synagogue is an ancient synagogue discovered by archaeologists in

Priene Priene ( grc, Πριήνη, Priēnē; tr, Prien) was an ancient Greek city of Ionia (and member of the Ionian League) located at the base of an escarpment of Mycale, about north of what was then the course of the Maeander River (now called the ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. The synagogue was discovered by archaeologists Theodor Wiegand and Hans Schrader in the western residential area in 1895–98. The synagogue dates to the 2nd century CE and was built into an older Hellenistic house. It consists of a main hall with two rows of columns forming a small basilica. Only one column was still in place. However, in the 1904 excavation report they mistakenly speculated that the structure was a house church.Hans Schrader/ Theodor Wiegand: ''Priene. Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen in den Jahren 1895–1898''. Berlin 1904, p. 480–481.
The excavation report online
/ref> In 1928 archaeologist Eleazar Sukenik identified the building as a synagogue, pointing to a niche for the

Torah Ark A Torah ark (also known as the ''Heikhal'', or the ''Aron Kodesh'') refers to an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark, also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' or ''aron h ...

. He also noted the carved

menorah Menorah may refer to: * Jewish candelabra: ** Temple menorah, a seven-lamp candelabrum used in the ancient Tabernacle in the desert, the Temple in Jerusalem, and synagogues ** Hanukkah menorah or ''hanukkiyah'', a nine-lamp candelabrum used on the ...

near the niche. It is known that hundreds of thousands of Jews lived in Asia Minor in the 1st century CE. Only two confirmed synagogues have been discovered: the Sardis Synagogue and this second one in Priene. In the summer of 2009 archeologists

Nadin Burkhardt Nadin is a Croatian village in the Zadar County, located between Benkovac and Škabrnja. The population is 406 (census 2011). The village was inhabited since the time of the Liburnians when it was named '. It was conquered by Ottoman Empire i ...

from the

University of Frankfurt am Main Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

and Mark Wilson of the Asia Minor Research Center in Izmir began an exploration of the synagogue in a dig sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society.; Nadin Burkhardt, Mark Wilson,
The Late Antique Synagogue in Priene: Its History, Architecture, and Context
, ''Gephyra'' 10, 2013, pp.166-196

References

See also