Huqoq

The Canaanites called it Hukkok, and during the Roman period it was known as Hucuca.[2][3] The name of the Arab village at the presumed site of biblical Hukkok was Yaquq.[4]

Archaeological investigations at the site of the former village of Yaquq, located near the Sea of Galilee, 12.5 km north of Tiberias, uphill from Capernaum and Magdala,[5] suggest that the site was inhabited in the Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Abbasid, Fatimid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods.[6][7] The Arab village of Yakuk was abandoned during the 1948 war and was bulldozed in 1968.[8]

Hukkok (Hebrew חקק) is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Joshua 19:34.[9][10] The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia considers the identification of Hukkok with Yakuk as plausible, although it might be too far from Aznoth-tabor (possibly Khirbet el-Jebeil, c. 3 miles north of Mout Tabor) to fit the description.[10]

The village site was inhabited in the Early and Middle Bronze Age.[9]

The Roman period village was large and prosperous due to the presence of a constant spring.[7] It is apparent from both the synagogue and the absence of pig bones that the Roman period village was Jewish.[5]

The village is attested in Late Roman and Byzantine period rabbinic sources.[7]

The prosperity of the ancient village contrasts with the simplicity of the Ottoman-era settlement and can be seen by archaeologists in animal bones which were cut by professional butchers in the ancient Jewish village, and by farmers in the Muslim period.[5]

Among the structures uncovered during the 2012 dig were the remains of an elaborate synagogue,[11] dated to the 5th century.[12] Findings include limestone carvings and an elaborate floor mosaic.[13] The synagogue's walls and columns were painted in bright colors: plaster fragments show traces of pink, red, orange and white pigments.[14] The artistry of the mosaic, which is composed of tiny tiles, together with the large stones used for the walls, attests to the prosperity of the village.[15]

The mosaic includes of the Biblical hero Samson.[13] The figure of Samson appears twice: carrying the gates of Gaza, and tying burning torches to the tails of foxes.[16] Samson and the foxes is an episode from the Book of Judges (Judges 15:1–8). During a battle with the Philistines, Samson catches 300 wild foxes, ties burning torches to their tails and sets them loose to set fire to Philistine grain fields.[17][18][19]

According to archaeologist Jodi Magness, the discovery is significant because "only a small number of ancient (Late Roman) synagogue buildings are decorated with mosaics showing biblical scenes, and only two others have scenes with Samson (one is at another site just a couple of miles from Huqoq)."[13]

The mosaic also shows two human faces, apparently female, flanking a Hebrew inscription promising a reward to those who perform good deeds.[18][20] In 2018, photographs of newly discovered mosaics were published in conjunction with a 70-page interim report of the excavations from 2014–2017.[12][14] The new publication shows that the floor mosaic also depicts Noah's Ark, the twelve Israelite spies (Numbers 13:1–33), and Moses' parting of the Red Sea, themes that are rarely, if ever, found in synagogues of the time.[12] Other images show Jonah being swallowed by the fish and the building of the Tower of Babel.[14] The mosaic also incorporates pagan Hellenistic images such as cupids and theatre masks, and an obscure cluster of important looking men, one of whom may be Alexander the Great, next to soldiers and war elephants.[12] If Magness' theory is correct, this would be the only case of a synagogue being decorated with non-Biblical imagery.[12] Another theory is that the two groups, one dressed in armour and the other in white robes, represent the alliance between the Seleucids and the high priest John Hyrcanus.[14]

Huqoq mosaic inscription and face