Beth Alpha Synagogue Mosaic Pavement

Beth Alpha Synagogue Mosaic Pavement: The Beth Alpha synagogue was discovered in 1929. The immediate response of scholars to the discovery of the Na’aran and Beth Alpha mosaics was to interpret them in light of Jewish literary sources and to compare these images with Jewish art of later periods, where the image of the zodiac is extremely well represented. During the second half of the twentieth century, however, these zodiac mosaics, and particularly the image of Helios at the center, emerged as a crux in the study of late antique Palestinian Judaism.