Image Details

PHOTO BY L.M. WHITE, UT-OSMAP EXCAVATIONS OF THE OSTIA SYNAGOGUE; USED BY PERMISSION

FAR-OUT FRAGRANCE. Continued use of incense inside synagogues is attested farther west as well. In the late antique synagogue in Rome’s port city of Ostia, archaeologists excavated several ceramic censers dated to the late second through fifth centuries. Additionally, the synagogue’s black-and-white floor mosaic features a ritual vessel (left side of photo above), which looks like a censer and resembles excavated examples. This indicates that some Jews in both the eastern and western Mediterranean burned incense in their synagogues throughout antiquity.