Late Antique Art and Paradoxography

The last decade saw the excavation of a monumental late antique synagogue in the Galilean village of Huqoq. In addition to the unexpected size, scholars remain baffled by the unearthed mosaic panels that covered the synagogue’s floor. Although several panels are damaged beyond recognition, a considerable number endured the ravages of time and are preserved well enough to allow analysis or reconstruction due to labels or otherwise obvious links to motifs and stories from the Hebrew Bible. With few exceptions, the panels depict extraordinary and paradoxical events, animals, and humans—content typically of interest to authors of miracle collections, so-called paradoxographies. This article suggests that the content of the Huqoq mosaic panels was chosen based on a biblical paradoxography or that it was part of the endeavor to put such a (pictorial) work together. Not only can most of the panels be associated with one of the paradoxographical subgenres, but they also underline and amplify the content of liturgy. The latter was, of course, a product of the same prevalent confrontation with the miraculous.