event · E0312
Magdala Stone אבן מגדלא
A carved stone block found at the center of the first-century synagogue of Migdal (Magdala) on the Sea of Galilee, bearing the earliest known detailed relief of the menorah carved while the Beit HaMikdash still stood — a seven-branched menorah on a base, flanked by amphorae and columns, with Temple imagery covering the stone's other faces. Its carver, plausibly, had seen the real thing. Found in a 2009 IAA salvage excavation, the IAA-owned stone toured the world and returned in 2022 to the Magdala site, where the original is displayed; a replica stands at the exact findspot in the synagogue. It is not an Israel Museum object.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- אבן מגדלא
- Also known as
- Migdal stone, Migdal synagogue stone
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3760–3828 AM — carved while the Beit HaMikdash still stood
- Civil (computed)
- 3760–3828 AM · 1 BCE – 68 CE
- Academic
- 1st century CE, before 70 CE
- Date range
- 1st century CE, before 70 CE
- Duration
- ≈68 years
- Precision
- approximate
Why it matters
Every menorah image we have — on coins of the revolt, on the Arch of Titus, on synagogue mosaics — was made either far away or after the Temple burned. This one is different: it was carved onto a synagogue stone in the Galilee while the Mikdash still stood, by an artisan who could have walked to Jerusalem for the festivals and looked at the original. It is also quiet proof that synagogue life flourished alongside the Temple, not only after it: a Galilean fishing town kept a beit knesset whose centerpiece pointed toward Jerusalem.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The stone was found in 2009 in an IAA salvage excavation directed by Dina Avshalom-Gorni, at the center of a first-century synagogue at Migdal on the Sea of Galilee — one of the few synagogues known from the period when the Temple still stood. | archaeology external | ★★★★★ | |
| The stone's front face bears the earliest known detailed menorah relief carved before the destruction of 70 CE — a seven-branched menorah flanked by amphorae and columns — with Temple imagery on its other faces; it is widely read as the work of someone who had seen the Temple's menorah, and the stone likely served as a base for the Torah-reading table. The iconography's precise interpretation is debated. | archaeology external | ★★★★☆ | |
| Location honesty: the stone is IAA-owned and is not at the Israel Museum. After storage, a world tour (including Rome in 2017) and display at the Yigal Allon Center (2021), the original returned in 2022 to the Magdala site, where it is displayed; a replica stands at the exact findspot in the synagogue. | external | ★★★★☆ |