This undergraduate thesis follows the development of Jewish art based on analysis of paintings and mosaics from the synagogues in Dura Europos and Huqoq. An essential part of the thesis deals with the issue of figural representations and the influence of the second commandment of God on the iconographic repertoire that was present in the interior of the synagogues. The goal of the thesis is to analyse the mosaics from the synagogue in Huqoq, which were discovered in 2011, and place them in the broader context of Jewish art.
An analysis of the literature and a comparison of the two synagogues led to the conclusion that there is simply a lack of archaeological material and literary data to reliably formulate any interpretation to help us understand what certain symbols and representations meant in a particular place and time. It is also difficult to determine the extent to which art had a didactic function. Sources and literature used include monographs, professional newspaper articles, reports from archaeological sites, lexicons, and Internet resources.
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