Star of David in Pompeii

This Mosaic floor, from the 1st century C.E., at the House of Triptolemus in Pompeii is mentioned, along with many other simillar designs, in M.E. Blake’s ’The pavements of the Roman buildings of the Republic and the Early Empire’, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol. VIII, 1930, pl. 39,3, VII, VII, 5, but her spelling of Triptolemus is different (Casa di Trittolemo) and her photos are low resolution b&w. I hope that in time I"ll publish here all her photos in a higher relolution and in color.

In  this design we notice that the center is filled with the symbol of the six petals, which are actually more geometric product of using the compass than a vegetative motif. this six-petals symbol is surrounded by several hexagons, and, along with the star of David by three circles, which are surrounded by squares - so, all in all, we are confronted here with a complicated combination of geometrical elements.

This combination raises the question whether a symbol (like the Star of David) maintains its original meaning when it stops standing alone. A good illustration to this problem is the addition of two blue stripes to the blue Star of David in the Israeli flag, which changes the Jewish symbol (Star of David) into a symbol of the Jewish State.

the six- petals symbol combined with the Star of David symbol appears also, as mentioned by my teacher, Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann,  in another three Mosaic Floors at the same place:

1. M.E. Blake, ibid. pl. 33, 4, Pompeii VI, VIII, 20

2. M.E. Blake, ibid. pl 38, 3. Pompeii VI, XVI, 7

3. M.E. Blake, ibid. pl 33, I. Pompeii VIII, V, 16 and 38

as well as in:

4. Ein Yael    

Mosaic Floor, where it is surrounded similarily by a hexagon, but in combination with the apotropaic pelta symbol (Amazon Shield) , the Ivy symbol and with the geometrical elements of the Guilloche and the successive stepped triangles.

5. In Capernaum the six- petals symbol appears with the Star of David symbol on the same lintel along with many other symbols.

Thanks to Karl from

https://www.flickr.com/photos/70125105@N06/14300318027/

for letting me publish his photo here. 

Roman Mosaic at Stabia

Black and White Roman Mosaic at Villa Arianna, Stabia

Dating to the 1st Century C.E. at the latest,
 since this small port town near Pompeii 

was also destroyed by volcanic ashes in 79 C.E.

In Pompeii there are many mosaics with six pointed stars from the same period

See:

http://zeevgoldmann.blogspot.com/2008/08/xi-italian-mosaic-floors-with-davids.html 

Picture courtesy of Mark Mansfield (c)

See original:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mm38/3083095732/

Six petals symbol framed by a Hexagram

San Martín Church, Izco, Navarre, Spain

CC Picture by rlasaosa/Flickr 

 See: A spectecular collection of pictures of Six petals symbol
About the meaning of the six petals symbol see
zeevgoldmann.blogspot.com/search?q=six

bottom left:

Six petal symbols framed by a Hexagram 

drawings of the Flower of Life by Leonardo da Vinci's 15 century C.E

CC picture from Vikipedia entry Flower of Life

  The name Six petal symbol hints at a vegetative motif
but is actually a geometric motif
 especially when the star of David is
surrounded by a circle
as we see in the photo above -  from Navarre

Parthian Altar with Israelite Symbols

Yair Davidiy from Brit-am referred me to an important photo of a Parthian altar with Israelite Symbols” from 300 BC - 300 AD.
I'm going to show this Parthian altar to my mentor, Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann (who
celebrated this week his 103 birthday); he is an expert on the archaeology
of the Star of David, and I'm sure it will make his day.

Villa Romana

Photo of Floor no. I is courtesy of "pginot" from Flickr.

Photo Floor no. II is courtesy of "liberalmind1012" from Flickr

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

Capernaum Gold Coin

Star of David inscribed in a stone from Capernaum ruins appears on a gold coin Issued by the Bank of Israel in 1985.

See an extensive article about

the Stars of David in Capernaum

http://zeevgoldmann.blogspot.com/2008/08/vi-capernaum-synagogue.html

Other Jewish Symbols In Capernaum

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

The Pentagram of Capernaum

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

Judeo-Christians of Capernaum

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

The Dating of the Capernaum Synagogue

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

Star of David Researcher Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

Holographer Shimon Hameiri visited 103 years old Star of David researcher Dr Ze'ev Goldmann and took this picture of him.

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

VI. The Capernaum Synagogue (part II)

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

VI. The Capernaum Synagogue (part I)

The content of this page moved to the new blog of Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann

From:

The Mystery Of The Menorah And The Star Richard A. Freund University of Hartford in

Nationalism, Zionism and ethnic mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and beyond‏ ed. Michael Berkowitz, 2004 ISBN 9004131841 ‏

The lintel from the Synagogue of Capernaum, for example, which is now understood as an example of Christian relic Church together with the Ark of the Covenant lintel, demonstrates the Christian usage of formerly exclusive Jewish symbols.

Khirbet Carmel

Dr. Ze’ev Goldmann, founder of Akko Museum, showed me this chancel screen with David's Star and with inscribed Greek cross (upper left) From Khirbet Carmel near Hebron. Photo is from Abel& Barrois, Revue Biblique (RB) 1929 p. 584. There were found three Byzantine Churches in Carmel from the 5th-6th centuries C.E.
Carmel is mentioned in the Bible:
I samuel 25:2

Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel

Greco-Roman Six Pointed Stars

Dr. Ze’ev Goldmann showed me a few amulets with the shape of six pointed stars in Erwin R. Goodenough’s monumental book, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, Volume three, Pantheon Books, 1953, New York. The photo in this case is taken from a drawing of A. F. Gori, thesaurus. Gemmarum Antiquarum, Florence, 1750., I, plates cxciii, cxciv. It is one of more than thousand charms and amulets in Goodenough’s book. It is one of few amulets on which six pointed stars appear.
We see it here three times on the obverse and five times on the reverse. Goodenough describes these as stars but doesn’t pay attention to the fact that these are SIX POINTED STARS. He says this amulet is “only possibly Jewish” but since there are a few more amulets with these Jewish stars from the Greco-Roman Period, we might conclude that Jews knew this shape in that period, which might be previous to other six pointed star artifacts that are mentioned in the history of this emblem.

Capernaum Convoluted Star of David

This picture was taken by Dr. Asher Eder about 40 years ago. He found out that it resembles another Star of David he saw in the ruins of an Herodian building in Beth-El, north of Ramallah. I heard from my teacher, Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann, who is an expert on religious symbols, that this is not a Star of David. It is an ancient Jewish symbol called tri-loop.

See an extensive article about

the Stars of David in Capernaum

http://zeevgoldmann.blogspot.com/2008/08/vi-capernaum-synagogue.html

Beith El - Defaced Star of David

This photo was taken by Dr. Asher Eder about 40 years ago in the ruins of an Herodian building in Beth-El, north of Ramallah. There, it had a curvilinear shape. When Dr. Eder wanted, a few years latter, to take a better photo he found out that the Star of David was defaced. Any how I heard from my teacher, Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann, who is an expert on religious symbols, that this is not a Star of David. It is an ancient Jewish symbol called tri-loop.

The following paragraph is from Dr. Asher Eder’s book The Star of David, which was published in 1987 in English in Jerusalem by Rubin Mass Ltd. The publication here is courtesy of Oren Mass

From the First Century B.C.E. on, we find [the hexagram] in the Land of Israel on many archeological sites.

Dating back to the second or third decade B.C.E., it could have be seen engraved on the ruins of an Herodian building in Beth-El, north of Ramallah. There, it had a curvilinear shape, similar to that of another star found in the ruins of a second-century C.E. synagogue in Kfar Nahum (Capernaum): The Beth-El hexagram was recently defaced.

In the ruins of Kfar Nahum, we can still see another example of the star, one designed with straight lines, composed of two equilateral, symmetrically interwoven triangles.

It Takes a Whole Village to Raise a Blog

This is the third illustration of Psalms 18:3 made by Dvorit Ben Shaul that I publish here on this blog.
Dvorit introduced me to Dr. Goldmann who taught me a lot about Stars of David. I learned a lot also from
Uri Ofir who let me translate into English his Hebrew research about the Jewish origin of the Star of David . There is a strange coincidence concerning these names- Ofir in Hebrew is a kind of gold. Last week a painter called Ofira Oriel sent me her Star of David Mandalas to publish. Ofira means-gold…
This coincidence reflects my gratitude to all those who help me raise this blog - to me they all look as if they were made from pure gold...

Mildenhall treasure

Mildenhall Hexagram

Picture by

© Sheepdog Rex from Flickr

The Mildenhall treasure of Roman silver objects is exhibited in the British Museum. The treasure was discovered in 1943 in the small town Mildenhall, Suffolk, England. It was buried in the 4th century. On the center of a fluted silver bowl (Diameter: 40.8 cm) there is a Star of David. Researchers presume that the bowl was intended to hold water for washing hands at table.

Researchers say that it has no connection to Judaism.

My late mentor, Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann taught me to look at all the elements in each artifact, and here we see a six petaled flower inside the hexagon, and many more flowers between the points.

The six petaled flower inside the hexagon is a very common (floral) motif in Roman mosaics, but the flowers between the points seem unique.

M. Costa ["Hatakh ha-zahav, hotam Shelomoh u-magen-David", Poalim, 1990, Hebrew, pp. 160] wrote that identical Stars of David were found on four out of ten similar silver bowls in the Anglo-Saxon 7th century ship burial at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk , England. It was discovered 

in 1939 and contained a wealth of artifacts.

Sutton Hoo Bowl with a Christian star of David 

Photo Courtesy of © Sheepdog Rex from Flickr

In the central hexagon there's an 8 petaled flower

inside each triangle- a Fleur de Lys

Between the triangles - birds (Christian doves?)

and the star of David is in the center of a large Cross

made from 16 rhombs each of which is  surrounded by a circle