A LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMED 213ited in the great churches came ultimatel yout of the taxpa yers’ pockets and
benefited onl ythe invaders who plundered it.^42
The remains of churches and synagogues are among the most important
evidence for a boom in northern and central Palestine. In the aggregate, the
construction seems to impl ythe availabilit yof unexpected quantities of sur-
plus in what we might have supposed was a standard rural subsistence econ-
omy. And both churches and synagogues were often built and decorated—
sometimes surprisingl ylavishl y—b yartisans from urban workshops who prob-
abl yexpected to be paid in cash.^43 For example, though marble fixtures and
mosaic pavements were more common in urban than in rural synagogues,
the ywere not unknown in the latter. Marianos and Aninas, who signed their
names to the mosaic of the Bet Alfa synagogue in Greek, also made part of
the floor of the Samaritan synagogue of Scythopolis: probably they were based
there.^44 Likewise, Rusticus, the stonemason who built the synagogue of Dab-
bura, in the western Golan, signed his name in Greek and is likel yto have
come (despite his name!) from Caesarea Philippi or Akko (Naveh,On Mosaic,
no. 7). This would impl ythe eas yavailabilit yof not onl ysurplus but also gold
coins. A surprising level of monetization, which conforms with Tchalenko’s
hypothesis that the economy of rural late antique Syria was heavily market-
oriented, is also implied b ythe coin “treasuries” (which ma yin fact be private
funds) discovered in at least thirteen synagogues.^45
But we should not underestimate the extent of communal exertion involved
in the construction, and the likelihood that it was often done piecemeal over
many years. Here, the mosaic of the Bet Alfa synagogue is once again instruc-
tive, for the dedicator yinscription on it states, if it has been correctl yread,
that the villagers had to collect and sell one hundredse’inof wheat in order
to pa ythe mosaicists, and this in a village onl ysix kilometers—an hour’s brisk
walk—from Scythopolis, the capital of Palaestina Secunda.^46 As to the syna-
gogue treasuries, though some are ver yrich, most of them contain onl ybronze
coins, which had no stable value. In some cases the treasur yhoards were the
result of centuries of collection.^47
(^42) See M. Avi-Yonah, “The Economics of Byzantine Palestine,”IEJ8 (1958): 39–51.
(^43) Gifts commemorated in inscriptions are almost always in cash or at least are evaluated in
cash.
(^44) See L. Roth-Gerson,Haketovot Hayevaniot Mibattei Keneset Be’eretz Yisrael(Jerusalem: Yad
Ben Zvi, 1987), p. 33.
(^45) See A. Kindler, “Donations and Taxes in the Societ yof the Jewish Villages of Eretz Israel
during the Third to Sixth Centuries CE,” inAncient Synagogues, pp. 55–59.
(^46) See Naveh,On Mosaic, p. 43, for this interpretation of the inscription.
(^47) The largest hoard, at Meroth, contained 485 coins, of which 245 were gold, of various
denominations, with a value estimated at 17,874 folles, or 2,235 man/days of work. The bulk of
the coins are dated from the reign of Anastasius (491–518), to that of Phocas (d. 609), six are
from the fourth century, and additional coins were added to the treasury until 1193. See Ilan,
“Synagogue and Bet Midrash of Meroth,” 30–31.