Jocelyn Burney
Jocelyn Burney is Assistant Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions in the Department of Classics, Archaeology, and Religion at the University of Missouri. She completed her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2023. She is currently preparing her first book, based on her dissertation, about synagogues in the late Roman Jewish diaspora in Greece and Turkey. She is also a senior staff member of the Huqoq Excavation Project in Israel’s Galilee (www.huqoq.org).
Presenter at
Spring Bible & Archaeology Fest 2025, April 5-6, 2025
Ancient Synagogue Coin Deposits in Context
Over the last century, large deposits of coins have been discovered below the floors and inside the walls of over twenty ancient synagogues in the land of Israel and the Mediterranean diaspora. At Capernaum in Galilee, for example, over 21,000 coins—mostly low-value bronze minimi—were recovered from below the synagogue’s nave and courtyard floors. Likewise, dozens of coins were discovered below the floor of the synagogue at Sardis in Turkey. In this presentation, I discuss the phenomenon of ancient synagogue coin deposits, focusing in particular on the evidence from Capernaum and Sardis. I examine contemporary practices from the ancient Mediterranean world that might have influenced the development of synagogue coin deposits, including ritual deposits of coins and other objects made at pagan temples and sanctuaries. Additionally, I consider the possibility that synagogue coin deposits were linked to ancient Jewish charitable practices.
