The original report on the remains now known as שלום על ישראל ŜALOM AL YISRAʾEL appeared in an issue whose cover prints 1936. The surviving issue provides contemporary documentation of a בית כנסת BEIT KʾNESET at יריחו YERIḪO in ארץ ישראל EREẒ YISRAʾEL. Its cover establishes the issue’s stated year; the day it first circulated remains unknown. 1

What did the original report record?

D. C. Baramki explains that planting trenches exposed a mosaic pavement. He then records the transition from accidental exposure to departmental investigation:

The landlord reported the discovery to the Department of Antiquities, who had the surrounding area cleared. 2

The report describes the building’s plan and mosaics, including its מנורה MENORA and inscriptions. These remains preserve evidence of worship and communal memory carried by יהודים YEHUDIM. Baramki signs the excavation account; M. Avi-Yonah signs the concluding discussion of the inscription. Their contributions should remain distinguishable within the joint bibliographic record. 3

Which dates belong to which evidence?

The issue cover identifies volume VI, number 2 and prints 1936. Internet Archive’s catalogue and the Bornblum bibliography also assign 1936. This confirms a year printed on the original issue, while leaving its actual release day open. The supplied bound-volume witness instead displays 1938 on its title page; those are different bibliographic layers. 4

The supplied Michigan-copy witness also contains the annotation 6-14-37 beside V6, nos 1-2. Its accessible text was checked, but the mark’s purpose was not established. It may record receipt or processing. It does not yet establish an announcement on 14 June 1937, and its interpretation as a circulation deadline remains conditional. 5

Crossref records 1 July 1937 for the American Journal of Archaeology news section cited in the memorandum. That is publication metadata for the section, not evidence that excavation occurred that day. The specific notice about יריחו YERIḪO has not been collated against the original page in this intake. 6

The excavation year also needs comparison: Bornblum’s excavator field lists 1935, although its bibliography gives the report’s year as 1936. A publication year cannot automatically become the discovery year. This documentary article therefore has no assigned עברית IVRIT calendar date, and no exact discovery or announcement day is inferred. 7

Guided reflections

  • What does the original issue cover establish that a later catalogue entry alone cannot?
  • What would distinguish a library receipt mark from a contemporary announcement of the excavation?
  • Why must the excavation year remain distinct from the report’s publication year?

Footnotes

  1. Baramki and Avi-Yonah, Jericho report, Issue cover, PDF page 1; report pp. 73–77. ↩
  2. Baramki and Avi-Yonah, Jericho report, P. 73 / PDF page 37; line-end division joined. ↩
  3. Baramki and Avi-Yonah, Jericho report, Pp. 73, 75–77; signatures on pp. 76–77, PDF pages 40 and 53. ↩
  4. Baramki and Avi-Yonah, Jericho report, Cover; Bornblum, Jericho B, Selected Bibliography; Michigan-copy text witness, Bound title-page text. ↩
  5. Michigan-copy text witness, Preliminary annotation before the first article; text witness, not an independently inspected image of the mark. ↩
  6. Crossref, AJA news metadata, Published-print and issued fields, volume 41, issue 3, pp. 464–494. ↩
  7. Bornblum, Jericho B, Excavators field and Selected Bibliography. ↩

Works cited

  1. Baramki, D. C., with inscription commentary by M. Avi-Yonah. An Early Byzantine Synagogue near Tell es Sulṭān, Jericho. The Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 6, no. 2 (1936): 73–77. Complete issue cover prints 1936; cover is PDF page 1, report PDF pages 37–40 and 53. https://archive.org/details/quarterly-department-of-antiquities-palestine_1936_6_2. Cover, report opening and p. 77 visually inspected October 27, 2026; report text read.
  2. Bornblum Eretz Israel Synagogues project. Jericho B. https://synagogues.kinneret.ac.il/synagogues/jericho-b/. Accessed October 27, 2026. Excavators field gives Dimitri Baramki (1935); Selected Bibliography gives Baramki and Avi-Yonah, report in QDAP 6 (1936), 73–77.
  3. University of Michigan library copy, Google-digitized, of The Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, vol. VI. Public Scribd hosted text witness, uploaded by tugce.eyidil.93. https://www.scribd.com/document/770681234/%C4%B1l%C4%B1ffe-1936-The-Quarterly-of-the-Department-of-Antiq. Accessed October 27, 2026. Readable bound-title text says 1938; preliminary annotation reads 6-14-37 / V6, nos 1-2. Original annotation image and purpose unverified.
  4. Crossref metadata for Archaeological News and Discussions. American Journal of Archaeology 41, no. 3 (1937): 464–494. DOI 10.2307/498513. https://api.crossref.org/works/10.2307/498513 ; https://www.jstor.org/stable/498513. Published-print and issued fields give July 1, 1937. Received October 27, 2026; original Jericho notice uncollated.