Magdala stone

Some archaeologists describe the carvings as enabling a new, scholarly understanding of the synagogue conceptualized as a sacred space even during the period while the Temple was still standing.

[8] "We can assume that the engraving that appears on the stone, which the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem".

While some have interpreted the sides as showing three arches filled with sheaves of grain (probably wheat), and a fourth with a hanging object thought to be an oil lamp, others, including Rina Talgam and Mordechai Aviam see it as an architectural image.

[2] She understands the stone as intended to lend to this synagogue a sacred aura, making it, "like a lesser Temple", for use in the Galilee, which was a long journey from Jerusalem under the conditions of that pedestrian era, when most people traveled by foot.

[2] A similar size stone was found in a Byzantine-period synagogue in a dig at nearby Horvat Kur; it is also carved with images of the Temple.

[12] It is a rectangular table with four short legs, carved out of a block of basalt and weighing about 350 kg (c. 770 pounds), decorated with Jewish symbols like vessels, a ladle, and two candelabra.