Ginosar Museum Opens First Huqoq Exhibition With Samson Mosaic Debut

The Yigal Allon Center Museum at Kibbutz Ginosar opened 'Secrets of Huqoq' this week, the first public exhibition of finds from the 1,600-year-old Jewish village at Horvat Huqoq in the Galilee. The centerpiece is the original Samson mosaic depicting the biblical hero carrying the gates of Gaza described in Judges 16, alongside a first public display of a bronze coin hoard, a ring and a dagger recovered from an underground escape network beneath the ancient synagogue. Israel Antiquities Authority director Eli Escusido called Huqoq one of the Galilee's most important recent discoveries; Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu called the mosaics the living voice of a Jewish community that dwelt in the Galilee some 1,600 years ago. The joint project of KKL-JNF, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the W.F. Albright Institute is backed by the U.S. government.