Morocco: a coalition of archelogists seeks out Jewish heritage
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Loading... - Diakite Oumou
- 21 Mar 2023
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In the depths of the Akka oasis in Morocco, two archaeologists are excavating the floor of a synagogue in search of even the smallest fragments of the country's Jewish history.
Dating back to antiquity, Morocco's Jewish community reached its peak in the 15th century, following the brutal expulsion of Sephardic Jews from Spain.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Morocco had approximately 250,000 Jews. But after waves of departures at the time of the creation of Israel in 1948, particularly following the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, their number has been reduced to only 2,000 today.
There is little documentation of the rich legacy the community left behind.
According to Saghir Mabrouk, a Moroccan archaeologist, this undertaking is unique.
"This is a first. The first archaeological excavation of the Jewish-Moroccan heritage, it is the first time that the National Institute of Sciences of Archaeology and Heritage (INSAP) begins an excavation in the field of Jewish archaeology, Jewish-Moroccan," said Saghir Mabrouk, archaeologist at the National Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage of Morocco.
Saghir Mabrouk is part of a coalition of six researchers from Morocco, Israel and France, in a project to revive the Jewish heritage of the North African country.
The team was able to recover a majority of objects including fragments of manuscripts and amulets. Read More…
