Recent investigations have shown that there was a considerable Jewish community in Diocletian’s Palace, perhaps from the time of its construction.
In many places in the Palace, there are interesting signs carved into the stone. Most of these signs are readily recognizable as masons’ marks, but some of them may have been incised for symbolic reasons. Prominent among them are marks of the menorah, which is one of the oldest symbols of Judaism. All of them are located in the eastern part of the substructures of the imperial residence, in the vicinity of the triclinium or dining room. The number of menorahs would certainly have been greater and their distribution more consistent if large parts of the walls of the eastern substructures had not been damaged by fire or totally demolished.
Unlike the other stone working marks, which were carved in the quarry or the workshop, and deployed over the wall surfaces without any particular order, all the menorahs are regularly placed at the same height, located precise y in the center of a stone block, and are never found upside down, which means that they were carved on the spot. The placing of Jewish symbols in such prominent places suggests these spaces belonged to the Jewish community, and are likely to indicate a synagogue.
