Though written sources identify the neighborhood of Cerro de la Horca as a medieval burial ground, it was not until 2008, when human bones were found in a local schoolyard, that excavations were undertaken at the site. After years of post-excavation study, archaeologist Arturo Ruiz Taboada has revealed that the area contained 107—and probably many more—mid-twelfth-century tombs. The tombs are of a type distinctive to Jewish burials, with no parallels among the city’s Muslim or Christian graves. 

Following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, there was a policy of eliminating every symbol or memory of their presence in the country. “It’s been difficult to uncover Jewish culture and tradition through archaeology,” says Ruiz Taboada, “and very little evidence of their rise during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries survives.” Although physical anthropologists were part of the excavation team, it wasn’t possible to study the remains after ultra-Orthodox groups demanded an end to work on the site and immediate reburial of the deceased.

At the site of Huqoq, in Israel’s Galilee region, Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has discovered a mosaic depicting Samson. The fifth-century work shows him carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders—a scene from Judges 16:3. Another Samson mosaic was found there last year, suggesting the synagogue had been decorated with a pictorial cycle, the first of its kind uncovered in Israel. 

During the past four years, on the Danish island of Bornholm, archaeologists and amateurs have uncovered a collection of remarkable gold figurines dating from the sixth or seventh century A.D. According to Bornholm Museum archaeologist René Laursen, the figurines represent deities and were sacrificed with wishes for health, fertility, or a good harvest. “They are very unusual,” says Laursen. “Although we know of a few figurines from Scandinavia, they are usually bronze.” In addition to many silver, bronze, and iron artifacts, 24 gold foil figurines have also been uncovered at the site—called Smørenge, or “Butter Meadows”—probably all offerings at one or more sacred springs, or perhaps even a temple.