At the end of November a special course was started at the International Conservation Centre in Acre called "Saving the Stones". The course will run for five months and is aimed at young people who wish to learn all the current techniques of preservation of ancient buildings, and the city of Acre itself serves as their classroom. The youngsters come from all over the world and participate in actual restoration projects, learning all the processes of documentation, survey, planning the treatment and the practical work itself. This is the first time that the course is being held, and it is planned to run twice a year. The director, Shirley Anne Peleg said it was an opportunity for the students to learn their techniques within the context of a living community in an ancient city like Acre, which is an UNESCO Heritage Site. The course is a joint enterprise between the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the Old Acre Development Authority and

ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORT FROM JERUSALEM

17 - OCTOBER 2009

The hot news is that Turkish archaeologists have, in September, uncovered the remains of an ancient synagogue at the former port of Myra, today the village of Demre, near Antalya in southern Turkey. It indicates that there was an active Jewish population at the port and that by the third century CE (the estimated date of the synagogue) they were established enough to build their own prayer house The remains include a marble tablet with a menorah, shofar (ram\'s horn) and trumpet on one side and a palm and citrus tree on the other. The prayer hall was about 7m. by 5m. and had two entrances, to the west and to the north. No evidence has yet been found of the place for the ark.