Israeli archaeologists have fully exposed the large central bimah, the raised platform used for Torah readings, at the site of the Great Synagogue of Vilna in Vilnius, Lithuania. This followed a month of excavation work, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. This is the sixth excavation season, conducted jointly by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Lithuania’s Cultural Heritage Preservation Forces. Some named women who prayed in the synagogue’s women’s gallery, while others bore men’s names or marked seats belonging to members of a charitable society that helped administer Vilna’s Jewish community. Excavators said the finds offer insight into centuries of Jewish religious and communal life that flourished at the site before the destruction of Vilna’s Jewish community during the Holocaust.