Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 1,500-year-old church wall decorated with paintings by Christian pilgrims who likely stopped at the building on their way to the ruins of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The wall, discovered in Israel’s Negev region during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), is set to open to the public on June 6, the IAA announced. press releaseThe IAA called it a “big surprise.”
The painting depicts a ship and was likely painted shortly after the pilgrims anchored their boat on the Mediterranean coast. The church is about a half-day’s walk from the port. It was probably built about 500 years after Christ’s death. Pilgrimages to sites associated with the life of Christ and biblical events became increasingly popular among Christians after the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the 300s. Excavation directors said the painting was “a greeting from Christian pilgrims arriving by ship at the port.”
“The excavation site tells the story of the settlement of the northern Negev region from the late Byzantine period to the early Islamic period,” said excavator director Alan A. “Pilgrims visited the church and left their mark on the walls in the form of drawings of ships. While a ship is certainly an old Christian symbol, in this case it appears to be a faithful depiction of the actual ships on which pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land.”
According to the IAA, the church was located near an ancient Roman road.
“The pilgrims began their pilgrimage by following the Roman routes that led to the holy sites of Christendom, including Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the monasteries in the Negev Hills and the Sinai Peninsula,” the excavation director said. “It makes sense that their first stop after disembarking at the port of Gaza would have been this church, discovered during excavations south of Rahat.”
The team leading the excavation was made up of Oren Shmueli, Elena Kogan Zahavi, Noe David Michael and Deborah Zwickel. Eli Eskuseed, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, called the find “astonishing and intriguing,” saying it “opens a window into the world of Christian pilgrims who visited the Holy Land 1,500 years ago. It provides direct evidence about the ships they traveled on and the maritime world of that time,” he added.
Photo credit: Facebook/Israel Antiquities Authority
Michael Faust He has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years, and his work has appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, Christian Post, Leaf Chronicle, Toronto Star and Knoxville News Sentinel.
