Israeli prisoners uncover what may be the Holy Land's oldest church

israelinsider: Culture: Israeli prisoners uncover what may be the Holy Land's oldest church

Prisoners excavating a site
near the biblical Armageddon uncovered what archeologists said Sunday
may be the Holy Land's oldest church.


Told to dig in an area where the Prisons' Authority wants to build
new wards for 1,200 Palestinian security prisoners, the Israeli
criminals uncovered mosaics that experts said was the floor of a church
from the third century, decades before Constantine legalized
Christianity across the Byzantine Empire.


"What's clear today is that it's the oldest archaeological remains
of a church in Israel, maybe even in the entire region, whether in the
entire world, it's still too early to say," said Yotam Tepper, the
excavation's head archaeologist.


Israeli officials were giddy at the news, with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calling the church "an amazing story."



Vatican officials also hailed the find.



"A discovery of this kind will make Israel more interesting to all
Christians, for the Church all over the world," said Archbishop Pietro
Sambi, the Vatican's envoy to Jerusalem. "If it's true that the church
and the beautiful mosaics are from the third century, it would be one
of the most ancient churches in the Middle East."


Two mosaics inside the church -- one covered with fish, an ancient
Christian symbol that predates the cross -- tell the story of a Roman
officer and a woman named Aketous who donated money to build the church
in the memory "of the god, Jesus Christ."


Pottery remnants from the third-century, the style of Greek writing
used in the inscriptions, ancient geometric patterns in the mosaics and
the depiction of fish rather than the cross indicate that the church
was no longer used by the fourth century, Tepper said.


The church's location, not far from the spot where the New
Testament says the final battle between good and evil will take place,
also made sense because a bishop was active in the area at the time,
said Tepper, who works with the Israel Antiquities Authority.


The inscription, which specifies that Aketous donated a table to
the church, indicates the house of worship predated the Byzantine era,
when Christians began using altars in place of tables in their rituals,
Tepper said. Remnants of a table were uncovered between the two
mosaics.


The building -- most of which was destroyed -- also was not built
in the Basilica-style that was standard under the Byzantines, he added.



Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar and professor at the Holy Land
University, said the second and third centuries were transitional
periods where people sought to define their religious beliefs and modes
of worship. Iconography and inscriptions found in Nazareth and
Capernaum -- places where Jesus lived -- show that people went there to
worship, but most did so secretly.


"This was a time of persecution and in this way it is quite
surprising that there would be such a blatant expression of Christ in a
mosaic, but it may be the very reason why the church was destroyed,"
Pfann said.


About 50 prisoners were brought into the high-security Megiddo
Prison to excavate the area before construction began. Ramil Razilo and
Meimon Biton -- the two criminals who first uncovered the mosaics --
used yellow sponges and buckets of water on Sunday to wipe dirt off
their findings.


Initially thinking he was just removing useless rubble from the
area, Razilo was shocked when the edge of the elaborate mosaic appeared
at the tip of his shovel, putting him in the media limelight just a
month before completing a two-year sentence for traffic violations.


"We worked for months to find the parts," Razilo said. "First we
found the first part, the corner, but we didn't understand what was
spoken of, but we continued to look and slowly we found this whole
beautiful thing."


Israel would like to make the site -- currently covered by a white
makeshift tent -- into a tourist attraction, but won't be able to do so
without uprooting either the mosaic or the prison.


The Prisons' Authority and the Antiquities Authority are
considering their options, and the dig will continue as archeologists
try to uncover the rest of the building and its surroundings, including
what they believe could be a baptismal site, Teppler said.


Joe Zias, an anthropologist and former curator with the Antiquities
Authority, questioned the dating of the find. There is no evidence of
churches before the fourth century, he said. The building may have been
in use earlier, but most likely not for Christian religious purposes,
he said.


"They're going to be hard, hard-pressed to prove it ... because the evidence argues otherwise," Zias said.

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