‘Like greeting Christian pilgrims’: Archaeologists find 1,500-year-old church wall in the Negev

Israeli archaeologists discovered a 1,500-year-old Byzantine-era church wall with drawings of a ship while excavating an area of ​​the Negev city for expansion, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday.

“This discovery is like a greeting to Christian pilgrims arriving by ship at Gaza port,” said Oren Shmueli, Dr. Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Dr. Noe David Michael, excavation directors of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “These pilgrims made their first inland stop at this Church of Relief before continuing on to other important Christian sites across the country.”

The church is located near an ancient Roman road connecting the Mediterranean port of Gaza with the main city of Beer-Sheva in the Negev. The presence of a church suggests that Rahat was a waypoint for pilgrims traveling to the Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the monasteries in the Negev and Sinai.

“This site provides a vivid snapshot of settlement patterns in the northern Negev during the transition from the Byzantine to the early Islamic period,” said the excavation directors.

According to Professor Deborah Sewickel of the University of Haifa, the ship paintings adorning the walls reveal the traveling habits and maritime life of early Christian pilgrims.

“One of the ships painted on the walls of the church is depicted as a sketch, but it can still be seen that its bow is slightly pointed and that there are oars on both sides of the ship. This may be an aerial depiction of the ship, Sewickel said, although it appears the artist was attempting a three-dimensional depiction. “Ships or crosses left by Christian pilgrims as evidence of their journey are also found in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.”

Another picture depicts an apparently two-masted ship. The main mast has no sails but a small flag is visible in its upper part. The foremast is slightly inclined towards the bow and has a sail known as an artemon, indicating the artist’s familiarity with maritime life. However, the picture was found upside down.

“The person placing the stone during construction either was not aware that there was a painting on it, or did not care,” Siwickel said.

With a population of over 79,000, Rahat is the largest Bedouin city in the world. The excavations, which have been going on for several years, aim to integrate the historical heritage with modern developments.

The newly found church walls will be presented to the public along with other archaeological discoveries at the Rahat Nagar Cultural Hall on June 6.