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Fish mosaic in uncovered church.(AP)
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| By Associated Press November 6, 2005 |
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| Israeli prisoners work on the floor of the mosaic. (AP) |
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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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