Excavated Negev Church Walls Reveal Images of Ancient Ships | The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com | David Israel | 15 Iyyar 5784 – Thursday, May 23, 2024 jewishpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jewishpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The excavations are part of a town’s expansion program for opening a new neighborhood for Rahat and suburban residents led by the Authority for Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev.
Israel Antiquities Authority excavation in Rahat (aerial view), May 2024. / Credit: Emil Aladjem/Israel Antiquities AuthorityJerusalem, May 23, 2024 / 10:31 am (CNA).Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered a Byzantine-period church in the northern Negev desert with wall art displaying ships. The surprise findings were announced in a press release issued by the authority on May 23.The discovery was made in the south of the Bedouin city of Rahat, where the Israel Antiquities Authority has been conducting excavations for several years in the context of a city expansion project. The excavated site tells the story of settlement in the northern Negev desert at the end of the Byzantine period and in the beginning of the early Islamic period.Israel Antiquities Authority excavation in Rahat (aerial view). Credit: Emil Aladjem/Israel Antiquities AuthorityAccording to the excavators, "these intriguing drawings may have been left by Christian pilgrims arriving .
The excavated site tells the story of settlement in the northern Negev desert at the end of the Byzantine period and in the beginning of the early Islamic per.
During excavations south of Rahat, remnants of an ancient Byzantine church were uncovered, with etchings of ships on its walls; 'While the ship is an ancient Christian symbol, these carvings likely illustrate the actual vessels that brought the pilgrims to the Holy Land,' say researchers