Ancient mosaic from 1,500-year-old church found in Israel
Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered intricate mosaics on the floor of a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church, including one that bears a Christogram surrounded by birds.
The ruins were discovered during a salvage excavation ahead of a construction project in Aluma, a village about 50 kilometres south of Tel Avi near Kiryat Gat, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Wednesday (Jan. 22).
Excavator Davida Eisenberg Degen said the team used an industrial digger to probe a mound at the site, and through a three-metre hole, they could see the white tiles of an ancient mosaic. The basilica was part of a local Byzantine settlement, but the archaeologists suspect it also served as a center of Christian worship for neighbouring communities because it was next to the main road running between the ancient seaport city of Ashkelon in the west and Beit Guvrin and Jerusalem in the east.
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