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The Israel Antiquities Authority released a press release on May 23 saying that archaeologists have made a fascinating discovery: a Byzantine-era church in the northern Negev desert, with wall art depicting ships. This unexpected find, located south of the Bedouin city of Rahat, sheds light on the lives and journeys of Christian pilgrims during this period.
As explained by Marinella Bandini in her article, the ongoing excavations are part of a city expansion project and reveal the story of a settlement that thrived during the late Byzantine period and the early Islamic era. The excavators think the ship drawings might have been left by Christian pilgrims who arrived by ship at the port of Gaza.
This church, located along an ancient Roman road from the coast to Beer Sheva, is thought to have been the pilgrims' first stop before they continued on into the Holy Land.
Archaeologists in charge of the project think that after the pilgrims got off the boat in Gaza, they would have used this road to get to places like Jerusalem and Bethlehem, as well as monasteries in the Negev hills and Sinai, Bandini explains.
“It’s safe to say that their first stop after arriving at the port of Gaza was this church we’ve found south of Rahat,” the excavation directors told Bandini.
They also explained that the ship drawings could be a kind of “welcome” left by the pilgrims, a personal mark etched onto the church walls. While ships are a common Christian symbol, in this case they seem to represent the actual vessels that carried these pilgrims to the Holy Land.
