Excavations in Israel are offering a rare window into Christian pilgrimage within the Byzantine era.
Finds from the dig at a Byzantine-period church in Rahat, within the Northern Negev, have revealed a trove of wall art by pilgrims featuring ships.
“These intriguing drawings can have been left by Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to the Gaza port – their first inland stop was this Rahat church; continuing from here on to other sites throughout the country,” excavators from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) explained.
One drawing depicted what gave the impression to be a two-masted ship, and its exacting details testified to the artist’s familiarity with maritime life, but “because the drawing was found upside-down, it seems the person placing the stone during construction was either unaware it bore a drawing, or didn’t care.”
The IAA has been conducting excavations at the location for several years.
“This is a greeting from Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to Gaza port,” the IAA said.
“The excavated site tells the story of settlement within the Northern Negev at the top of the Byzantine period and at first of the Early Islamic period. Pilgrims visited the church and left their personal mark in the shape of ship drawings on its partitions.”
The ancient church is situated adjoining to an ancient Roman road that led from the Mediterranean coastal port of Gaza to Beer Sheva, the Negev’s foremost city.
“The pilgrims began their pilgrimage following Roman roads resulting in sites sacred to Christendom, reminiscent of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the monasteries within the Negev Hills, and within the Sinai,” the IAA said.
“It is cheap that their first stop after alighting from the ships in Gaza port was this very church revealed in our excavations south of Rahat. This site lies only a half-day’s walk from the port.”
IAA Director Eli Escusido said, “This surprising and intriguing find of ship drawings in a Northern Negev Byzantine-period church opens a window for us to the world of Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land 1,500 years ago, and provides first-hand evidence in regards to the ships they travelled in and the maritime world of that point.”
The discoveries unearthed by the IAA will appear soon as a part of an exhibition on 4 June within the Rahat Municipal Cultural Hall. It can be the primary time they’ve been available for public viewing.
The site was excavated during a city expansion project funded by the Authority for Development and Settlement of the Bedouin within the Negev so as to add a latest neighbourhood for Bedouin residents.
