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Archaeologists find remains of Christian settlement in Galilee

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has published a report on its finding an ancient Christian settlement in northern Israel in 2007, CBN News reported. Located in the Galilee area, the rural settlement was likely destroyed during the Persian conquest in 613 AD, the IAA report says.

Although the site is still only partly excavated, a team of IAA researchers led by Gilad Cinamon have found numerous structures that likely pertain to a community of Christians living in the Byzantine era, CBN News says.

Publishing their findings in in the June edition Hebrew language research journal Atiqot, IAA researchers wrote: “The finds at the site included a bronze cross, an ashlar limestone lintel with a cross engraving, and pottery dated to the sixth–seventh centuries CE, which comprised local types, alongside many imported ones, some adorned with crosses.”

“An interesting find is a high-quality, colorful, seventh-century CE mosaic floor adorned with floral motifs, animal and human figures, and two fragmentary Greek inscriptions,” the researchers added. In an interview with Haaretz, Cinamon said the 16×16 foot mosaic probably “decorated the living room of a self-sustained urban villa owned by a very wealthy family.” A rare sixth-century bronze weight that was found also points to a wealthy community. Arab-Byzantine coins and stones with crosses inscribed into them were among the items unearthed as well.

“While for now, we have no documents from Christian sources about this settlement, all the evidence points to an almost entirely Christian population,” Cinamon told Haaretz. Researchers believe there were some 140 Christian settlements in the region during this period and many of them were destroyed by the Persians.