JERUSALEM, Israel – Excavators from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered Byzantine-era church walls from 1,500 years ago containing drawings of ships in a dig south of the Bedouin Arab town of Rahat. The location is north of the Israeli city of Beersheva and east-southeast of the Gaza Strip.
“These intriguing drawings may have been left by Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to the Gaza port – their first inland stop was this Rahat church; continuing here on to other sites throughout the country,” excavators explained.
The dig was part of a city expansion project to add a new neighborhood for Bedouins
The findings will be shown for the first time Tuesday during a conference in Rahat at the city’s cultural hall. The public is invited.
Site directors from the IAA noted, “The excavated site tells the story of settlement in the northern Negev at the end of the Byzantine period and in the beginning of the Early Islamic period. Pilgrims visited the church and left their personal mark in the form of ship drawings on its walls.”
The directors continued, “The ship is indeed an old Christian symbol, but in this case – apparently – it’s a true graphical depiction of real ships in which
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