Ships in the Negev: Byzantine-era church reveals pilgrims' sea passage
The unexpected find presents evidence of sea-faring methods used approximately 1,500-years-ago to transport Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land
In the northern Negev desert, with no shore in sight, new findings reveal how Christian pilgrims arrived in the Holy Land 1,500-years-ago.
During an excavation of a Byzantine-era church next to the Bedouin city of Rahat, archaeologists identified wall art displaying ships.
The site is in fact only a half-day walk from the ancient port of Gaza, with the church located along an ancient Roman road that led from the coast to Beer Sheba.
According to the site directors, pilgrims would have used this road to begin their journey to sacred Christian sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the monasteries in the Negev Hills, and in the Sinai. The archaeologists believe this church may have been one of their first stops after coming off their sea voyage.
“This is a greeting from Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to Gaza port,” say Excavation Directors Oren Shmueli, Dr. Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Dr. Noé David Michael from the Israel Antiquities Authority, who worked together with Professor Deborah Cvikel of the University of Haifa’s Department of Maritime Civilizations.
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.
Though ships are often present in Christian art, the archaeologists are certain that their findings are true graphical depictions of the ships on which pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land.
Professor Cvikel described one of the line drawings: "It may be discerned that its bow is slightly pointed, and that there are oars on both sides of the vessel. This may be an aerial depiction of the ship, though it seems the artist was attempting a three-dimensional drawing. It may be that the lines below it portray the path beaten by the oars through the water."
The wall art found in Rahat is similar in nature to ancient graffiti left by Christian pilgrims at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Another drawing depicts what is apparently a two-masted ship. The main mast has no sail, but seems to show a small flag in its upper section. The fore mast is slightly raked towards the bow and bears a sail known as an artemon.
The exacting detail indicates the artist’s familiarity with maritime life. “Since the drawing was found upside-down, it seems the person placing the stone during construction was either unaware it bore a drawing, or did not care," said archaeologist Daria Eladjem.
Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Eli Escusido added, “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 about the ships they traveled in and the maritime world of that time."
The discovery was made south of Rahat, during an expansion project to add a new neighborhood in the Bedouin city funded by the Authority for Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev.
The Israel Antiquities Authority has been conducting excavations here for several years, and the discovery will be presented to the public for the first time in the Rahat Conference on June 6. The conference will also include many other finds from excavations in the city and surrounding area.