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Megiddo Church (Israel)
Megiddo church, near Tel Megiddo, Israel, is an archaeological site which preserves the foundations of one of the oldest church buildings ever discovered by archaeologists, dating to the 3rd century AD. The ‘Megiddo Church’, as the room became known, was dated to circa.230 AD on the basis of pottery, coins, and the inscriptional style. The site’s abandonment, circa.305 AD, is evident in the purposeful covering of the mosaic, and relates well to the crisis of 303 AD, when the Christian communities of Palestine experienced persecution instituted by the emperor Diocletian. Location The remains were found near Megiddo Prison, which is located a few hundred meters south of the tell and adjacent to Megiddo Junction in northern Israel. The area belonged to the ancient Roman town of Legio, known previously by its Hebrew name, Kefar ‘Otnay. Discovery and description In 2005, Israeli archaeologist Yotam Tepper of Tel-Aviv University discovered the remains of a church, believed to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly popular in the Ancient Roman world. Mosaic today includes not just murals and pavements, but also artwork, hobby crafts, and industrial and construction forms. Mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Pebble mosaics were made in Tiryns in Mycenean Greece; mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classical times, both in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. Mosaic art flourished in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 15th centuries; that tradition was adopted by the Norman Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century, by the eastern-influenced Republic of Venice, and among the Rus. Mosaic fell ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archaeological Sites In Israel
The archaeology of Israel is the study of the archaeology of the present-day Israel, stretching from prehistory through three millennia of documented history. The ancient Land of Israel was a geographical bridge between the political and cultural centers of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Despite the importance of the country to three major religions, serious archaeological research only began in the 15th century.''Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel'', edited by Raphael Patai, Herzl Press and McGraw-Hill, New York, 1971, vol. I, pp. 66–71 Although he never travelled to the Levant, or even left the Netherlands, the first major work on the antiquities of Israel is considered to be Adriaan Reland's ''Antiquitates Sacrae veterum Hebraeorum,'' published in 1708. Edward Robinson (scholar), Edward Robinson, an American theologian who visited the country in 1838, published its first topographical studies. Lady Hester Stanhope performed the first modern excavation at Ashkelon in 1815. A Frenchm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Churches In The Holy Land
Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages varies between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was already Exponential growth, exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oldest Churches In The World
This article lists some but by no means all of the oldest known Church (building), church buildings in the world. In most instances, buildings listed here were reconstructed numerous times and only fragments of the original buildings have survived. These surviving freestanding buildings were purposely constructed for use by congregations (or used at an early date). The dates are the approximate dates when they were first used by congregations for worship. The term ''church'' may be used in the sense of "Christian denomination" or in the singular as the Christian Church as a whole. The "church" (Greek , 'assembly') is traced to Pentecost and the beginning of the Christian mission in the Christianity in the 1st century, first century and was not used in reference to a building. According to the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' the Cenacle (the site of the Last Supper) in Jerusalem was the "first Christian church." The Dura-Europos church in Syria is the oldest surviving church building in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lajjun
Lajjun ( ar, اللجّون, ''al-Lajjūn'') was a large Palestinian Arab village in Mandatory Palestine, located northwest of Jenin and south of the remains of the biblical city of Megiddo. The Israeli kibbutz of Megiddo, Israel was built on the land from 1949. Named after an early Roman legion camp in Syria Palaestina province called "Legio", predating the village at that location, Lajjun's history of habitation spanned some 2,000 years. Under Abbasid rule it was the capital of a subdistrict, during Mamluk rule it served as an important station in the postal route, and during Ottoman rule it was the capital of a district that bore its name. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire towards the end of World War I, Lajjun and all of Palestine was placed under the administration of the British Mandate. The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when it was captured by Israel. Most of its residents subsequently fled and settled in the nearby town of Umm al- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vassilios Tzaferis
Vassilios Tzaferis (1 April 1936 – 1 January 2015) was a Greek–Israeli biblical archaeologist and Orthodox monk, best known for his discovery of the remains of a crucified man at Givat HaMivtar. He was the director of surveys and excavations at the Israel Antiquities Authority (1999–2001) and the curator of the Patriarchal Museum in Jerusalem (1984–2004). Early life and ecclesiastic career Tzaferis was born on 1 April 1936 on the Greek island of Samos. He began studying theology at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1950. He took monastic vows and was ordained a deacon in 1956 and a priest in 1958. Considering leaving the priesthood to study in Athens, he instead obtained permission from Benedict I of Jerusalem to study history and archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem whilst retaining his monastic habit. Tzaferis left the church in 1964, in order to marry. Now required to perform mandatory military service in Greece, he also renounced his Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persecution Of Christians
The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point of being martyred for their faith, ever since the emergence of Christianity. Early Christians were persecuted at the hands of both Jews, from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Romans who controlled many of the early centers of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Since the emergence of Christian states in Late Antiquity, Christians have also been persecuted by other Christians due to differences in doctrine which have been declared heretical. Early in the fourth century, the empire's official persecutions were ended by the Edict of Serdica in 311 and the practice of Christianity legalized by the Edict of Milan in 312. By the year 380, Christians began to persecute each other. The schisms of late antiquity and the Middle Ages – in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservation, and promotes research. The Director-General is Mr. Eli Escusido, and its offices are housed in the Rockefeller Museum. The Israel Antiquities Authority plans to move into a new building for the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem, next to the Israel Museum. History The Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (IDAM) of the Ministry of Education was founded on July 26, 1948, after the establishment of the State of Israel. It took over the functions of the Department of Antiquities of the British Mandate in Israel and Palestine. Originally, its activities were based on the British Mandate Department of Antiquities ordinances. IDAM was the statutory aut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Zias
Joseph E. Zias, most commonly cited as Joe Zias, was the Curator of Archaeology and Anthropology for the Israel Antiquities Authority from 1972 until his retirement in 1997, with responsibility for items such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, pre-historic human skeletal remains, and artifacts from archaeological sites such as Jericho, Megiddo, and Gezer. He has appeared often in film and television documentaries regarding such artifacts and the subject of the Historical Jesus, including ''The Shroud of Turin'' for CBS, ''Who Killed Jesus'' on BBC in 1997 and '' Son of God'' on BBC in 2001, and is a frequent lecturer. Work Tomb of Absalom inscriptions In 2003, Zias and Émile Puech discovered two mid-4th-century inscriptions on the 1st-century monument known as the Tomb of Absalom, which support the concept known from Byzantine period sources that a tradition existed at the time, wrongly identifying the funeral monument as the tomb of James, the brother of Jesus; Zechariah, the father of J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ichthys
The ichthys or ichthus (), from the Koine Greek, Greek (, 1st cent. AD Koine Greek pronunciation: , "fish") is (in its modern rendition) a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to resemble the profile of a fish. It has been speculated that the symbol was adopted by Early Christianity, early Christians as a secret symbol; a shibboleth to determine if another was indeed Christian.Robert Mowat, “ΙΧΘΥΣ,” in Atti del II° congresso internazionale di archeologica cristi-ana tenuto in Roma nell’ aprile 1900 (Rome: Spithöver, 1902), 1–8Rasimus, T. ,2011''Revisiting the Ichthys: A Suggestion Concerning the Origins of Christological Fish Symbolism'' Pp 327-348 in '' Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices.'' Biblical Studies, Ancient Near East and Early Christianity E-Books Online. "Such solutions, once popular, include the fish as a secret s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
