Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered intricate mosaics on the floor of a 1,500- year-old Byzantine church, including one that bears a Christogram surrounded by birds

The ruins were discovered during a salvage
excavation ahead of a construction project in
Aluma, a village about 50 kilometers south of
Tel Aviv, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)
announced Wednesday (Jan. 22).
Much of the church was revealed during
excavations over the past month. The
basilica was part of a local Byzantine
settlement, but the archaeologists suspect it
also served as a center of Christian worship
for neighboring communities because it was
next to the main road running between the
ancient seaport city of Ashkelon in the west
and Beit Guvrin and Jerusalem in the east.
Remarkable finds
The excavators plan to keep working on the
site for another week, but one of the most
remarkable finds so far was a mosaic
containing a Christogram, or a type of
monogram of the name of Jesus.
At the time, Byzantine Christians wouldn’t
have put crosses on their mosaic floors so
as to not step on the symbol of Christ,. The
Christogram in the mosaic may look like a
cross, but it’s actually more like a “chi rho”
symbol, which puts together the first two
captial letters in the Greek word for Christ,
and often looks like an X superimposed on a
P. There is an alpha and omega (the first
and last letters of the Greek alphabet) on
either side of the chi rho, which is another
Christian symbol, as Christ was often
described as the “the beginning and the
end.” Four birds also decorate the mosaic,
and two of them are holding up a wreath to
the top of the chi rho.
Inside the 22-by-12-meter basilica,
archaeologists also found marble pillars and
an open courtyard paved with a white mosaic
floor.
Just off the courtyard, in the church’s
narthex, or lobby area, there is a fine mosaic
floor decorated with colored geometric
designs, as well as a twelve-row dedicatory
inscription in Greek containing the names
‘Mary’ and ‘Jesus’, and the name of the
person who funded the mosaic’s
construction.
The mosaics in the main hall, or nave,
meanwhile, are decorated with vine tendrils
in the shape of 40 medallions, one of which
contains the Christogram. Many of the other
medallions contain botanical designs and
animals such as a zebras, peacocks,
leopards and wild boars, the excavators said.
Three contain inscriptions commemorating
two heads of the local regional church
named Demetrios and Herakles.
Other discoveries
The archaeologists found traces of later
occupation on top of the church, including
early Islamic walls and Ottoman garbage
pits. (Aluma is located near the Ottoman and
later Palestinian village of Hatta.) The
excavations also revealed Byzantine glass
vessels and a pottery workshop for making
amphoras, cooking pots, kraters, bowls and oil lamps. Regarding the new discoveries, the IAA plansto remove the mosaic for display at a regional museum or visitors’ center, and the rest of the site will be covered back up.