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based upon the general directions above. Based on the article below:
AS DUSK APPROACHES, Korean pilgrims in white baseball caps blow horns and sing hymns atop Tel Megiddo. This crossroads in
northern Israel–also known as Armageddon–is where the New Testament says the final battle pitting good against evil will
begin. Below the huge mound, tour buses idle, throngs of visitors buy postcards, and a nearby McDonalds does a thriving
business at its drive-through window.
On the opposite side of the busy highway are the grim brick walls and coiled barbed wire of a high-security prison. It is an
awkward place for an important archaeological site. Unlike at the mound, visitors are not welcome here. Even archaeologists
must apply well in advance for access–something I wasn’t granted–so I am left standing outside the gates with Yotam Tepper
of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The mosaic floor that he and a team of inmates discovered under the prison yard may mark
one of the earliest known places of Christian worship.
Although the site may date to a full century before the Roman emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan transforming
Christianity from a disparate group of Jesus-worshipping cults to a powerful state religion in A.D. 313, these early
followers of the controversial faith weren’t hiding their beliefs. “There were Samaritans and Jews and Romans and Christians
all living together in just this small place,” says Tepper. A Roman soldier paid for the mosaics, and members of the
congregation may even have baked bread for Rome’s sixth legion, stationed nearby.
The find at Megiddo is a key piece of evidence in a radical rethinking of how Christianity evolved during its first three
centuries, before it was backed by the might of empire. Until recently, scholars had to rely on ancient texts that emphasize
the vicious persecution of the church–think lions dining on martyrs in Rome’s Colosseum. A growing body of archaeological
data, however, paints a more diverse and surprising picture in which Christians thrived alongside Jews and the Roman
military. These finds make this “a definitive time in our field” since they appear to contradict the literary sources on
which historians have long depended, says Eric Meyers, a biblical archaeologist at Duke University.
Megiddo is only the latest in a series of recent digs in the Near East revealing a more complex history of the early
Christian era. Near the Red Sea in the Jordanian city of Aqaba, archaeologists have uncovered what the dig director, Thomas
Parker of North Carolina State University, argues is a pre-Constantinian prayer hall. At Capernaum, just an hour’s drive from
Megiddo, Franciscan monks believe they have excavated a pilgrimage site dating to as early as the first century A.D. on the
shores of the Sea of Galilee. Such discoveries are unusual; the only undisputed early Christian worship site is at Dura
Europas, on the Euphrates River in modern Syria, which was excavated in the 1920s and ’30s by French and American teams. How
the most recently discovered sites were used and dated, however, is hotly contested.
Formal churches were rare before A.D. 325, when Constantine convened the Council of Nicea formalizing many church practices,
and embarked on a building campaign that used the Roman basilica–a spacious rectangular enclosed space, typically with an
apse and an altar on one end–as the model for Christian places of worship. The basilica became the standard still used for
churches around the world.
Before that innovation, however, Christians gathered in domus ecclesiae, or house churches. Eager to keep a low profile
during uncertain times, many Christian communities met in homes throughout the first centuries to celebrate rituals such as
the Eucharist, which used wine and bread to recall Christ’s sacrifice and to bind the community of believers together. In a
letter to the Romans, St. Paul mentions “the church that is in their house,” and numerous other early writers cite homes
where congregations met. “This type of architecture was quite private, so it was not visibly a Christian building,” says Joan
Taylor, a historian at University College in London. “Otherwise, it might get smashed and you might get killed.”
That was a legitimate fear. The Jewish high council, according to the New Testament, ordered the death of the first Christian
martyr, Stephen. Christians–who still were seen as a Jewish sect–refused to join Jews in the Bar Kokhba revolt against the
Romans in A.D. 132-135. Judged as traitors by the Jewish community, they were killed in retribution. After the revolt,
however, the decimated Jewish population posed far less of a threat than the Romans. Nero had already scapegoated Christians
for burning Rome in A.D. 64; Emperor Decius (A.D. 249-251) had pursued lay Christians as well as clergy; and Diocletian and
Galerius had infamously persecuted Christians at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth centuries A.D. There is
little doubt Christians suffered terribly during the religions early days. But the evidence from Near Eastern digs, combined
with new thinking about the Roman Empire, demonstrates that there were substantial periods when Christians were tolerated,
accepted, and even embraced by their tormentors.
THIS IS INDISPUTABLY THE CASE at Dura Europas, a formidable city and Roman garrison that guarded the eastern frontier of the
empire. Excavations in the 1930s revealed a domus ecclesia that includes an inscription dating it to A.D. 231–the only
Christian house church which scholars agree predates Constantine. The house church was located near the city gate where Roman
soldiers would have been stationed. “There’s no way the Romans didn’t know about the Christians,” says Simon James, an
archaeologist at the University of Leicester.
For decades the house church has remained an archaeological oddity. New clues, however, have been emerging far to the south,
at Capernaum along the Sea of Galilee in Israel, where Franciscan scholars have been excavating a site for the past century.
They believe it was the house of Peter and other apostles; Jesus is said to have lived here and taught at the local
synagogue. Today, a squat and ugly modern concrete church hovers above the house. Visiting Italian nuns and Nigerian pilgrims
peer down through the church’s glass floor at the foundations of the octagonal shrine built a century or so after Constantine
legalized Christianity. The octagon was a typical shape for shrines and places of importance, from Roman tombs to the Dome of
the Rock. Below the Capernaum structure, the excavators found 11 floors, layered one on top of the other, dating from the
second century B.C. through the fourth century A.D., says Michele Piccirillo, a Franciscan archaeologist.
Piccirillo’s office is a high-ceilinged room just off the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, with a bare bulb illuminating religious
paintings and stacks of books. He makes strong and bitter coffee as he lays out the case for Capernaum as one of
Christianity’s most ancient places of worship. Digging through his papers, he points out the evolution of the house. He notes
that the early layers include lamps and cooking pots, while from the second century A.D. on, they have only found lamps–
circumstantial evidence that the site may have been transformed from a private home into a place of pilgrimage or worship.
And some bits of plaster in the central room show graffiti by Christians, including the name Peter and references to “Christ”
and “Lord” in Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and Syriac. “There is continuity–this house eventually was used as a church,” he says.
He believes the domus ecclesia dates from at least the third century.
Other archaeologists disagree with this interpretation. Taylor, who closely examined the data, believes the site was not used
for worship until the fourth century. But Meyers is impressed with the evidence. “There is no doubt that the graffiti
suggests early Christian pilgrims venerated the site,” he says. “The excavators have been very, very responsible–they’re not
making this up.” But he adds that Franciscans like Piccirillo “have a vested interest in proving the antiquity of holy
sites.” What is not in dispute, however, is the existence of an elaborate synagogue across the street, dating to the same
time as the octagonal building. The Franciscans believe it was built on the foundation of an earlier Jewish house of worship
dating to the first century A.D.–and possibly the same one in which Jesus is said to have preached. Whether or not the monks
have found Peter’s house, it is clear that Jews and Christians coexisted peacefully here.
Further to the south, in Jordan, the team led by Parker uncovered another candidate for a pre-Constantinian church in the
late 1990s. Located just a short walk from the Red Sea in the port of Aqaba, the small site is today surrounded by busy
streets and hotels in this popular seaside resort. Like Dura Europas, the city in Roman times was a thriving center of trade
at the edge of the empire–and an important military post. Unlike a scattering of other archaeological sites in this city,
there are no signs yet explaining the potential significance of the mud-brick structure that lies crumbling in the sun,
protected by a short wire fence. More than 100 coins, the latest dating to the last decade in the reign of Constantinius II
(A.D. 337-361), were found in the building, which measures 85 by 53 feet. Based on the coins and pottery, Parker estimates
that the building was constructed in the late third or early fourth century A.D.–though he says a post-325 date is not out
of the question.
Given the east-west orientation, basilica-like plan, glass oil-lamp fragments, and a cross found in a grave in a nearby
cemetery, he argues that the building was a formal church rather than a domus ecclesia. The theory has yet to win many
supporters, but scholars are eager to see his final publication of the find, which should be out this year. “I am skeptical,”
says Jodi Magness, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in the period and is
digging just across the border in Israel,” I haven’t seen anything yet that persuades me.”
Magness has her own potential candidate for a pre-Constantine church in southern Israel at a site called Yotvata, a Roman
fort that was built around A.D. 300. In 2006, her team found a semicircular niche cut into the fort’s wall flanked by two
pilasters and an inscription that may be a Christian prayer. The niche was likely built in the early fourth century but a
more precise date will require further excavation–including the removal of a British police station that was built over it
in the 1930s.
THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING the church at Megiddo began in 2003, when prisoners were assigned to expand the buildings housing
Christian and Muslim Palestinian prisoners. When the crew working in the interior yard hit archaeological remains, prison
officials alerted the Israel Antiquities Authority, which put Tepper, a graduate student at Tel Aviv University, in charge of
the salvage effort. He conducted the work primarily with a team made up of 70 prisoners.
Like Dura Europas and Aqaba, Megiddo was full of Roman soldiers. And like Capernaum, it was primarily a Jewish town. Situated
on a strategic spot between the Mediterranean coast and the Sea of Galilee, its bloody future as the site of the last battle
between good and evil forecast by the New Testament’s Book of Revelation reflects its past: here, battles raged involving
Egyptians, Canaanites, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Turks, and British. But during Roman times, it was the site of a Jewish
village called Kefar ‘Othnay, a Roman legion camp, and eventually a Byzantine city called Maximianopolis.
“It was a small village with nothing special,” says Tepper. The settlement, likely founded by Jews or Samaritans in the
second half of the first century, covered about 15 acres and was located next to a Roman legion base. In late 2005, as he was
wrapping up the dig, Tepper came across the remains of a building on the edge of the village closest to the Roman camp. The
building had four wings, an exterior courtyard with bread ovens, and a series of rooms opening onto an interior courtyard. In
the western wing Tepper’s team uncovered a hall measuring 5 by 10 yards and oriented north to south. In the middle of the
hall, they found four mosaic panels with inscriptions surrounding a podium. Two panels are decorated with simple geometric
patterns; a third is slightly larger with Greek inscriptions on each end. The fourth shows two flopping fish–a tuna and a
sea bass–circled by squares, triangles, and diamonds with a large inscription on one end.
Tepper faxed images of the mosaics to Leah di Segni, an epigrapher at Hebrew University who was working from her third-floor
walk-up apartment in West Jerusalem. At first she says she assumed the mosaics were part of a temple to Mithras, a Persian
god popular with Roman troops from the empire’s eastern frontier to Scotland. Di Segni translated one inscription as
“Gaianus, also called Porphyrius, centurion, our brother, has made the pavement at his own expense as an act of liberality.
Brutius has carried out the work.” A second inscription is a memorial to four women with common Greek names. But the third
inscription was the stunner: “The god-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.”
She immediately phoned Tepper and told him to look for Roman pottery. He promptly found sherds and coins that he says date
the site to the early third century. They found more than 100 coins in the complex, one-third of which date to the second and
third centuries A.D. and the remaining two-thirds to the fourth century. Almost all of the early coins come from the hall,
including several in pristine condition from the reigns of emperors Elagabalus (A.D. 218-222) and Severus Alexander (A.D.
222-235).”These coins,” Tepper says, “should probably be associated with the founding of the building.” The latest one, he
notes, is dated to Diocletian’s reign in the late third century. The absence of any post-Diocletian coins may mean that the
building was abandoned in the fourth century, says Tepper. He also says he has Roman pottery that confirms his conclusion.
Most of the jar fragments in the complex appear to be from the third century A.D., with the latest dating to the early fourth
century. Pottery fragments found alongside and below the mosaic floor are no later than the third century, he adds. Two stone
stamps that were used by the bakers of the Roman legions to mark the bread they made were found in the complex, another sign
that soldiers may have been Christians at a time when the faith was officially outlawed.
Tepper’s conclusions have been greeted skeptically by senior archaeologists, such as Magness and Piccirillo. “There are a lot
of early coins–so what?” says Magness, who notes that the area under the mosaic floor, which might yield critical dating
material, has yet to be excavated. “I don’t think they have convincing evidence,” she adds. Piccirillo agrees. An expert in
Byzantine mosaics, he believes their style indicates they could be as late as the fifth century.
Others are more intrigued. “I’m open to Megiddo as a third-century site,” says Taylor. “It’s idiosyncratic,” she adds, since
it does not fit the model of Christian churches during and after the time of Constantine. Those structures are easily
recognizable by their basilica shape with an altar on the east end and main entrance to the west. “This is a time before all
the dictates come from above,” says Taylor. And Meyers, a pottery expert, says that while everyone is awaiting a final
publication, he is convinced that the sherds are distinctively mid-Roman rather than from a later era.
If Megiddo does prove to be an early prayer hall, then it will lend strength to the growing view among scholars that the
early Church in the Holy Land was highly diverse during the two centuries between the death of Jesus and Constantine’s edict.
“The traditional view was that early Christianity was not licensed, that it had to hide,” says Taylor. “That’s shifting to a
recognition that there were periods of persecution followed by periods of peace.” And those well-documented periods of
persecution might have had spotty results. Decrees issued from Rome, Taylor says, might have little impact at the fringes of
a vast empire, at places like Megiddo and Dura Europas.
Meyers agrees. He also believes the Megiddo site is evidence that scholars need to rethink the idea that the Holy Land was
largely devoid of Christians after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and subsequent Jewish revolts. According to Meyers, the
archaeological evidence points to a complex and closer relationship between early Christians and Jews. Despite Byzantine
decrees persecuting Jews, he notes that impressive synagogues sprang up around the empire at places like Capernaum. “The two
sister religions have an often robust and positive” relationship, says Meyers. He believes the excavations show that it goes
back to Christianity’s early days.
How Roman soldiers influenced the evolution of early Christianity remains an open question. Though the Roman army was often
the weapon used to smash Christian places of worship, soldiers were also drawn to a host of eastern cults such as Mithraism
and Christianity. “A lot of soldiers regarded it as sensible to get on the right side of the local deities,” says James.
MEANWHILE, WORK AT THE Megiddo site has stopped. Israeli officials would like to move the prison, but there is no budget to
do so. There are not even funds to finish the excavations and conserve the site. The idea of turning the area into a major
tourist destination–the nearby Tel Megiddo already draws hundreds of pilgrims each day–appears to be on indefinite hold.
Standing outside the prison gate, Tepper says that the money and jobs involved make moving the prison difficult. He is
currently busy with other salvage excavations around the Sea of Galilee. By now the sun is setting and the tourist buses have
all left Tel Megiddo. Tepper gives the prison walls one last glance and climbs in his battered jeep as the gate opens
briefly–but only to let in a new batch of prisoners.
MAP: Dura Europas, SYRIA, LEBANON, IRAQ, Capernaum, Megiddo, ISRAEL, JORDAN, Yotvata, Aqaba, SAUDI ARABIA
PHOTO (COLOR): Inside an Israeli prison, Palestinian inmates clean the mosaic floor of a building that may be one of the
earliest Christian churches. The mosaics’ inscriptions refer to “the God Jesus Christ,” as well as a Roman soldier who paid
for the floor, raising questions about the relationship between early Christians and Romans.
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): The shrine at Dura Europas, shown in the 1930s (left), is still the only uncontested place of
Christian worship predating the rule of the Roman emperor Constantine. Below is a reconstruction of the shrine.
PHOTO (COLOR): This prayer niche was carved into the wall of the Roman fort at Yotvata, in southern Israel. The discovery has
not been analyzed yet, so no one knows exactly how it was used, but it could have been a Christian shrine.
PHOTO (COLOR): Franciscan archaeologists contend that the disciple Peter’s home lies beneath this octagonal shrine built
after Constantine’s reign. Today, a modern church with a glass floor shelters the ancient buildings.
PHOTO (COLOR): This site in the city of Aqaba on the Red Sea may contain the ruins of a pre-Constantinian church. Below,
Israeli President Moshe Katzav and Patriarch Irineos of the Greek Orthodox Church inspect the mosaic floor at Megiddo in
January 2006.
PHOTO (COLOR)
PHOTO (COLOR)
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By Andrew Lawler
Andrew Lawler is a staff writer for Science magazine.