Convicts unearth Israel’s ‘oldest church’
Digging where the Prisons’ Authority wants to build new wards for 1,200 Palestinian security prisoners, the Israeli criminals uncovered mosaics experts said were the floor of a church from the third century, decades before Constantine legalised Christianity across the Byzantine Empire.
Head archaeologist Yotam Tepper said: “What’s clear today is that it’s the oldest archaeological remains of a church in Israel, maybe even in the entire region, whether in the entire world, it’s still too early to say.”
