A mosaic floor that appears to be from one of the earliest churches in the history of Christianity was uncovered recently in Nazareth, Israel, at the Church of the Annunciation by a team of archaeologists led by a team of American and Israeli archaeologists.
The Church of the Annunciation is seen by Christians worldwide as a shrine of great significance dating back to the origins of what became Christianity. According to an ancient tradition, the Angel Gabriel “announced” the forthcoming birth of Jesus at a spring or well that Mary was visiting to get water. It became the place where the Greek Orthodox located their church in the Byzantine period. The church was destroyed multiple times and rebuilt in the pre-modern period.
“The mosaic floor is beautifully decorated with multiple stylized crosses and iconography,” said Professor Richard Freund of the University of Hartford. The floor was uncovered as a result of ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity studies sponsored by the University of Hartford.
The mosaic is thought to have been created in the fourth century, when Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, came to the Holy Land to establish Christian pilgrim sites.
Duquesne University’s Dr. Philip Reeder, who is a co-investigator on the project, explained that “based on the data we collected in December 2012 and January 2015 using the geophysical techniques ground-penetrating radar and electro-resistivity tomography, we determined that ‘something’ was buried beneath the courtyard behind the current incarnation of the church.” His team created maps that depicted the location of the structural anomalies the team found approximately six feet below the surface. Based on this information, an excavation was licensed by the Israel Antiquities Authority, and approved by the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Nazareth and the Arab Orthodox Council.
“The mosaic floor is beautifully decorated with multiple stylized crosses and iconography,” Freund said.
Early Christian Mosaic Floor discovered in Nazareth