Fifteenth-century Christian pilgrims left an “intriguing” drawing at a port in Gaza as they traveled to other sites in Israel, archaeologists have revealed.
The sketches – believed to be about 1,500 years old – show a two-masted ship without sail, but with a small flag in the upper part.
Although the ship is an ancient symbol of Christianity, archaeologists believe it is a true representation of the boat on which the pilgrims traveled.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has discovered etchings in an ancient Rahat church where archaeologists have been conducting excavations since 2019.
It is thought that the Christians traveling to the ‘Holy Land’ first stopped in Gaza on their way to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other monasteries in the Negav Hills.
Archaeologists have found stone slabs engraved with images of ships that appear to have been drawn by Christian pilgrims from the 15th century. Pictured: a two-masted ship without sail, but with a small flag in the upper part
The discovery was made in the ancient Rehat Church, located near the Negav Desert and adjacent to the main road that would have taken the pilgrims to other religious sites.
Archaeologists reported that the church site where the drawings were discovered is adjacent to the ancient Roman road that led from the port of Gaza along the Mediterranean coast to Beer Sheva, the capital of Negav.
This was the most likely route the pilgrims would have taken to reach Israel’s holy sites, the IAA said in a Facebook post. after.
“It is reasonable that their first stop after disembarking the ships in Gaza port was precisely this church that was revealed during our excavations south of Rahat,” the team involved in the excavation said, adding: ” This place is just half a day’s walk from the gate.’
The church that housed the drawings dates from the Byzantine era, the beginning of the Early Middle Ages, leading researchers to believe the artwork dates from that period.
“This is a greeting from Christian pilgrims arriving by ship at the port of Gaza,” said excavation directors Oren Shmueli, Dr. Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Dr. Noé David Michael.
“Pilgrims visited the church and left their personal mark in the form of ship drawings on the walls,” the team continued.
“The ship is indeed an ancient Christian symbol, but in this case it is apparently a faithful graphic representation of real ships on which the pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land.”
The first image (photo) shows a line drawing with a slightly pointed bow and oars on either side of the ship, making it appear as if it is an aerial view of the ship.
Archaeologists have worked at the site for several years and the drawings now provide ‘first-hand evidence’ of how the pilgrims traveled to Israel at the time
The first image shows a line drawing with a slightly pointed bow and oars on either side of the ship, making it appear as if it is an aerial view of the ship.
But “it seems that the artist was trying to make a three-dimensional drawing,” says Prof. Deborah Cvikel of the University of Haifa’s Department of Maritime Civilizations.
‘It may be that the lines below represent the path the oars take through the water. Vessels or crosses left by visiting Christian pilgrims as witnesses to their visit are also found in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.’
A second drawing indicated that the artist was familiar with maritime life, the IAA said, because the foremast leans toward the bow and lacks a sail, known as an artemon, which was used to help steer the ship.
Both stones were found upside down, which the IAA says may mean that the person who placed the stone during the church’s construction either did not know there was a drawing on the slab or did not care.
“This surprising and intriguing discovery of ship drawings in a Byzantine-period church in the northern Negev opens for us a window into the world of Christian pilgrims who visited the Holy Land 1,500 years ago,” said Eli Ecusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority .
The discovery “provides first-hand evidence about the ships they traveled on and the maritime world of the time,” he added.