A strange meeting was held two weeks ago in the office of Israel Prison Service ?(IPS?) Commissioner Yaakov Ganot. His two guests − the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority ?(IAA?), Shuka Dorfman, and the authority's archaeologist in the northern district, Dror Barshad − had already paid him several visits during the past year. But the latest meeting was different than the earlier ones, particularly because the pleasant, calm atmosphere that characterized them was replaced this time by a feeling of tension.
Nine months ago, when the Israel Defense Forces transferred authority for the prison located at the Megiddo junction to the IPS, the latter decided to build permanent structures to replace the tents in which the army had housed the prisoners. The prison authorities called in the IAA, as required by law, to carry out archaeological excavations to confirm that construction on the prison grounds was permissible from an archaeological perspective. In all their previous meetings, the senior officials from the IAA reported to the commissioner on the archaeological artifacts they had discovered, and then announced the "release" of an additional section of the site for construction. But their tidings were different this time.
They told Ganot that they had uncovered a mosaic floor in the southwest corner of the prison compound. Their initial assessment: The floor was from a Christian church that dated back to the middle of the third century or beginning of the forth century C.E. This is a discovery of enormous importance, they explained, because it is the first time the remains of such an ancient Christian church have been found in Israel.
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This has great historic-scientific significance, they explained, as well as importance with respect to tourism. Tens of thousands of Christian tourists and pilgrims will be interested in coming to see the mosaic. This discovery, they announced, obligates the IAA to continue digging in the area in an attempt to uncover additional important findings, and prevents the authority from approving any construction there.
Ganot congratulated his guests on the scientific achievement, but as their conversation continued, signs of confrontation became apparent − a confrontation that will likely intensify during the coming months. While IAA officials spoke about the tremendous scientific importance of the mosaic floor, the commissioner spoke about the IPS's shortage of space and reminded them that only four of 10 planned cell blocks had been built and that the construction of the others is being delayed, mainly due to the excavations. When Dorfman and Barshad said that the discovery will garner international publicity for Israel, Ganot reminded them that the IPS has already invested tens of millions of shekels in building the Megiddo prison, which plays a central role in the service's expansion plan. At the end of the meeting, it was nonetheless decided that for now, the IPS would continue to cooperate with the IAA, but it was also clear that the two sides are conflicted over the future of the site where the floor was discovered.
"The Megiddo junction is not an appropriate place to locate a prison," the deputy director of the IPS, Dr. Uzi Dahari, told Haaretz. "To the west of the intersection is Tel Megiddo, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO this year, and to the east we have now uncovered the new site. This is a place where tourism should be developed. The prison needs to be moved from there."
"The prison could be moved to another place and its wall could be moved so that the mosaic would remain outside the jail. But the mosaic could also be moved to another place," the prison commander, Sharon Shoan, says in response. "These three options exist, and it all comes down to a question of money. It must not be forgotten that the security establishment is desperate for more prison cells."
The IPS commissioner himself has refrained from personally commenting on this issue at this stage. According to his office: "We'll carry out any decision the state makes" and "if the Finance Ministry provides the money to move the prison, then we'll move the prison."
If other archaeologists do not contradict the initial assessment by the IAA, the floor uncovered at Megiddo by one of the authority's archaeologists, Yotam Tefer, will be categorized as one of the most important findings discovered in Israel in recent decades. Its importance derives not only from the fact that it is part of the oldest church ever discovered here, but also because it dates back to the period in which Christian rituals still were conducted in secret.
"The images and writing on the floor, and the pottery and ceramics found adjacent to it, lead us to the conclusion that we uncovered a floor of a public structure that served ritual purposes," Tefer says. "We are not entirely sure that we can call this a church, because we have never uncovered a church in Israel that was built before the year 325 and we simply do not know how churches built here at that time looked."
The year 325 is when Christianity was declared the official religion in the Roman Empire. Until then, the Christians in Palestine, as in the rest of the empire, were compelled to carry out the rituals of their religion in secret.
Fish and tables There are four pictures and three Greek inscriptions on the floor discovered at Megiddo. Based on these findings, IAA archaeologists assume that these are the remains of a church that dates back before the year 325. Prof. Leah Di Segni, an expert on ancient inscriptions from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who deciphered and translated the texts found at Megiddo, supports their assumption, but also stated that a more precise dating could only be done after additional remains are uncovered.
Additional artifacts are apparently buried under the stratum where the floor was found. Di Segni has determined that the formulation of the inscriptions and the form of their letters testify to the fact that they were written prior to the declaration of Christianity as a legitimate religion in the Roman Empire.
According to the IAA, one of the inscriptions mentions the name of a woman: "Akeptus, the devout, dedicated the table to God, Jesus Christ, as a memorial." IAA officials explain that the fact that the inscription mentions a "table" and not an "altar" indicates that it was written when Christianity operated "underground" and conducted its rituals around simple tables rather than altars, as was customary thereafter. The fact that fish are pictured on the floor and not crosses also testifies to its antiquity: At the beginning of the fourth century, fish were still used as the main symbol of Christianity.
"The crossroads at Megiddo was considered during that period to be one of the most important intersections in Palestine, if not the most important," says Dahari, the deputy director of the IAA and a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Haifa, who wrote his doctoral thesis on ancient Christianity. The route leading from Caesarea in the west to Beit Shean in the east merged at Megiddo with the road that connected Be'er Sheva and Hebron − via Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nablus, Jenin and Megiddo − with Acre, Tyre and Sidon in the north. "Megiddo is a high point," Tefer explains, "from which it is possible to look to the north toward Nazareth and to the east toward the Jezreel Valley and Mount Tabor."
The large military base that served the Roman legions during the third century was located to the west of today's Megiddo junction, and was evacuated at the end of that century. The civilian population in the Megiddo area, according to Dahari, was composed of Christians, Jews, Samaritans and pagans. The religious mixture changed during the fourth century: The Jewish population assimilated within the Christian population, and the Jewish village Othnai located adjacent to Megiddo was replaced by a large Byzantine city,
Maximianopolis. Dahari says that this city became an important Christian center, headed by a bishop. Before the ancient mosaic floor was discovered, IAA excavators working at the Megiddo prison found a
number of items that originated in that city.
Possible confrontation Several days after the discovery of the mosaic was first reported on Channel 2, there were still many people milling about in the tent that has been built over it. Dozens of reporters and television crews from all over the world arrived at the site that morning. Many of them said that their editors had expressed great interest in what was perceived to be a discovery that could shed light on ancient Christianity. During the afternoon, one could see additional groups of visitors arriving one after another to look at the floor that has survived for nearly 1,700 years. They mingled with workers from the IAA, with the prisoners that assisted them, with wardens − until the place looked much more like a museum than a prison.
Alongside a group of IPS officials, who peered at what had been hidden under the concrete floor where the beds of thousands of Palestinian administrative detainees had been for decades, was a group of archaeologists from several universities and research institutes. The IAA had invited them to come to hear their views on the significance of the findings and the best way to preserve them. Along with an economist representing the Government Tourist Corporation, who came to make an initial assessment of the economic potential of the discovery, there were senior staff from the Israel Nature & National Parks Protection Authority, who came to check the possibility of linking the new site to Tel Megiddo − an archaeological site it manages on the western side of the intersection.
Amid the tumult they created, there was also a photographer roaming around, equipped with cameras and sophisticated lighting tripods, who photographed the mosaic from every possible angle. President Moshe Katsav is due to give the pictures that were taken to Pope Benedict XVI in Rome this week. The Vatican's ambassador in Israel, Pietro Sambi, was one of the first to take interest in the discovery, shortly after the initial report was broadcast.
The main question that occupies everyone, and will continue to do so during the coming months, is what to do with the ancient and important floor: leave it within the walls of the prison, move it for display elsewhere, or leave it in situ and move the prison to another location. This is a thorny question whose answer many parties will seek to
influence, but only the government will cast the deciding vote here.
According to the Christian faith, Mount Megiddo, called Armageddon in the New Testament, is the site where the apocalyptic war of Gog and Magog will take place; following this war, Jesus is supposed to rise again and bring redemption to the world. To judge by the current rumblings, three statutory bodies have already begun to plan for a miniature war of Gog and Magog here: the IAA, which will seek to extend its jurisdiction over the important findings, the parks authority, which will seek to annex it to Tel Megiddo, and the IPS, which will not want to give up the premises of the facility where the discoveries were made.
Meanwhile, the IAA has decided to transfer the mosaic to its laboratories to conduct vital maintenance and preservation work, but they made a point of emphasizing that this was only a temporary move and that the floor would be returned to its original spot after this work is completed.
IPS officials, meanwhile, are saying: "We are elated about the value of the mosaic, just as much as the IAA's officials." But they make a point of emphasizing the extreme shortage of prison space and the fact that they had already invested a large sum in expanding the Megiddo Prison prior to the discovery.
The decision concerning whether to turn the Megiddo area into an international tourist site or to keep the prison there will ultimately be made by the government. But the members of that government are currently preoccupied with much more pressing issues.
The tourism minister, Abraham Hirchson, was quick to declare, already at the beginning of last week: "The prison should be moved to another spot and Megiddo should be developed into a tourist site that will attract hundreds of thousands of tourists." However, it is doubtful whether any of his colleagues, who are currently busy securing their political futures, have given any thought to the future of the ancient Christian church at Megiddo. The fate of the mosaic will apparently be decided by the next government, whenever it is formed
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