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Areal view of the famous fifth century Mar Saba Monastery located east of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Image by Godot13. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Ancient monastery, large mosaics, found in Israel

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf

Areal view of the famous fifth century Mar Saba Monastery located east of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Image by Godot13. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Areal view of the famous fifth century Mar Saba Monastery located east of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Image by Godot13. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s Antiquities Authority has unveiled a monastery dating back some 1,400 years in the south of the country with impressive mosaic floors that shed light on life in the region during the Byzantine period.

Excavation director Daniel Varga called the find “spectacular.”

He said the monastery, discovered this week, is from the sixth century and that the detailed mosaics are unusual in the area.

Colorful designs of flora, and animals along with inscriptions in Greek and Syriac are depicted in the designs. Names of the monastery’s abbots are inscribed in the mosaics.

Pottery and glass artifacts and coins from the Byzantine period were also found at the site.

The church is believed to have been a center for Christian worship at the time.

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AP-WF-04-01-14 1841GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Areal view of the famous fifth century Mar Saba Monastery located east of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Image by Godot13. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Areal view of the famous fifth century Mar Saba Monastery located east of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Image by Godot13. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.