On the trail of Lawrence of Arabia: 1,400-year-old church found in the Negev

Mosaic-decorated church uncovered at Nitzana National Park sheds light on the scene among pilgrims traveling through the Holy Land to Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt

A 1,400-year-old church featuring colorful mosaic floors has been discovered at Nitzana National Park in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University announced on Monday.

The remains mark the sixth church found at the site, which is also spelled “Nessana” and is located next to the border with Egypt.

In Byzantine times, the settlement served as an essential stopping place for pilgrims traveling from the Holy Land to Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, Prof. Yana Tchekhanovets of the BGU Department of Archaeology told The Times of Israel over the phone.

“We came to the site four years ago, and our main goal has been to present Nitzana as a key site for the study of the material culture related to early Christian pilgrimage, because, due to its location, Nitzana served as a logistic hub for crowds of pilgrims,” Tchekhanovets said.

“The site itself did not present any holy places or important relics, as far as we know, but it was the last stop before the desert road,” she added. “This way it became very vibrant, people stayed there for a while, and the residents started to build all these numerous churches.”

According to Tchekhanovets, the village had up to 2,000 residents, which could hardly explain the need for so many churches, without taking the pilgrims into account.

In previous seasons, the BGU team exposed a hostel for pilgrims that included a small church and a bathhouse decorated with marble and wall paintings.

Graffiti by pilgrims has also been uncovered in several places at Nitzana, including some referring to places as far away as Georgia and Armenia.

The mosaic-floor church was discovered during the latest excavation season conducted by BGU archaeologists in February.

“It is the most beautiful of all six churches, because it is the only one featuring colorful mosaic floors as opposed to simple stone floors, like the others,” Tchekhanovets said.

The mosaics present intricate geometric and floral patterns.

The archaeologists could date the completion of the church precisely thanks to an inscription dedicating the building to the benefactor who funded it in 601 CE.

“The inscription mentioned a certain Sergius, who invested money in the building, and his sister and his nephew, who came to Nitzana from Emesa, a city in Syria that today is known as Homs,” Tchekhanovets said.

“In archaeological records, it is pretty rare to have a detailed dating,” she noted.

The researchers came to Nitzana already knowing that a church with mosaic floors existed.

“Two British explorers, Lawrence of Arabia and Leonard Woolley, had already seen the church 100 years ago,” Tchekhanovets said. “They saw the Ottoman authorities building a military center in this abandoned place, and exposing and ruining an ancient church. They left us a plan of the ancient site, and using this plan and modern GIS [Geographic Information Systems] technologies, we succeed to locate it.”

BGU archaeologists are not the first to excavate Nitzana. Previous expeditions took place in the 1930s and 1980s, the latter of which was also carried out by BGU.

The excavation in the 1930s already uncovered two churches, the remains of a Roman fort, and two exceptional archives of papyri documenting the settlement’s life.

According to Tchekhanovets, the name Sergius is mentioned in the papyri, and the possibility that it refers to the church’s founder is currently under investigation.

“At the same time, Sergius must have been a common name in the village, because the main church was also dedicated to a Sergius,” she said.

Tchekhanovets explained that while the main church of the village was likely built up to 100 years earlier than the one with mosaic floors, they believe all the churches were active at the same time.

After the Islamic conquest of 638 CE, Nitzana continued to attract Christian pilgrims, but about 150 years later, the situation changed when the Holy Land was cut off from the rest of the Christian world.

“Fewer and fewer pilgrims arrived, the settlement slowly shrank, and it was completely abandoned, likely at the beginning of the 9th century,” Tchekhanovets said.

Next year, the archaeologists plan to return to the site for a new excavation season to solve more enigmas surrounding the church and its role in the community.

“In addition to the church, we began to expose some annexed rooms, also with mosaic floors,” Tchekhanovets said. “We want to understand what they are. Is it another guest house, or perhaps a monastery?”