The Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday the discovery of a 1,300-year old church in Galilee, not far from Mount Tabor.
It was found when the work for a new playground was started in the Kfar Kama village.
The church has the perimeter of 12 × 36 meters and is surrounded by a large courtyard. It has a narthex and a nave paved with coloured mosaic, which has partly survived.
There are additional rooms at the site yet to be excavated. According to researchers, it is quite possible this large complex was a monastery. The archaeologists also unearthed a small stone reliquary.
The discovery indicates the importance of this Christian dwelling from the Byzantine period and it brings new data for an extensive project of research on the history of Christianity in the area.
In the early 1960s, a smaller church with two chapels was excavated in the same village. It dates back to the first half of the sixth century AD. The recent finding belongs to the same period.
Source: Basilica.ro
