(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists excavated near Jerusalem and discovered a church that is almost 1,500 years old. Greek inscriptions were recorded directly in the church, which spoke of an unknown martyr. At the same time, there is no information about who he is.
This is reported by Livescience.
Benjamin Storchan told that this building was named “The Church of the Glorious Martyr”. If we take into account the inscriptions made inside, then during the reign of Flavius Tiberius, the building was somewhat expanded. Despite the conquest of the city by the Arabs, the church continued to exist. It was abandoned only in the 10th century.
It was originally a small chapel located inside a cave. In the 6th century, the church began to expand and turned into a chic ground-based building of a huge size, decorated with mosaics. Some time later, it was turned into a tomb, where the remains of the martyr mentioned in the inscriptions could well have been kept.
In the church, archaeologists have found traces of iconoclasm. Some of the images and some of the artifacts were deliberately destroyed. Storchan noted that initially animals were present on the mosaics, but they were erased and other pictures were painted in their place. At the same time, some of the animals were still preserved. The cause of iconoclasm could be the Christian reforms introduced in the 6th century AD, as well as other changes that took place in religion at that time.
Experts believe that the church could have been built in honor of a man named Zachariah. You can find references to him in the Bible. Even if this is the building that was erected in honor of Zechariah, then there is absolutely no information in the records as to who exactly this martyr was.
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