Ship drawings discovered in the Rahat excavation. Photo: Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority
A Byzantine-period church wall revealed in the Negev has something unusual on it. The wall, from 1,500 years ago, has a display showing contemporary ships; even though, the Negev is a desert and the church is not located near any body of water.
The Israel Antiquities Authority conducted the excavations in the Bedouin town of Rahat, located north of Be’er Sheva. The excavations are part of a Rahat neighborhood expansion program led by the Authority for Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev.
The excavators explained, “These intriguing drawings may have been left by Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to the Gaza port – their first inland stop was this Rahat church; continuing from here on to other sites throughout the country.”
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“This is a greeting from Christian pilgrims arriving by ship to Gaza port,” said Excavation Directors Oren Shmueli, Dr Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Dr Noé David Michael on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, together with Prof. Deborah Cvikel of the University of Haifa’s Department of Maritime Civilizations.
“The excavated site tells the story of settlement in the Northern Negev at the end of the Byzantine period and in the beginning of the Early Islamic period. Pilgrims visited the church and left their personal mark in the form of ship drawings on its walls. The ship is indeed an old Christian symbol, but in this case— apparently, it is a true graphical depiction of real ships in which the pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land.”
The site of the ancient church with the ship drawings is indeed adjacent to an ancient Roman road that led from the Mediterranean coastal port of Gaza to Beer Sheva, the Negev’s main city.
“The pilgrims began their pilgrimage following Roman roads leading to sites sacred to Christendom, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the monasteries in the Negev Hills, and in the Sinai “It is reasonable that their first stop after alighting from the ships in Gaza port was this very church revealed in our excavations south of Rahat. This site lies only a half-day’s walk from the port,” said the scholars.
Prof. Deborah Cvikel of the University of Haifa’s Department of Maritime Civilizations explained that one of the ships drawn on the church walls is depicted as a line drawing. However, he said it may be discerned that its bow is slightly pointed, and that there are oars on both sides of the vessel.
Cvikel added that this could be an aerial depiction of the ship, “though it seems the artist was attempting a three-dimensional drawing. It may be that the lines below it portray the path beaten by the oars through the water. Ships or crosses left by visiting Christian pilgrims as witness to their visit are found also in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre church.”
Another drawing depicts what is apparently a two-masted ship. The main mast has no sail, but seems to show a small flag in its upper section. The fore mast is slightly raked towards the bow and bears a sail known as an artemon. The exacting detail indicates the artist’s familiarity with maritime life.
