Posted on 11/13/2008 10:15:31 AM PST by BGHater
Polish and Syrian archaeologists have uncovered a 1,500-year-old Christian church in the famed Roman-era desert city of Palmyra, the director of the Palmyra museum said on Thursday.
The discovery was made during a dig at the site 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus, Walid Assaad told AFP.
"Christianity came to Palmyra in the year 312, at a time when Christians had begun to build churches," he said. "And this one is huge -- the biggest ever found in Syria. It dates to the fourth or fifth centuries after Jesus Christ."
The rectangular building measures 12 metres by 24 metres (39 feet by 79 feet) and had columns six metres (20 feet) tall, Assaad said.
It had a large courtyard flanked by six columns, and the archaeologists also found two rooms on one side of the building that may have been used for ceremonies such as baptisms.
A small amphitheatre was also uncovered to one side of the sanctuary.
Syria's official Tishrin daily cited Polish archaeologist Michel Kaplikovski as saying the building may have been used as a convent or monastery, as it was much larger than other such finds.
Palmyra was for a long time a caravan stop on the silk road from the east, its richest era being under the rule of Queen Zenobia in the third century AD.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.news.yahoo.com ...
ping.
ping
Very nice. Thanks for the post.
Draw your own conclusions.
300? Yep that puts it about Constantine’s time. From Wikipedia:
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[2] (27 February ca. 272[1] – 22 May 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine (among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Christians), was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 to his death. Best known for being the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine reversed the persecutions of his predecessor, Diocletian, and issued (with his co-emperor Licinius) the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious toleration throughout the empire.
MP Ibrahim Mohammad Omoush, who represents the area’s electoral district, said both the former director of the Rihab centre, Abdul Qader Al Housan, and his successor, Jameel Masaeed, confirmed receiving instructions to “bar visitors from touring the sites, to take down the signs and bury the [cave] church completely”.
“But the ministry denied all this,” the lawmaker told The Jordan Times.
Another deputy representing Mafraq, Tayseer Shdeifat, said that closing down the church in Rihab would be a “crime against our cultural legacy”.
>Draw your own conclusions.
Aliens, probably the Predators, were actively hunting down these “rare Syrian subspecies”.
;)
ping
Syria was thoroughly Christian at the time of the Arab invasion of AD 636. In the tenth century, the Romans retook Syria from the Arabs, but then lost it again for good. However, Christianity survives in Syria to this day.
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Thanks for the ping. I read the article, but it doesn’t say why they think this building was a Christian church.
I cursed him for centuries, after he pulled that stunt. I NEVER suffered worse persecution!
There is NOTHING worse than having to sit and endure the ravings of heretics, and not be allowed to properly persecute them as they deserve!
And now, the damned Demoncrats, in the name of "political correctness", are stuffing my face into the same mess of pottage again!
Tolerance is intolerable, I tell you!
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