THE
WORLD’S OLDEST CHURCH

Aqaba, Jordan

In July 1998, after four seasons of excavations and research, U.S. archaeologist Thomas Parker believes he may have uncovered the oldest church on earth in Aqaba, Jordan. Aqaba is Jordan’s only port city and as such is economically important to the entire nation. The city also serves as a popular resort city on the Red Sea and is locked in fierce competition with nearby Eilat, Israel’s seaside resort across the border. As in neighboring Israel, the church’s discovery could impact the region’s plans for the year 2000 and the year-long celebration of two millennia of Christianity.

“There is a real possibility that the church will prove to be from the late third century,” said Parker, professor of history at North Carolina State University and head of the Roman Aqaba Project. “If that is the case, it would be the oldest church in the world built as a church,” he told the Jordan Times newspaper. While no one suggests this was the first church building ever built, it would be the oldest yet discovered.

Earlier house-churches have already been unearthed by archaeologists in the eastern Mediterranean. At Dura-Europas, Syria, a large house was converted into a church from the mid-third century. In Biblical Capernaum there is the Church of St. Peter, a first-century house eventually turned into a church.

The earliest public buildings constructed as churches known today are the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, in Jerusalem, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, both of which date from early in the fourth century. The earliest churches in Jordan were thought to date to the late fifth or early sixth century, until the unprecedented discovery earlier this year of a five-aisle basilica in Um Qais, ancient Gadara, which archaeologists say was built in the fourth century.

The difference is that these structures were originally constructed as places of public meeting while the other were built as houses and only later used as churches.

The Aqaba church, a mud-brick building of 85×52 ft with traces of “dipinto” that could have represented a procession of figures, would be slightly more ancient than any of the known public meeting church buildings. It is also unique because of it subsequent history. Said Parker, “other early churches like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, or the Church in Um Qais had long periods of re-use and re-building, and understanding what the original fourth-century church was like becomes difficult.” The Aqaba church was destroyed by an earthquake in 363, and subsequently filled up with sand and never touched again, “so the entire

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Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem.

BSP 11:2 (Spring 1998) p. 50

fourth-century structure is still standing close to its original height,” he added. Unlike the Um Qais church, whose preserved walls stand only a few inches high, the Aqaba church has walls 13 ft high along most of its perimeter.

Historical evidence for the Aqaba church is scant. “We only knew that in 324 one Bishop of Aqaba participated in the Nicea Council, therefore Aqaba must have been a significant Christian center at that time,” noted archaeologist Mary-Louise Mussel of Carlton University. Yet, the lack of inscriptions and the atypical plan of the building – it does not present the characteristic semi-circular apse on the eastern end, but has a rectangular apse – initially discouraged the thesis that the excavated monument was a church.

Finds within the Aqaba structure included over 100 coins lying on the floor of a tiny room inside the building, none of which was dated later than the year 360. Additional finds included pottery and a high concentration of glass oil lamps, which the archaeologists of the Roman Aqaba Project immediately recognized as chandeliers commonly used to illuminate churches in the early Christian period. A further piece of circumstantial evidence suggesting that the building was a church was a staircase leading from the first to the second floor of the building. Found only this year, “it is a typical element of early mud-brick churches in Egypt,” said Mussel.

While some theories in archaeology can never be confirmed beyond reasonable doubt, the discovery of a cemetery containing a grave bearing a cross just a few yards away gave the Roman Aqaba Project archaeologists strong reason to believe the structure was a church. The cemetery and church are two of eight sites being excavated by the Roman Aqaba Project. Other excavations include Nabataean, Roman, and Byzantine sites in the vicinity. Archaeologists, historians and students from Carlton University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Missouri have been excavating pre-Islamic Aqaba since 1994.

Historically, the port-city of Aqaba was known as Ayla. Parker noted, “from various ancient texts we knew that Ayla was one of the great international ports of the Roman Empire, from around the first century to the time of Islam, though nothing had ever really been located on the ground.” Parker’s team has confirmed the theory of archaeologist Donald Withcomb of the University of Chicago. He speculated that Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine Ayla lay northwest of early Islamic Ayla.

The Roman Aqaba Project has now traced Byzantine Alya’s city wall for 400 ft. They believe the massive fifth-century wall ran all the way to the sea. “We now know that it is standing more than 13 ft high in some places, so when it is fully exposed, it will be an enormously impressive monument for tourism in Aqaba,” said Parker. Now, the big question is how Jordan will protect its newly found treasures. Government officials said a temporary shelter will protect the site from this winter’s rains. By next year, the Department of Antiquities and the Aqaba Region Authority are determined to find funding for a permanent shelter.

Even greater threats to possibly the world’s oldest church are posed by the city’s development plans. “It is a race

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against time, because Aqaba is now developing very rapidly and there is construction everywhere, new hotels, houses, businesses and apartment buildings,” Parker said. The largest sectors of the ancient town, which extended well to the east, are already buried under modern buildings. Even the small parts of Nabataean, Roman, and Byzantine Ayla which are still accessible to archaeologists and visitors are seriously threatened.

The recently approved multi-million dollar North Lagoon Project calls for a large salt-water lagoon and a series of hotels in Aqaba. “We have uncovered a lot, and we now hope that if the North Lagoon project is to be conducted, at least some areas could be left as open landscape areas among the hotels, so that these antiquities could be protected,” Parker said. “We feel privileged and fortunate to have come upon such a great discovery, especially because if we had not come now, within a few years this whole area would have been built on and these treasures would have been lost for ever.”

(Francesca Ciriaci, Jordan Times, July 4, 1998.)

Found: Earliest Jerusalem

A salvage excavation conducted in conjunction with a simple construction project in the Kidron Valley is causing scholars to rewrite the history of Jerusalem. The work was done at the base of the east slope of the City of David near the entrance to the Gihon Spring, ancient Jerusalem’s primary water source and the starting point for a sophisticated ancient water system. While archaeologists have been unusually quiet about the results of this excavation, word had leaking out that the dig results were startling (see Bible and Spade, Winter 1998, pp. 27–28).

In July 1998, excavators made their first official statement about the results of their dig as Ronny Reich and Eli Shuikrun, directors of the excavation, led a press tour of the site. They noted it is now clear that Warren’s Shaft was unnecessary and probably natural and not part of the site’s water system. This famous feature, a 50 ft vertical shaft, had been understood as providing the city’s inhabitants access to the Gihon Spring from higher up the eastern slope, safely within the city’s defenses. According to the excavators, that is no longer correct. Warren’s Shaft was only a natural fissure in the rock that had nothing to do with the water system.

The new excavations revealed a previously unknown tunnel which skirts around Warren’s Shaft allowing the city’s inhabitants direct access to a pool near the spring. This was the ancient water system of Jerusalem. They also discovered a substantial wall-and-towers defensive system around the pool and spring. This meant the spring itself was defended and inside the walls of ancient Jerusalem.

An amazing revelation in itself, the archaeologists found that both the tunnel and wall were built as a single complex during the Middle Bronze Age (1800 BC). This was 800 years earlier than previously believed. Creating quite a stir among scholars, the results of this dig completely revise their understanding of early Jerusalem. If the wall found

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near the Gihon Spring continues around the remainder of the hill of ancient Jerusalem, it would make early Jerusalem twice as large as previously believed by scholars. If the Jebusites utilized the same walls 800 years later, the Jerusalem captured by David was also doubled in size.

In addition, the Bible mentions the tzinnor as the means of access utilized by David’s soldiers to get into the city. Some have suggested it was Warren’s Shaft. It may have been the newly discovered tunnel. Furthermore, the new tunnel was dated by ceramics to 1800 BC. Because of a lack of ceramic evidence for dating Warren’s Shaft and ancient Jerusalem’s water system, it was believed to have been dated to the Israelite period (beginning in the 10th century BC). Throughout the country, subterranean water systems have been dated to Israelite planning of fortified cities like Megiddo, Hazor and Gibeon. A redating of the Jerusalem system may have a significant impact on other water systems as well.

Finally, ancient Jerusalem is one of the world’s most studied cities and has been widely excavated over the past 100 years. Based on the known evidence, scholars have long believed the walls of ancient Jerusalem were higher up the slope and that the water spring was unprotected. They have also been convinced that Warren’s Shaft was central to the water system. It was securely dated to the Iron Age. This was based on the known data.

The beginning of Hezekiah’s Tunnel at the Gihon Spring, near where the new tunnel was found.

Everything is changed now. This is a good reminder that archaeologists who are so certain today can have parts or all of their views overturned in next season’s dig. If that can be so of Jerusalem, they must not get too settled in their views based on the last spade full of dirt. The next spade may make conclusions from the last spade obsolete. GB

(Abraham Rabinovich, The Jerusalem Post Daily Internet Edition, July 23, 1998.)

Bible and Spade 11:3 (Summer 1998)