KIRYAT GAT, ISRAEL—Newsweek reports that the site of a 1,500-year-old Christian monastery has been uncovered in southern Israel by researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority, who were investigating the site ahead of a construction project. The religious complex was situated in a settlement occupied between the first century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. “The early settlement is sited on a central road junction connecting the mountain region to the coastal plain,” said research team members Shira Lifshitz and Maayan Margulis. The monastery’s mosaic floor features images of crosses, lions, doves, an amphora, flowers, and geometric patterns. A Greek inscription in the center of the floor quotes the biblical book of Deuteronomy: “Blessed are you when you come in and blessed are you when you go out.” Conservator Mark Avrahami said that the unique mosaic will be transferred to a workshop for preservation and then put on display in Kiryat Gat. To read about the diet of the monks at a Byzantine monastery in Jerusalem, go to “Bad Monks at St. Stephen’s.”

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Source: archaeology.org