Strata

Oldest Church Found

Well, Maybe

Archaeologists working in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba have unearthed what may be the oldest structure built specifically as a church. The basilica may date to the late third century, according to Thomas Parker, professor of history at North Carolina State University and head of the Roman Aqaba Project. That would make it older than the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, and the Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, both of which were built in the fourth century. However, it would not be as old as the house church in Dura-Europos, Syria, which dates to the middle of the third century, or the Church of St. Peter in Capernaum, a house built in the first century and later turned into a church.

The structure in Aqaba is made of mudbrick and is about 85 feet long by 52 feet wide. The entire 13-foot-high perimeter wall has been preserved. Very fragmentary traces of red and black paint were found on the white plaster nave wall, but Parker told BAR it is too soon to tell what was depicted.