Beach-combing police find 1,500-year-old marble pillar near Ashdod
Believed to once have been part of a Byzantine era church, massive artifact likely exposed during recent winter storms
Deputy Editor Amanda Borschel-Dan is the host of The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, What Matters Now and Friday Focus podcasts and heads up The Times of Israel's features.
When two Ashdod municipal police officers went out on a routine beach patrol last week, they hardly expected to unravel a 1,500-year-old mystery.
But spying a shiny item sticking out of the sand, they stopped to investigate and found what is likely a pillar from the remains of a Byzantine-era church, according to Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists.
Officers Eitai Dabosh and Sagiv Ben Gigi were instructed to report the find to the IAA, which has cooperated in excavations surrounding the site for the past decade. Close to the pillar is an archaeological park, Ashdod-Yam, where visitors can find remains dating back to the Late Bronze Age onwards. The IAA believes it was exposed due to recent winter storms.
Called Azotos Paralios (Ashdod by the Sea) in Byzantine times, the site was an important stronghold of Christianity, as is evident from its inclusion in the 6th century Madaba mosaic map.
Starting in 2017, Tel Aviv University Prof. Alexander Fantalkin, director of the Ashdod-Yam Archaeological Project, recovered in the northern portion of the site a variety of impressive Byzantine-era remains of a three-nave basilica and chapels from a church compound, mosaics and grave inscriptions, including of apparently female religious leaders.
“It is not inconceivable that the column that was exposed belonged to an ancient church depicted on a map of Madaba,” said Avi Levy, an IAA archaeologist in the Ashkelon sub-district, in a press release.
