Mosaic of 6th century Georgian church found near Israeli Ashdod

The Holy Land is one of the most fertile regions of the planet in terms of archaeological excavations. New finds dating back to different eras are regularly found here. As the website Newsru.co.il reports, the other day, a joint team of archaeologists from Tel Aviv and Leipzig universities discovered the floor of a Georgian church dating back to the 6th century AD. Identify the find and set the year of its construction as 539 AD. helped by the inscription mentioning the name of the founder, Bishop Procopius, and dating according to a specific chronology system inherent in Georgian Christians.

According to the version voiced by the head of the archaeological expedition, Doctor of Sciences Alexander Fantalkin, the church belonged to the followers of Bishop Peter Iver, who founded the first Georgian monastery in the Holy Land and ended his days near Ashdod. If earlier it was possible to find Georgian churches in the Jerusalem area, noted Dr. A. Fantalkin, then on the Mediterranean coast this find is the first of its kind.
Excavations in the Tel Ashdod-Yam area have been going on for the fifth year. During this time, archaeologists managed to find the remains of port facilities erected by the Philistines in the VIII-VII centuries BC. Now the lower part of the city has been explored, including the ruins of the Roman-Byzantine period, among which the mosaic floor of a Georgian church was discovered.