Scientists have unearthed a spectacular 1,500-year-old mosaic from the Byzantine Period that would have been used as the floor of a public building in Israel.
The colourful mosaic and public building, whose ceiling was covered in roof tiles, was uncovered in Kibbutz Bet Qama, in the B'nei Shimon regional council, prior to the construction of a road between Ma'ahaz and Devira Junction, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has announced.
"The minute we started excavating we found the mosaic, before we found the edges of the building," Davida Eisenberg Degen, an archaeologist with the IAA, told LiveScience.
The mosaic dating to the Byzantine period (4th-6th centuries CE) would've extended the area of the main building, with a total area about 40 feet long by 28 feet wide.
Divided into three squares with circles within each, the mosaic was decorated with "interwoven designs," Degen said.
At each corner were amphoras, or jars used to hold wine, and other designs, such as two peacocks flanking an amphora, a dove and a partridge, and one amphora with a pomegranate and a lemon-like fruit inside.
Though other areas of the site showed evidence of the practice of Christianity, the public building seemed to have no religious affiliation. The researchers aren't sure what it would've been used for between the fourth and sixth centuries AD.
"The find of this mosaic is extraordinary; the size of it and the [condition] goes beyond what is usually found. This is an unusual find," Degen said.
In front of the building, archaeologists also discovered pools and a network of channels and pipes used to convey water between them. Steps were uncovered in one of the pools, the walls of which were covered in coloured plaster, called fresco.
The site of the excavation is located on an ancient road that ran north from Be'er Sheva and also includes a large estate with a church and a large cistern surrounded by farmland. One of the structures likely served as an inn for visitors, the researchers believe.
During the Byzantine period Jewish and Christian settlements in the region were located next to each other.
Two of the nearby Jewish settlements are Horbat Rimon, where a synagogue and ritual bath (miqwe) were exposed, and the Nahal Shoval antiquities site, recently excavated prior to the construction of the Cross-Israel Highway, where ritual baths were uncovered.
