(SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE) — Archaeologists in the northern Israeli village of et-Taiyiba have unearthed a 1,500-year-old Greek inscription that includes the phrase “Christ born of Mary,” according to a statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
As Amanda Borschel-Dan reports for the Times of Israel, researchers led by Tzachi Lang and Kojan Haku uncovered the stone engraving while conducting salvage excavations ahead of construction of a road. The team found the partially destroyed inscription repurposed in the wall of an elaborately decorated Byzantine building. Its text faced inward and would not have been visible to visitors.
Per the statement, the full text of the inscription reads, “Christ born of Mary. This work of the most God-fearing and pious bishop [Theodo]sius and the miserable Th[omas] was built from the foundation.”
