A British professor of Archaeology claims to have found the remains of childhood home of Jesus Christ located under the Sisters of Nazareth Convent in Nazareth, Israel. Professor Ken Dark, an archaeologist in the University of Reading, made the claims in his new book, The Sisters of Nazareth convent: A Roman-period, Byzantine and Crusader site in central Nazareth.
The ruins dating back to first century AD has been described by Dark as 'a typical family home of its time and place.' The archaeologist claimed to have been studying the ruins for 14 years.
House Constructed by Someone Having Good knowledge of Stone Working- Dark
It was in 1880s that the dwelling made of stone and mortar was first discovered following which the excavation process was undertaken by the nuns at the convent for five decades. The Daily Mail reported that excavation work at the site also took place at the site between 1936 and 1964 by a Jesuit priest. Finally, Dark started a new project at the site in 2006.
While describing the site ruins to CBS News, the archaeologist said that there was nothing unusual about it. "It's not pitifully poor, but there's no sign of any great wealth either. It's very ordinary. If this is the childhood environment of Jesus, there's no reason to believe he grew up in anything other than a very typical Galilean rural home of its time," he said.
The dwelling also houses a rock-cut stairway next to one of the walls which led up to a second storey or flat room, while a doorway was preserved between the same room and a smaller room. "The stairway was constructed skilfully using part of a natural cave and another part of the cave was used to support the ceiling of the room,' Professor Dark was quoted by Daily Mail.
Speaking about the quality of construction in the dwelling Dark said that whoever built the house had a very good understanding of stone-working which would be consistent with the sort of knowledge we would expect of someone who might be called a tekton, the Ancient Greek word for craftsman that was used to refer to Joseph.
Creators of Sisters of Nazareth Church Believed it Was a Major Thing
Stating that the sight hasn't got flashing lights saying, 'this is where Jesus lived, Dark said that its location underneath a fifth to seventh century Byzantine church, hints at a strong possibility.
To strengthen his claim, Dark said that the church is "almost certainly" the one described by a pilgrim in the 380s and known as the Church of the Nutrition [taken to mean the nurturing or upbringing of Christ]. "The name stems from the idea that it was built over a crypt that contained the home of the young prophet," reported the CBS News.
The Sisters of Nazareth site attracted settlers in early first century AD. Later, following Jesus' death and the spread of Christianity, a cave-church was constructed in the hill adjacent to the first-century house, around the fourth century. This cave-church was elaborately decorated with mosaics and had fittings related to public worship, including a screen made of white marble.
'The later church was the largest in fifth- to seventh- century (that is, Byzantine) Nazareth. Whoever built that with the house preserved, and probably venerated, in its crypt must have thought it pretty significant site in religious terms, especially given what texts tell us the Byzantines perceived to be other places of religious importance in the centre of Nazareth,' Dark told Daily Mail.
