Over the last eight years, Dr. S. Thomas Parker, professor of history at North Carolina State University, and teams of graduate and undergraduate students and Jordanians have worked to uncover the secrets behind a mud-brick building discovered beneath the swirling sands of Aqaba, Jordan.
Evidence gathered in four trips to Aqaba prior to this summer -- including coins dating to around A.D. 300, shards of pottery, glass oil lamps, and a cemetery, in addition to the building itself -- confirmed that he and his archeological teams discovered the lost city of Aila within the modern city of Aqaba, and led them to believe they may also have found the world's oldest purpose-built Christian church.
Artifacts unearthed this summer, including what Parker believes is an offering table, add further credence to the claim that the building was indeed a church. An offering table holds the sacred bread and wine that is consumed during a Christian service's celebration of the Eucharist.
The sandstone table was found intact near the entrance of the building, Parker recounts. It measures about 3.3 feet long and 2.5 feet wide, and has two slots on one side that would allow it to be attached to a wall. Parker believes the most likely scenario is that, after an earthquake in A.D. 363 that led to the church's collapse and abandonment, looters may have detached the table from a wall and attempted to carry it out of the building.
But the heavy sandstone object, which took four able-bodied students to move, was likely dropped and left by the looters, only to be buried under shifting sand until its discovery this summer. "I'm more convinced than ever that we've found an early church, possibly the oldest purpose-built Christian church in history," Parker says. Due to its obvious historical significance, the table remains in Aqaba.
Other evidence supporting the hypothesis that the building is a church include its orientation toward the east, similar to later churches; the fact that the basic floor plan matches that of later churches; and the preponderance of artifacts inside the structure. For example, the glass oil lamps that would have illuminated the church -- and which were used widely in later churches -- are concentrated inside the building's walls and rare elsewhere at the Aila site.
While older "house" churches have been identified, Parker says the Aila church -- which he proposes was built around A.D. 300 -- would be the oldest structure built as a church. "The earliest Christians worshipped in private homes because Christianity became an illegal religion and was actively persecuted by the Roman government," Parker says.
But the period from A.D. 260 to 303 was a time of "de facto toleration" of Christianity, according to Parker.
"The anti-Christian laws were still on the books but not enforced," Parker says. "Contemporary Christian writers assert that many large and beautiful churches were built during this time."
Yet in A.D. 303, the Emperor Diocletian initiated the Great Persecution, which lasted until 313 and returned to the rigorous enforcement of anti-Christian laws. Most of the churches built during the brief period of tolerance were torn down, Parker says. Yet somehow the Aila church survived.
"This church may have been far enough away to avoid being pulled down, since it was on the southeast periphery of the Roman Empire," Parker says. He also notes that the end of persecution after A.D. 313 would have allowed the church to thrive until its devastation by earthquake in A.D. 363.
The discovery of the lost city of Aila, which served as a thriving port on an arm of the Red Sea, and its antiquities in present-day Aqaba has serious economic implications in addition to the obviously important historical impact, Parker says.
Aqaba, with its coral reefs and pristine beaches, has been one of Jordan's prime tourist spots. Now, after the devastating, worldwide effects on tourism associated with the Sept. 11 terrorist acts, the Jordanian government, with assistance from the U.S. government and specialists like Parker, is attempting to make historic preservation as enticing to tourists as scuba-diving opportunities. Jordan recently gave Aqaba special economic zone status, offering tax incentives for companies to do business there. The U.S. government recognized this zone in an official act. As a result, goods purchased in Aqaba are duty-free.
"The U.S. government sees the new Aqaba Special Economic Zone as a model for helping private economic growth in the developing world," Parker says. The church also has serious implications for how Aila's economy is viewed by historians. "To build a church like this, there must have been substantial private local resources available locally since there was obviously no government support," Parker said.
"This implies the existence of a prosperous Christian community at Aila with the economic wherewithal to build this monumental public structure at the turn of the fourth century."
Parker is serving as an advisor in the creation of an archeological park at Aqaba, including the erection of a permanent shelter over the church and the creation of a local museum.
Parker's work at Aqaba has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Geographic Society, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Joukowsky Family Foundation, Lockheed Martin Corporation Foundation, and the Foundation for Biblical Archaeology.
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