1,500-year-old church uncovered near Palestinian village in Israel

The Israeli Antiquities Authority [IAA] has announced that a 1,500-year-old Byzantine-era church has been unexpectedly discovered, as the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv was undergoing upgrading works.

Road workers came across the ancient way-station, equipped with a small church, near the Palestinian village of Abu Ghoush, 10 kilometres west of Jerusalem.

The IAA has found a well-preserved white mosaic floor, as well as oil lamps, coins, glass vessels, coins, marble fragments, mother-of-pearl shells and red-coloured plaster, which probably once decorated the walls on the site.

	An oil lamp and part of the white mosaic floor [IAA]

Archaeologists also discovered a baptismal font in the shape of four-leafed clover, symbolising the Christian cross, built into the chapel's corner.

To the west of church, rooms that may have been dwelling quarters and storage space were also uncovered.

The rest stop is located next to a deep spring known as Ain Naqaa, which probably served as its water source, along the highway that was already well-established by Roman times. The way station would have provided travellers with a place to rest, eat, sleep and apparently worship.

In the past, many other settlements and roadside stations have been discovered along the ancient road between Jerusalem and the coastal plain, which is still in use today.

	The cross-shaped baptismal font [IAA]

The church was built when the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire ruled modern day Palestine and Israel between 324 and 638AD.

According to British estimates, Palestine's Christian population in 1922 formed 9.5 percent of the population.

Many Christians and Muslims alike were expelled or fled during the 1948 Nakba, when Israeli paramilitary forces overran Arab-populated areas.