‘We never had concrete proof’: Archaeologists discover Christian cross in Abu Dhabi, proving 1,400-year-old site was a monastery
Archaeologists discovered a complete plaster cross dating from 1,400 years during a excavation in the United Arab Emirates. The Christian symbol finally proves that a series of houses discovered decades ago was part of a monastery.
“It’s a very exciting period for us,” Maria GajewskaAn archaeologist in the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said in a video. “We have never had a concrete evidence [the houses] were inhabited by Christians. “”
Nine small courtyards were searched in 1992 Sir Bani YasAn island of 110 miles (170 kilometers) southwest of Abu Dhabi. Nearby, archaeologists found a church and a monastery dating from the MA of the 7th and 7th century, but it was not clear if the houses were linked to the monastic colony.
This year, archaeologists returned to Sir Bani Yas for other excavations. In the courtyard of a house, they found a hobby plate in the shape of a Christian cross measuring near one foot (30 centimeters) long.
With this cross, “we have now proven that these houses were part of a Christian colony,” said Gajewska. Senior monks probably lived in the houses, launching and praying, before meeting in the monastery with their brothers, she said.
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Sir Bani Yas was only a location of Christian worship in the region during this period, according to a translated declaration of the Abu Dhabi media office. Christianity has spread around the Persian Gulf between the fourth and life centuries before the rise of Islam from the 7th century. Muslims and Christians lived on Sir Bani Yas until the monastery was abandoned in the 8th century.
The new excavation “helps us to better understand the nature of life and the relationships that connect the inhabitants of the island with the surrounding regions”, ” Hager Hasan AlmenhaliAn archaeologist in the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said in the video.
Archaeologists plan to continue their work on court houses. The Church and the Sir Bani Yas monastery site are open to the public.
