Image Details

COURTESY MORDECHAI AVIAM

THIS GREEK INSCRIPTION from a Byzantine church records Psalm 118:19, “Open to me the gates of righteousness,” as well as the artist’s name. Psalm 118:19–20, referencing the gate “of the Lord” and the entry of the righteous, was considered to offer protection to those passing through gates. The fifth-century inscription was uncovered from the southern church at Khirbet Karkara, located in western Upper Galilee—in a dig directed by Professor Mordechai Aviam and Dr. Yaakov Ashkenazi, from Kinneret College, and assisted by Dr. Achiya Cohen-Tavor.