Archaeologists Unearthed a Byzantine Church in Spain—but Not Everyone Believes the Findings

Researchers in Spain have unearthed a massive church compound at a famed archaeological site, including ancient artifacts. The findings, based upon years of work and recently published in the journalSalduie (per LBV), indicate that the site passed from Byzantine rule into the hands of an Islamic regime.

Site Conveniently Situated on Popular Trade Highway

The site, known historically as Elo or Elum, rests in present-day Elche, which experts have long understood to have been occupied by Byzantines. It’s about 120 miles from Cartagena, which previously served as the Byzantine capital. The archaeological park in which the ruins were located is known as El Monastil, which was established as a religious community in the late sixth century A.D. by leaders of the Eastern Roman Empire. Researchers believe that the town was incorporated here because of its advantageous location on the heavily-trafficked trade route of Via Augusta.

At the site, archaeologists located a wealth of artifacts that substantiate the historical timeline. Most interesting were two pieces of iron armor, which are believed to have been worn by a Byzantine cavalry soldier, which is identical in construction to cavalry armor previously found at the archaeological site of Carthago Spartaria. Also recovered were seven bronze weights, the third largest discovery of its kind made on the Iberian Peninsula, which were used by the church to calculate taxes. An altar table constructed from marble imported from Greece (confirmed with petrographic analysis) was found in pieces spread throughout several rooms in the compound.

Necropolis Containing Nearly 20 Bodies Found Nearby

The church stretches for nearly 910 square feet and encompasses a horseshoe-shaped vault at the altar as well as a baptismal pool and ornately decorated plaster walls. A necropolis containing 18 bodies dispersed among nine unadorned stone coffins was found about 500 feet west of the church. The fairly modest funerary tokens, such as pottery, Greek crosses, a bracelet depicting snake heads, and a ring inscribed with the letter sigma (Σ), indicate that these graves belonged to common citizens who were buried in the midst of the Byzantine phase, sometime during the late sixth or early seventh centuries.

Historical documents show that the town established a bishop’s seat in 600 A.D. In 610 A.D., church documents were signed by a representative of Elo named Sanabilis. The seat closed somewhere between 625 and 630 A.D., when the church merged with the town of Ilici’s diocese. For a brief time, the compound was used as a monastery before Arab settlers arrived and turned the compound into a center for Islamic worship.

Lead Researcher Urges Skeptical Experts to Accept Findings

Some experts have been hesitant to accept the recent findings, as the presence of Byzantine people on the Iberian Peninsula is a relatively recent discovery that doesn’t necessarily align with previous research. But lead researcher Antonio M. Poveda Navarro, of the Fundación Urbs Regia, pointed to the irrefutable evidence collected over years of excavation.

“With everything set forth and presented here, and with all due respect, we believe that failing to recognize this archaeology of the sixth and seventh centuries, provided by the investigations at El Monastil (Elda), leaves out of play, and invalidates, recent attempts to review the aspects and reality of Byzantine archaeology on the Iberian Peninsula, which continue to count almost the same objects and places as always, ignoring where there are truly reliable and unquestionable new developments,” Navarro said. He added that anyone who contests the results of his research “does not appear to have visited the archaeological site or the museum where its materials are deposited, nor does it appear that they have read the latest publications, at least in the past 20 years.”