The Riches of Ketef Hinnom

At this site near Mt. Zion across the Hinnom Valley from the Old City of Jerusalem, archaeologists found the ruins of a 5th to 6th-c. Byzantine church, probably to be identified as the “Church of St. George Outside the Walls.” Christian clergy were massacred in that building during the Persian or Sasanian invasion of 614 CE. Fragments of a mosaic floor that once decorated the church are discussed, including an image of birds inhabiting grapevines and pecking at bunches of grapes. In addition, there were recovered numerous pieces of a pavement in opus sectile, and glass tesserae of mosaics that had adorned the church walls.