Britain’s earliest Christian church discovered

[guy]

 

A suspected mithraeum, a temple of Mithras, in Colchester, Britain, has undergone intense research. Built between AD 320 and 340, the site is now believed to have been converted into Britain’s earliest known Roman Christian church.

Recent studies of the nearby burial sites suggest that the site later functioned as a Christian church.

The religious site seems to have been in use until AD 400.

The abrupt change in later burial patterns is more consistent with Christian burials (see quote below).

Additionally, a coin hoard of at least 500 coins dating from after AD 330 has been discovered. This coin hoard would have been accumulated following Constantine the Great’s conversion to Christianity.

Before the recent research, it had not been regarded as an early Christian church.

 

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"But you get this wholesale change in burial practice surrounding the building and it's very, very apparent; 61 of the later Roman burials were oriented east-west," he says.

East-west burials were associated with Christian beliefs that Jesus was expected to return to Earth from the east.

 

 

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"There is also a lack of the grave goods seen in earlier Roman burials. The Christian belief is the soul goes up to heaven and that you don't need all of this material to take with you," adds Mr Wightman.

In addition, the graves were laid out "very, very neatly... much like a cemetery today".

This contrasts with early Roman cemeteries, where people "just cut across" the old graves, he says.

In the east-west graves, the bodies were buried on their backs, whereas in earlier Roman burials, they were laid out in a variety of positions, including on their sides.

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0z4p4py1mo

 

http://cat.essex.ac.uk/reports/CAR-report-0009.pdf

 

Colchester has been the site of other Roman findings:

 

 

 

Edited 21 hours ago by guy