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Ariel Schalit/Associated Press

After the emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion of the Roman Empire, Christians began building churches where they could gather and worship together in public. Several of these early churches have come to light in recent excavations, documenting a growing Christian presence in the Byzantine Mediterranean world. After looters attempted to rob the site of Horvat Midras, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority excavated this fifth–seventh-century church with its beautifully preserved mosaics.