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Archaeologists Are Uncovering a Christian World Most of Us Never Knew Existed
A forgotten African kingdom, an ancient cathedral and a prayer that survived centuries.
When we think about the history of Christianity, certain places tend to come to mind.
Jerusalem, where the story began. Rome, where Christianity eventually became entangled with imperial power. Perhaps Constantinople, or the great cathedrals and monasteries of Europe that have shaped so much of our understanding of the Christian past.
I suspect many of us have a fairly similar picture. Christianity began in the Middle East, spread through the Roman Empire and eventually became one of the defining influences on European civilisation. We might know something about its spread into Asia and Africa, but those parts of the story rarely receive quite the same attention in my experience.
Yet in what is now Sudan, there was once a powerful Christian kingdom whose capital contained magnificent churches, monasteries, palaces and extraordinary religious artwork. Its people read the Bible, developed their own Christian traditions and maintained a distinctive religious culture for centuries. This was not some small Christian settlement surviving on the edge of the known world. It was a substantial…
