A 1,500-year-old painting of Jesus Christ has been found on the wall of an abandoned church in the Israeli desert.
The previously unknown piece of holy art was spotted at a Byzantine church in the Negev desert.
The fragmented painting shows is thought to be from the sixth century and experts claim it reveals Christ's facial outline and a youthful Jesus with short hair.
Jesus's portrait was first spotted in the 1920s and has now been reanalysed using modern techniques.
It was found in the ruins of Shivta, an old farming village in the heart of the Negev desert, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Be’er Sheva.
The village was founded in the 2nd century and survived for more than six centuries before being abandoned during the start of the early Islamic period.
Research claim in their paper, published in the journal
Antiquity, that the mere presence of the messiah is important in itself.
'Christ's face in this painting is an important discovery in itself,' they researchers explained.
'It belongs to the iconographic scheme of a short-haired Christ, which was especially widespread in Egypt and Syro-Palestine, but gone from later Byzantine art.'
Experts have said the discovery's importance stems from the fact it predates
religious iconography used in the Orthodox Christian Church.
'Thus far, it is the only in situ baptism-of-Christ scene to date confidently to the pre-iconoclastic Holy Land,' the authors of the study write in their paper.
'Therefore, it can illuminate Byzantine Shivta's Christian community and Early Christian art across the region.'
