Archaeologists working at the ancient city of Laodicea in western Turkey have uncovered the remains of a large Roman council hall alongside carvings linked to early Christian worship, Turkish state news agency Anadolu Agency reported in August.
The site, in modern Denizli province, produced stone etchings that include a cross, what appears to be a Chi‑Rho monogram — an early Christian symbol combining the first two letters of "Christ" in Greek — and accompanying Greek text. Officials said the newly exposed building likely served as Laodicea’s main political and judicial center and that its masonry and plan date the structure to roughly 2,050 years ago. The age of the Christian carvings has not been determined.
Excavators reported that the council hall had a distinctive geometry, with pentagonal outer walls and a hexagonal internal plan, a combination the team described as possibly unique in Anatolia. The structure is estimated to have accommodated as many as 800 members during the late first century B.C. Names of citizens, elders and youths were inscribed on seating blocks, according to the report.
The ruins also include remnants of a theater and several sculptural finds. Images released by the excavation team show a headless statue identified as Roman Emperor Trajan and, from earlier phases of work, a sculpted priest’s head and a depiction of Scylla, the sea monster from classical epic literature.
Archaeologists cautioned that while the building’s construction can be placed broadly in the Hellenistic‑Roman period, the Christian etchings have not yet been dated by scientific methods and may postdate the original structure. The team said further study will be required to establish a chronology for the inscriptions and symbols and to determine their relationship to the use of the hall.
Laodicea is referenced several times in the Christian New Testament. It appears in Paul’s letter to the Colossians and is listed among the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation. The twin character of the site — a Roman civic center that later served, at least in part, as a locus of Christian activity — has attracted attention because it illustrates the overlapping public and religious functions of urban space in antiquity.
Scholars of the region have documented Laodicea’s prosperity and civic importance in the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. Public buildings such as council halls, theaters and temples often served as focal points for municipal administration, elite display and, in later centuries, the adaptation or reuse by Christian communities.
The Laodicea discovery follows a series of high‑profile archaeological announcements in the eastern Mediterranean this year. In Israel, a child found an ancient amulet at Tel Azeka in the Judaean Foothills, a site mentioned in the Book of Samuel, and researchers reported evidence of a garden complex at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Excavation and conservation work at Laodicea is ongoing. Archaeologists said they will apply a range of analytical techniques, including epigraphic study and scientific dating where possible, to clarify the chronology of inscriptions and to better understand the sequence of occupation and reuse at the site.
