A boat, a tiny human figure and a Tree of Life carved into Roman-era stone steps at Turkey’s ancient Adada may mark where early Christians taught converts

A boat roughly 15 centimeters long, a human figure only 2.55 centimeters high and a Tree of Life 12.7 centimeters tall are cut into a single block of Roman-era stone seating at Adada, an ancient city in southwestern Turkey. Two archaeologists from Süleyman Demirel University, Nurittin Çelik and Ahmet Mörel, argue that the stepped seating may have been a place where early Christians taught people preparing for baptism.

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The proposal is a reading of architecture and graffiti, not a find of written proof, and the authors say so themselves. No inscription or document confirms that instruction took place there. What they have is a church built around older steps, a layout that lets a group move quietly from the courtyard toward a baptismal area, and one carved scene that reads as religious rather than nautical.

A basilica rebuilt over older stone at Adada

The work appears in volume 37 of Arkeoloji Dergisi, on pages 159 to 194, in a paper whose Turkish name translates roughly as the South Valley Church of Adada: its architecture and catechumenate in Late Antiquity. It is based on Çelik’s master’s thesis, which Mörel supervised. A separate DOI record points to the same article, and the news site Arkeonews brought it to wider attention on Nov. 6.

Adada lies near the village of Sağrak in the Sütçüler district of Isparta Province, in the ancient region of Pisidia. It grew during the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods, when monumental temples were raised, and roads linking Perge with Pisidian Antioch passed close by. The paper counts 13 churches in and around the city, six in the center and seven in rural settlements, and argues that Christianization there was strongly institutionalized from the early Christian period into the Middle Ages.

The South Valley Church is a three-aisled basilica opening onto a wide courtyard, and the complex covers 832 square meters. Its first Christian phase is dated to the fifth or sixth century AD, and the authors estimate it stayed in use until the twelfth century, with repairs and additions. It was raised over the remains of a Roman Imperial public or religious building. The article stresses that nobody knows whether that earlier structure was a temple, so the church should not be described as a temple conversion.

Seating steps that predate the walls around them

Along the southern and western edges of the courtyard run rows of stone steps. The southern run measures about 15.55 meters, and some western blocks carry lion-paw reliefs. Their craftsmanship, and an alignment that does not fully match the church walls, lead the authors to conclude that the steps are older than the church and were folded into it.

That layering is the heart of the argument. A group sitting on the courtyard steps could, in the authors’ reconstruction, have moved along the southern facade to a side room and from there to a possible baptismal area behind the apse. The route would keep the unbaptized away from the main worship space. People in the first stages of Christian instruction were known as catechumens, and the authors suggest the steps were where they were taught.

The paper’s abstract frames the steps as evidence that the space served several purposes, not only liturgical ones. The same steps could also have seated a congregation during celebrations and worship, and the authors list that as an alternative. Similar seating appears in two other Adada buildings, the Agora Church and the Theatre Church, so the idea of reusing a Roman auditorium form for church gatherings is not unique to this site.

The ship, the small figure and the tree where a sail should be

The carvings sit on a block in the top row of the steps. The ship is engraved to a depth of about 3 centimeters. The figure beside it stands 2.55 centimeters high, and the Tree of Life rises 12.7 centimeters. The tree rises where a sail would normally be, which the researchers read as a sign of religious meaning rather than an ordinary drawing of a vessel.

From that image they float a story: a person, possibly of Jewish origin, who arrived by sea and received Christian instruction. The article is careful to say there is no direct evidence of the carver’s identity, faith or journey, and none of a conversion. The sea-borne visitor is a hypothesis built on a drawing, offered as a possibility.

Arkeonews adds that it is uncertain whether the apostle Paul visited Adada, though the city’s position near the Via Sebaste made it reachable from the main routes of the early Christian era. That detail sets the scene without carrying any weight in the catechumen argument.

What would settle the matter is not clear from the paper. An excavated inscription, a datable layer beneath the steps, or a parallel from another Pisidian church could each tighten the case. Until one appears, the Adada steps stand as an unusually suggestive piece of Late Roman furniture whose purpose rests on the authors’ reconstruction of how people moved through the building.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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