If you need to boost your hopes of archeological discoveries some day filling in early Christianity’s documentary gaps, just read the news from the last few days:

The Prague Post looks back on 50 Years of Czech Egyptology and ends with a hopeful look forward, based on new excavations in the Black desert, “a virgin area archaeologically,” “where Paleolithic tools lie alongside early Christian settlements.” Said one archeologist: “When faced with this ancient and glorious civilization and the possibilities that it still offers for research today, one can’t help but feel humble. All our achievements, however great they seem to us, will one day be surpassed.”

The Jerusalem Post announces “A 2,000-year old Roman city will rise again in Tiberias as part of a new archeological park.” The remains include a large Byzantine basilica. (Who knows what’s still undergound?)

Jim Davila brings us Turkish coverage of another ancient monastery still in business: Mor Jacob, built in A.D. 419. (Just wait till they clean the attic.)

The New York Times is worrying over the Appian Way, whose roadside properties were among the earliest Roman spaces to be Christianized. (It’s the Vandals again.)