JORDANIAN SHOWS COINS DISCOVERED AT ANCIENT CHURCH NAMED AFTER SAINT GEORGEIOUS, 2001-01-28 (photo)

**REPEATED WITH CAPTION CLARIFICATION-A Jordanian shows coins discovered at an early Christian church named after the Saint Georgeious, an early Roman-era priest of unknown nationality during the early Roman empire's rule over the Eastern Mediterranean January 28, 2001. The site, part of a complex of 25 Christian churches that could be the lost city of Thantia, one of the ten Decapolis cities of the early Roman empire, was unearthed in the northern Jordanian town of Rahab. The inscriptions and artifacts of the church that refer to the 2nd century AD, indicate it could be the remains of the oldest church discovered in the world. The inscriptions are written in Greek as Greek was the language used by the early Christian church in the region. SK/FMS/KM