north of the inland Iron Age site. The inscription was discovered between two modern houses, about a mile from the coast. According to a medieval Christian Georgian calendar, a four-line Greek mosaic inscription dated back to "the 3rd indiction, year 292", which corresponds to the 6th century AD on the Gregorian calendar. The 6th-century Madaba Map shows both cities under their respective names. The prominence of Hellenised, then Christian Azotus continued until the 7th century, when it came under Muslim rule. The city was represented at the Council of Chalcedon by Heraclius of Azotus. A chancel screen from a synagogue from the 6th century CE testifies to the existence of a Jewish community at Ashdod-Yam during the Byzantine period. In November 2017, archaeologists discovered a church, later fully excavated and called “Church of the Deaconesses.” An inscription was discovered between two modern houses, about a mile from the coast. According to a medieval Christian Georgian calendar, a four-line Greek mosaic inscription dated back to "the 3rd indiction, year 292", which corresponds to the 6th century AD on the Gregorian calendar. Archaeologists thought they could have found the remains of the Roman-Byzantine city of Ashdod-Yam. In 2021 excavations at the site of a Byzantine-era Christian basilica revealed "splendid" mosaics and tombs dug beneath the floors. The mosaics provide evidence of women serving as ministers and deacons of the church. The burials included mass-graves of bodies covered in lime, believed to have been used to inter victims of the Plague of Justinian. Early Muslim, Crusader, and Mamluk periods A coastal fort was erected by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik, the builder of the Dome of the Rock, at or near the former Azotus Paralios, which was later reconstructed by the Fatimids and Crusaders.<ref name=Petersen>Andrew Petersen, The Towns of Palestine under Muslim Rule: AD 600-1600 ", BAR International Series 1381, 2005, pp. 90 -91</ref> The medieval Arabic name of the port town was Mahuz Azdud, "harbour of Azdud", a very interesting combination between the by then already ancient Aramaic word for harbour, mahuz, and "Azdud", a return to a form much closer to the old Semitic name "Ashdod". The fort of "Minat al-Qal'a" (lit. "the port with the castle" in Arabic) was probably built by the Umayyads and was reconstructed by the Fatimids and Crusaders. The initial purpose was to hold off the strong Byzantine navy and it constituted one link in a