MEGIDDO, Israel -- What is apparently the Holy Land's oldest church has been discovered, uncovered by some unlikely archaeologists.

The church is in Megiddo, near the biblical site of Armageddon.

The Israeli government summoned the media last weekend to Megiddo Prison in the Galilee, where 1,200 Palestinians are being held behind high walls guarded by dogs and police on horseback.

The reporters were brought to see the archeological ruins, uncovered last week by prisoners clearing land for a new detention center.

The exhibits include well-preserved mosaics from the third century, when the Romans first allowed early Christians to worship in public.

One mosaic is inscribed with the name of the Roman army officer who donated money to build the floor, another with the names of four women.

Another mosaic mentions a woman named Ekeptos, who paid for a table used there to celebrate rituals based around the Last Supper.

It's hard to imagine the church being ranked with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which is dated to 330 A.D., or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which is from the same period.

But Israeli archeologists said the church could be the first one, and that would really put it on the map for pilgrims visiting the Holy Land.

In the meantime, prison officials have stopped work on the new detention center. If the ground is declared an important archeological site, they might have to move the prison to another location.