1,500-year-old “Ikea flat-pack” church to be re-erected in Oxford
Posted On: Dec 30th, 2015 at 17:59
England
Luckily for Ikea the Roman Empire no longer exists, otherwise they’d be sued under the Patents Act for stealing their ideas.
“Flat-pack” churches were a common feature under the Roman emperor Justinian – they were shipped to all corners of the empire to be quickly erected so as to enforce the new religion. This was most likely carried out in an attempt to bring order to the crumbling empire, which had transformed into the Byzantine era with its power base shifted to Constantinople in modern-day Turkey.
This particular flat-pack church had been lying on the sea bed off Sicily since the 6th Century when the ship carrying it sank, and it will be re-erected and on display in the Ashmolean Musuem of Oxford next June.
