When visiting the Holy Land on a pilgrimage, it is common to hear the phrase “the living stones of the Holy Land,” a beautiful metaphor referring to the Christians who live there and embody the resilience of Christianity in the region for centuries. This poetically crafted expression –originally inspired by 1 Peter 2:4–5 – reflects a profound social and spiritual reality. In a similar way, I have often heard and read that Magdala is not simply about archaeology or ancient stone remains, but also about the global community that gathers under the name of Magdala. However, as someone who has worked on the archaeology of the site for years, allow me to say a word on behalf of the physical stones.

When visiting an archaeological site, what primarily remains visible are the stone remnants of ancient structures. The materials that explain the “ancient daily life” of a settlement—such as pottery, bones, tools, and seeds—are typically removed for study in laboratories or displayed in museums. Meanwhile, the stones remain in place, silent witnesses to those who once lived there. These physical stones not only provide valuable archaeological information but also bear witness to a social and cultural context, to an ethnicity, to historical transformations, and to the passage of time.

On a pilgrimage, one does not simply see stones; one respects and acknowledges the meaning they represent. In some places, that meaning is obvious: stones like the Golgotha, the Stone of Anointing, Bethlehem, or Nazareth are marked as places of veneration with the Latin word “hic”— “here.” However, it may be more difficult to perceive that same meaning in places like Capernaum or Magdala. What these “nameless” and abundant stones reveal is daily life: they speak of the people who lived there, their beliefs, their ethnicity, and what they shared as a community.

Every metaphor needs a visible and verifiable sign to give shape to poetry. That is why the archaeology of Magdala—those physical stones—constitutes the material evidence, the historical foundation that allows today’s the international Magdala family to gather under a name grounded in history. An archaeological site is not just stones: it is science, culture, art, and a powerful symbolic connection to the past.

So, when you go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, when you visit Magdala or gather under its name with the international “Magdala family,” look at those physical stones as evidence—as the solid rock, the historical foundation that gives meaning to the living stones of the Holy Land: the Christians.

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