Researchers have deciphered a mysterious inscription hidden within an ancient amulet, uncovering fascinating new insights into the early history of Christianity.
The small, silver amulet was originally found in 2018 at the archaeological site of Nida—an ancient Roman town located near the former northern frontier of the empire in what is now the suburbs of the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Excavations at the site revealed the amulet in a Roman grave dated to between A.D. 230–270, tucked under the lower jaw of a man’s skeleton. Known as a phylactery, this type of amulet served as a kind of container to hold objects believed to be imbued with magical properties that were intended to protect the wearer.
The Frankfurt amulet, in particular, contains a wafer-thin piece of rolled up silver foil featuring an inscription, which researchers have finally managed to decode with the help of advanced technology, the city of Frankfurt am Main announced in a statement.
Why is this early Christian amulet so important?
The findings of the recent investigations suggest that the wearer of the amulet was a devout Christian—an “extraordinary” find for this region and period. According to the researchers, the amulet represents the earliest reliable evidence of “pure Christianity” north of the Alps mountain range, which is located in south-central Europe.
Historical sources make references to early Christian groups in the Roman territories of Gaul and Germania Superior—both of which (primarily) lie north of the Alps. But reliable physical evidence of Christian life north of the Alps uncovered to date typically only dates as far back as the 4th century A.D.
“The ‘Frankfurt Inscription’ is a scientific sensation. Thanks to it, the history of Christianity in Frankfurt and far beyond will have to be turned back by around 50 to 100 years,” the city’s Lord Mayor Mike Josef said in the statement. “The first Christian find north of the Alps comes from our city.”
After its discovery, the silver amulet was conserved and restored at the Archaeological Museum in Frankfurt. Microscopic examinations and X-ray scans conducted in 2019 identified the presence of an inscription on the thin silver foil.
But the foil was too brittle and fragile to be unrolled, preventing researchers from investigating the inscription any further.
A breakthrough came in May, 2024, though when experts examined the artifact using a state-of-the-art CT scanner at the Leibniz Center for Archaeology in Mainz (LEIZA).
A CT scanner is an imaging device that uses computer-processed combinations of X-ray measurements taken from different angles to create cross-sectional images of given objects. In archaeology, it can be used to non-invasively examine the internal structures of artifacts and remains without damaging them.
“The challenge in the analysis was that the silver sheet was rolled, but after around 1,800 years, it was of course also creased and pressed. Using CT, we were able to scan it at a very high resolution and create a 3D model,” Ivan Calandra, head of the imaging laboratory at LEIZA, said the statement.
This “digital unrolling” allowed researchers to decipher the inscription for the first time, although some sections have been lost. Intriguingly, the text—which was found to contain references to St. Titus, a disciple and confidant of the Apostle Paul, as well as Jesus—is written entirely in Latin.
“That’s unusual for the time. Normally, such inscriptions on amulets were written in Greek or Hebrew,” Markus Scholz from Frankfurt’s Goethe University, who deciphered the text in collaboration with other experts, said in the statement.
It is also unusual that the text contains no reference to any other faith besides Christianity. Up until the 5th century, these types of precious metal amulets typically exhibited influences from other faiths and belief systems, including Judaism and paganism. But the Frankfurt amulet appears to be purely Christian in nature.
In the 3rd century—when the amulet appears to date to—Christianity was growing and spreading throughout the Roman Empire. But its followers were still sometimes subject to reprisals and persecution, potentially making it risky for people to identify as Christians.
To what extent the individual buried in Nida was able to practice his faith and whether the contents of the amulet remained his secret is currently unclear. Despite this, the nature of the burial indicates that the amulet was important to him.
Analyzing the text revealed by the inscription is helping to shed new light on Christianity’s early history during the late period of Roman rule. Some of the formulations contained in the text were previously not attested until many decades later.
For example, the text contains the invocation “Holy, holy, holy!”—which was previously not known in the Christian liturgy until the 4th century.
“This extraordinary find affects many areas of research and will keep scientists busy for a long time to come. It concerns archaeology as well as religious studies, philology and anthropology. Such an important find here in Frankfurt is really something extraordinary,” Ina Hartwig, the city’s head of culture and science, said in the statement.
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