Archaeologists found a holy box that could finally explain the centenary secrets

That’s what you will find out after reading this story:

• Austrian archaeologists from the 6th-century abandoned church opened a rare ivory Pyx and a marble shrine.

• Pyx features unique Bible images, including Moses on Mount Sinai and a rare image of Christ’s rise in a two -horse carriage.

• The ongoing analysis aims to trace the origin of ivory, marble and wood, which can even be a relic associated with a real cross.

This story is a cooperation with Biography.com.

Archaeologists recently dug ancient relic in Austria, and soon we can find out where it came from, and even what sacred treasures were once considered.

Since 2016 Archaeologists were digging the Hilltop website in the IRSCHENO Municipality, according to a press release from University Inspruck. Three years ago, they made a stunning discovery: a marble shrine “measuring about 20-30 centimeters” buried after a long abandoned church altar. In that temple there were very specific fragments of ivory boxes called “pyx”, which were usually adorned with Christian images and used in a relic that combined with some prominent place or figure during faith.

The clergy or congregation would often take pyxes when the church was abandoned, so archaeologists were surprised that this pyx remained in the ruins.

“We know about about 40 of this type of ivory boxes around the world,” said Archaeological team leader Gerald Grabherr in a press release, “and as far as I know, the last time one of them was found during excavations, was about 100 years ago – several, existing, preserved in the cathedral treas or exhibited in museums. ‘

“Ivoid, especially in ivory, kept on the ground, as in a marble shrine, absorbs moisture from its environment and is very soft and easily damaged in this state,” Ulrike Töchterle said in a press release, headed by a restoration workshop in Clrucke. Larger works have become deformed over the centuries, making it impossible for the team to physically reconstruct the entire pyx. However, they work with 3D reconstruction.

After a long drying process, archaeologists revealed what they discovered about Pyx – and what they expect to find in the future.

The team found that Pyx’s decoration draws a connection from the Bible Old Testament figures through what they think is the image of Christ’s upliftment. Her images start with at the foot of the figure of the figure at the foot of the figure, “twisted his gaze and hand rising from heaven above it, putting something between the human hands.” Grabherr notes that such images are “the typical portrayal of the law of the law to Moses on the Sinai Hill, the covenant between God and the Human Testament.”

Pyx then depicts a series of more Bible figures, before making an image that may be unrecognizable to those who are familiar only with more modern images of the New Testament. This indicates that a man driving a two -horse carriage when his hand rises from the clouds to pull the carriage to the sky. The team believes that the rise of Jesus Christ to the sky is designed to depict the rise of Jesus Christ to heaven, albeit in a commonly portrayed manner.

“The portrayal of the Old Testament scenes and their connection with the scenes of the New Testament are characterized by late antiques and therefore suitable for our PYX,” Grabherr said of the images. “But the view of Christ’s uplift with the so -called Biga, the carriage of two horses, is very special and previously unknown.”

But there is so much to know about Pyx. For example, where did the ivory that made Pyx or the temple marble? “On the one hand, we still need to determine the exact origin of the marble,” said Töchterle on the aim of the current analysis, “and we also want to indicate the origin of the ivory and ivory using a stable isotopic analysis. Metal components were used at the front of the PYX.

In addition to metal found with pyx – relic hinges – archaeologists also uncovered fragments of wood. “We are particularly interested in the type of wood and its origin, and age is also interested in us,” said Töchterle. This is because while the team says the wood was probably part of the original Pyx clasp, it “cannot be completely rejected” that wood is actually a relic that Pyx was designed to protect, she said.

After all, the wood, which is suspected of being, is from the cross, where Jesus was crucified still circulating in religious layers. Only last year was given to a “true Cross” work as a gift from Pope Francis to King Carol III for his coronation.

It is also quite possible that the settlers removed any relic of Pyx and took it with him when they abandoned the top of the mountain top, which archaeologists estimate about 610 m. There may also be the same military force that has led the settlers to abandon their homes – and the whole region eventually refuses to comply with Christianity – a relic.

“610 years mark the turn,” the press release states the period where the pyx would have been abandoned. “This year, the Battle of Aguntum is held near the Irschen settlement, where the Slavic army meets with casuvar army and settlers.

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