German archaeologists have presented to the world a third-century sensation: a miniature scroll they say is the oldest known written evidence of Christianity north of the Alps.
The scroll was found six years ago, rolled up inside a silver amulet worn by a man buried between 230 and 270 AD in a grave outside Frankfurt in the former Roman city of Nida.
The thin silver scroll is at least 50 years older than previous documentary evidence of the spread of Christianity to northern Europe but, until now, could not be unrolled because of its fragility.
An experimental computer tomography scan managed to digitally “unroll” the scroll and present the 18-line message inside, dedicated to “Saint Titus”: “Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!”
The message continues that “salvation protects the person who surrenders himself to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God”.
The tiny silver amulet, called a phylactery, is just 3.5cm across and was found in the grave just below the chin of the dead man. The man’s Christian faith in that era and region was, researchers say, an absolute exception rather than the rule.
[ World’s oldest message in a bottle found by beachwalker in AustraliaOpens in new window ]
Equally rare for the era was that the man was not cremated but buried in a coffin, and that the inscription is entirely in Latin.
“Normally, such inscriptions in amulets were written in Greek or Hebrew,” said Prof Markus Scholz, an archaeologist and expert on Latin inscriptions at Frankfurt’s Goethe University.
Its elaborate language, he suggested, indicates that the original author was probably a highly educated scribe.
Frankfurt mayor Mike Josef called the find of the so-called Frankfurt Inscription a “sensation”.
“It will force us to wind back the history of Christianity in Frankfurt – and far beyond – by around 50 to 100 years,” he said. “The first Christian find north of the Alps comes from our city. We can be proud of that, especially now, so close to Christmas.”
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
