A small silver amulet, unearthed in a 3rd-century Roman grave near Frankfurt, is providing groundbreaking insights into the early spread of Christianity in Europe, CNN reports, citing archaeologists.
The artifact, measuring just 1.4 inches long, was discovered in 2018 but has only recently yielded its secrets.
The amulet was found under the chin of a skeleton buried in a cemetery in the ancient Roman city of Nida, a significant site in the German state of Hesse. Alongside other grave goods, such as an incense burner and a clay jug, the amulet, also known as a phylactery, was likely worn on a ribbon around the neck for spiritual protection.
Inside the amulet, archaeologists found a brittle, hair-thin silver foil. Microscopic examinations and X-rays in 2019 revealed words engraved on it, but deciphering the fragile scroll proved challenging. It took a further five years for researchers at the Archaeological Museum Frankfurt to find a way to reveal its contents.
The breakthrough came in May 2024, when scientists at the Leibniz Center for Archaeology in Mainz (LEIZA) used advanced CT scanners to analyze the foil.
“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, explained.
This digital unrolling process revealed 18 lines of Latin text, which repeatedly referenced Jesus and St. Titus, a disciple of St. Paul the Apostle. The grave’s dating to between 230 and 270 AD makes the amulet the earliest evidence of Christianity in Europe north of the Alps, predating previous discoveries by at least 50 years.
At the time of the burial, Christianity was gaining popularity, but identifying as a Christian remained risky. The buried man, believed to be 35 to 45 years old, clearly held his faith strongly.
Markus Scholz, an archaeologist and expert in Latin inscriptions at Frankfurt’s Goethe University, painstakingly deciphered the “Frankfurt Silver Inscription.” He noted that the use of Latin was unexpected as such inscriptions were usually in Greek or Hebrew during this period.
The absence of reference to other faiths within the text is also unusual. According to the Frankfurt archaeology museum, reliable evidence of Christian life in the northern Alpine regions of the Roman Empire only extended as far back as the 4th century AD.
Wolfram Kinzig, a church historian from the University of Bonn, explained that the silver inscription is one of the oldest pieces of evidence of the New Testament’s spread in Roman Germania, quoting Philippians 2:10–11 in Latin. He described it as a “striking example of how Biblical quotations were used in magic designed to protect the dead.”
Peter Heather, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, called the discovery a “fantastic find,” highlighting its importance to our understanding of the early spread of Christianity.
