Israel
Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a 1,400-year-old Christian
devotional aid (dubbed a “Prayer Box”) made of bone, with two paintings
believed to portray the Virgin Mary and Jesus. The size of the box (a tiny 0.8
x 0.6in, or 2 x 1.5cm), led experts to think the object was designed to be worn
round the neck, possibly by a pilgrim.
Small
icons of Christ and the Theotokos, hinged as a diptych (here is an example) are
well-known to Orthodox Christians today, being useful portable, personal
devotional aids. What is fascinating about this discovery is that it shows such
items were around even in the first millennium. There are plenty of examples of
icons being found and used in churches and monasteries from their earliest
histories, but this is the first discovery of an early icon not made for
adorning a church, but for personal use. Whether the owner used it for personal
devotion, protection, or both, is a mystery, as throughout the Church’s history
Icons have served Christians in many ways.
As
reported by the Associated Press:
JERUSALEM
(AP) — A tiny, exquisitely made box found on an excavated street in Jerusalem
is a token of Christian faith from 1,400 years ago, Israeli archaeologists said
Sunday.
The box,
carved from the bone of a cow, horse or camel, decorated with a cross on the
lid and measuring only 0.8 inches by 0.6 inches (2 centimeter by 1.5
centimeter), was likely carried by a Christian believer around the end of the
6th century A.D, according to Yana Tchekhanovets of the Israel Antiquities
Authority, one of the directors of the dig where the box was found.
When the
lid is removed, the remains of two portraits are still visible in paint and
gold leaf. The figures, a man and a woman, are probably Christian saints and
possibly Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
The box
was found in an excavation outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City in the
remains of a Byzantine-era thoroughfare, she said. Uncovered two years ago, it
was treated by preservation experts and extensively researched before it was
unveiled at an archaeological conference last week.
The box
is important in part because it offers the first archaeological evidence that
the use of icons in the Byzantine period was not limited to church ceremonies,
she said.
Part of a
similar box was found three decades ago in Jordan, but this is the only
well-preserved example to be found so far, she said. Similar icons are still
carried today by some Christian believers, especially from the eastern Orthodox
churches.
The relic
was found in the City of David excavation, a Jerusalem dig named for the
biblical monarch believed to have ruled a Jewish kingdom from the site.
The
politically sensitive dig is located in what is today the Palestinian
neighborhood of Silwan, just outside the Old City walls in east Jerusalem, the
section of the holy city captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed
by the Palestinians as their capital.
Source: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/tiny-6th-century-icons-found-in-jerusalem/
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