The artifact is being restored step by step
Archaeologists have found in Austria an exceptional ancient Christian ivory reliquary box, which is about 1,500 years old.
Archaeologists from Innsbruck have been excavating an old hilltop settlement in southern Austria since 2016. In 2022, they made an incredible discovery – they found a Christian relic hidden in a previously unknown church. The find consisted of an ancient ivory box, richly decorated with Christian symbols. The marble shrine in which the artifact was found was hidden under an altar in a side chapel.
The box is heavily fragmented, but researchers say the pieces once formed a kind of round vessel known as a pixa, which in this case it was made of ivory and richly decorated with Christian motifs.
The tomb contained a badly damaged ivory “box” richly decorated with Christian motifs, a reliquary that is usually taken as the “holiest” part when a church is abandoned. However, in this case it was abandoned. This is the first such tomb found during archaeological excavations in Austria.
“We know of about 40 ivory boxes of this kind around the world, and, as far as I know, the last time one was found during excavations was about 100 years ago – the few that have survived are either stored in the treasuries of cathedrals , or are exhibited in museums,” explains Gerald Grabherr, who found the artifact.
Although archaeologists initially assumed that the marble box also contained the remains of a saint – that is, a relic in the classical sense of the word – the location of the fragments found in the sanctuary, indicates that the ivory tomb was already broken in late antiquity and was buried in the altar.
“Presumably the tomb was also considered sacred and was treated as such because it was in contact with a relic. The archaeological and artistic-historical significance of the tomb cannot be denied,” emphasizes the archaeologist.
On the box, according to scientists, there is a symbolic image of the Law of Moses on Mount Sinai, followed by images of biblical characters.
“At the end you can see a man on a chariot with two horses harnessed to it – and here, too, a hand emerging from the clouds lifts this figure to heaven. We assume that this is a depiction of the ascension of Christ, the fulfillment of the covenant with God. The depiction of scenes from the Old Testament and their connection with scenes from the New Testament are typical of late antiquity and thus fit into our picture; however, the depiction of the Ascension of Christ on the so-called biga, a chariot drawn by two horses, is very special and previously unknown,” says Grabherr.
Ivory stored underground absorbs moisture, making it very soft and light damaged.
The head of the restoration workshop, Ulrike Tächterle, explains: “Due to the high humidity in the marble temple, there was a high risk of condensation and mold formation, so we had to ensure a thorough and lengthy drying process.”
< p>Over the past two years, individual fragments of the ivory sculpture have been preserved for scientific analysis. The larger parts are deformed, so the sculpture cannot be restored to its original form. However, researchers are working on a 3D reconstruction.
Recent Comments