Archaeologists found a skeleton wearing an amulet that may change the history of Christianity

• Archaeologists discovered a silver amulet containing an 18-line text that shows the oldest known devotion to Christianity north of the Alps.

• Computer technology helped solve the mystery of the text hidden in a silver amulet from the third century AD

• The find rewrites the history of the spread of Christianity in the northern Roman Empire.

An 1,800-year-old silver amulet found buried in a grave in Frankfurt, Germany, still next to the chin of the man who wore it, has 18 lines of text written in Latin on just 1.37 inches of silver foil. It could be enough to rewrite known history Christianity in the roman empire.

The amulet – and the inscription – are the oldest evidence of Christianity found north of the Alps.

Every other link to reliable evidence for Christian life in the northern Alpine region of the Roman Empire is at least 50 years younger, all from the fourth century AD. But the amulet, found in a tomb dating between 230 and 270 AD. and now known as the “Frankfurt Inscription”, was made to better decipher the inscription.

“This extraordinary find affects many areas of research and will keep science busy for a long time,” said Ina Hartwig, Frankfurt’s head of culture and science, in a translated declaration. “This applies to archeology as well as religious studies, philology and anthropology. Such a significant find here in Frankfurt is truly something extraordinary.”

The amulet was found in what once was Roman city of Nida at an archaeological site outside Frankfurt in 2018. During the excavation of the site, crews uncovered an entire Roman cemetery where the plot designated as “grave 134”, a small silver amulet, known as a phylactery, was located just below the chin of the occupant’s skeleton. He probably wore it around his neck and was buried with it.

After the find, the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum restored the silver amulet, which included a thin silver foil with an inscription, as seen by microscopic examination and X-rays in 2019. The wafer-thin silver foil was too brittle to unroll.

In May 2024, a breakthrough came when an advanced computed tomograph was used at the Leibniz Center for Archeology in Mainz. “The challenge in the analysis was that the silver sheet was rolled, but of course after about 1,800 years it was also crumpled and pressed,” Ivan Calandra, laboratory director of imaging procedures at the center, said in a statement. “Using the CT, we were able to scan it at a very high resolution and create a 3D model.” The virtual object was then scanned piece by piece, slowly revealing the words, allowing experts to finally get a look at the inscribed text on the individual fragments from the scan.

But then came the puzzle. Markus Scholz of Frankfurt’s Goethe University was able to piece together the 18 lines. “Sometimes it took weeks, even months, before I had the next idea,” he said in a statement. “I called in experts from, among other things, the history of theology, and we approached the text together little by little and finally deciphered it.” Some edges were lost due to injuries and some words remain open for discussion. The original inscription is entirely in Latin, unusual for a time that contained amulets written in Greek or Hebrew.

Frankfurt Silver Inscription, based on the most up-to-date translation:

(In the name?) Saint Titus.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!

all attack(?)/knockback(?).

The god(?) gives well-being

This rescue unit(?) protects

of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

since before Jesus Christ

all knees bow: the heavenly ones,

the underground and every tongue

confess (to Jesus Christ).

Without a reference to any other faith besides Christianityrare for amulets of this age, the purely Christian inscription shows not only the rise of Christianity to the north, but also the devotion of the amulet owner. During the third century AD affiliation with Christianity was still dangerous, and identifying as a Christian came with great personal risk, especially when the Roman Emperor Nero punished Christians with death or even a date in the Colosseum. It was no business for this man in Frankfurt, who took his allegiance to Jesus Christ to his grave.

The scholarly investigation is supported by references never found so early, such as the mention of Saint Titus, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, the invocation “Holy, holy, holy!” which was not more common before the fourth century AD, and the phrase “bow your knees” which is a quotation from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

“The ‘Frankfurt Inscription’ is a scientific sensation,” Mike Josef, the mayor of Frankfurt, said in a statement. “As a result, the history of Christianity in Frankfurt and far beyond will have to be set back by about 50 to 100 years. The first Christian find north of the Alps comes from our town. We can be proud of that, especially now, so close to Christmas.”

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