• Archaeologists discovered a silver amulet with an 18-line text showing the oldest known worship of Christianity north of the Alps.

• Computer technology helped unravel 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 buried in a grave in Frankfurt, Germany, still next to the chin of the man who wore it, contains 18 lines of text in Latin on just 1.37 inches of silver foil. That could be enough to rewrite the known history of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

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

Every other link to reliable evidence of Christian life in the northern Alpine region of the Roman Empire is at least 50 years younger, all dating to the fourth century AD. But the amulet found in a tomb dating to between 230 and 270 AD. was found and is 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 statement. “This applies to archeology as well as to religious studies, philology and anthropology. Such an important find here in Frankfurt is truly something extraordinary.”

The amulet was found in 2018 in the former Roman city of Nida at an archaeological site outside Frankfurt. While excavating the area, teams uncovered an entire Roman cemetery where a small silver amulet was located in the plot known as “Tomb 134.” The so-called phylactery was located directly under the chin of the resident’s skeleton. He probably wore it around his neck and was buried with it.

After the discovery, the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum restored the silver amulet, which included a thin silver foil with an inscription, as microscopic examinations and X-rays showed in 2019. The wafer-thin silver foil was too brittle to roll out.

In May 2024, the breakthrough came in the use of a state-of-the-art computer tomograph at the Leibniz Center for Archeology in Mainz. “The challenge in the analysis was that the silver sheet was rolled, but of course it was also crumpled and pressed after around 1,800 years,” Ivan Calandra, imaging laboratory manager at the center, said in a statement. “Using the CT, we were able to scan it in very high resolution and create a 3D model.” The virtual object was then scanned piece by piece, gradually revealing the words so that experts finally took a look at the inscribed text the individual fragments of the scan.

But then came the puzzle work. Markus Scholz from Frankfurt’s Goethe University was able to put the 18 lines together. “Sometimes it took weeks, even months, for me to come up with the next idea,” he said in a statement. “I called in experts from the history of theology, among others, and together we approached the text piece by piece and finally deciphered it.” Some edges were lost due to damage and some words remain open for discussion. The original inscription is written entirely in Latin, which is unusual for a period when amulets were written in Greek or Hebrew.

The Frankfurt silver inscription, based on the most recent translation:

(In the name?) of Saint Titus.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!

all attacks(?)/recoils(?).

The god(?) gives well-being

This rescue device(?) protects

of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son,

since before Jesus Christ

all knees bow: the heavenly ones,

the underground and every tongue

confess (to Jesus Christ).

Without any reference to any faith other than Christianity, which is rare in amulets of this period, the purely Christian inscription shows not only the rise of Christianity in the north, but also the devotion of the amulet’s owner. In the third century AD, exposure to Christianity was still dangerous and identifying as a Christian involved great personal risk, especially when the Roman Emperor Nero punished Christians with death or even a date in the Colosseum. For this man in Frankfurt, who took his loyalty to Jesus Christ to his grave, it didn’t matter.

The scientific study is supported by evidence never found so early, such as the mention of Saint Titus, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, and the invocation “holy, holy, holy!” which only occurred in the 4th century AD .was more common, and the expression “Bend your knees,” a quote from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

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

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