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How a forgotten Christian practice is rewriting the history of the early church

theblaze.com · 5h · first reportShare

For 1,500 years, a tiny sheet of gold lay folded inside a copper case in what is now central Turkey. Archaeologists found it this summer at Türkmen Karahöyük , an ancient settlement in Konya province. The gold is just 0.1 millimeters thick, and researchers believe it probably carries a passage from the Bible. The inscription begins by invoking St. Titus, followed by the Greek acclamation rendered in Latin letters: 'Holy, holy, holy!' Which passage? They don't know yet. Christianized charm The fourth- or fifth-century Christian amulet likely belonged to a young child and was worn or carried for protection, according to excavation co-director Michele Rüzgar Massa . He compared its purpose to a nazar boncuğu , the traditional charm against the evil eye. “Inside a copper box, we found an extremely thin gold sheet, only 0.1 millimeters thick, most likely carrying a passage from the Bible,” Massa said. While Massa said amulets of this kind are rare, he did point to one particularly intriguin