The secret of the Frankfurt silver amulet solved

In 2018, a 35 mm long silver amulet was discovered in a grave from the middle of the 3rd century. It took 6 years to decipher the inscription using the latest technology. The published text reveals entirely new and unexpected information. They push back the phase of early Christianity by at least 50 to 100 years, the artefact itself is the oldest evidence of Christianity north of the Alps.

The amulet was discovered in 2018 near the outskirts of the Roman town of Nida, not far from present-day Frankfurt. It was one of the largest and most important archaeological sites in Hesse. The silver amulet was lying in a 3rd century Roman grave in the "Heilmannstraße" cemetery in Frankfurt-Praunheim. The grave marked 134 contained the skeletal remains of a man, a censer and a pottery jug. Under the man's chin was a small silver amulet called a phylactery. He probably wore it hanging around his neck.

The grave was dated between 230 and 260 AD. Such early authentic evidence of Christianity north of the Alps has not yet been discovered. Historical references to the first Christian groups in Gaul date back to the late 2nd century. But reliable evidence generally dates back to the 4th century AD.

"The so-called Frankfurt inscription is a scientific sensation. It will make the history of Christianity in Frankfurt and far beyond go back some 50 to 100 years," said Frankfurt Mayor Mike Josef. "The first Christian find north of the Alps came from our city: we can be proud of that, especially now, so close to Christmas. The people involved have done a great job," he added.

Microscopic analysis with X-rays recognized the lines of the text already in 2019. But the thin silver foil itself is too fragile to be easily unwound. The breakthrough came in May 2024, when it began to be examined using a state-of-the-art computer tomograph at the Leibniz Center for Archaeology in Mainz.

"The challenge for the analysis was that the silver foil was originally rolled up, but of course after 1800 years in the ground it was also crumpled and compressed. Using CT, we were able to scan it in very high resolution and create a 3D model," says Dr. Ivan Calandra, head of LEIZA's imaging laboratory. A special analytical method was used and the individual scan segments were reassembled piece by piece. The film was thus virtually "unrolled".

The inscriptions were deciphered by archaeologist and Latin text expert Prof. Dr. Markus Scholz from Goethe University Frankfurt. "Sometimes it took me weeks, even months, to come up with another idea. I consulted, among other things, experts in the history of theology, and bit by bit we approached the text together and finally deciphered it."

Inscription - loosely translated from Latin into German and then into English:

(In the name of?) Saint Titus.
Holy, holy, holy!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!
Lord of the world
resists to the best of his [ability?]
all seizures(?)/failures(?).
God(?) grants prosperity
Acceptance.
This life-saving device(?) protects
the person who
surrenders himself to the will of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
because before Jesus Christ
all knees bend: The heavenly,
the earthly, and the
underground, and every tongue
confess (to Jesus Christ).

The text is all in Latin: "This is unusual for that time. Usually such inscriptions were in Greek or Hebrew," Scholz explained. The text is also very elaborate. The author must have been a very good scribe. It is unusual that the inscription does not refer to any faith other than Christianity. Precious metal amulets of this type usually contained a mixture of different faiths as late as the fifth century. Most often these were elements from Judaism or pagan influences. This amulet is purely Christian.

The results modify previously accepted beliefs. Some formulations in the text were not confirmed until many decades later. For example, at the beginning there is mention of St. Titus, a disciple and confidant of the apostle Paul. As well as the exclamation "Holy, holy, holy!", which has been known in Christian liturgy only since the 4th century AD. The end of the scroll contains an almost verbatim quotation from Paul's "Hymn to Christ".

Some marginal parts have been lost due to long storage in the ground. The addition of the relevant textual passages thus remains a matter of debate. The "Frankfurt Silver Inscription" is one of the most important testimonies of early Christianity in the world. Its discovery opens up new horizons for archaeology, historical sciences and theology, but also a number of new questions.

Roman Nemec

Sources: aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de, thehistoryblog.com, archaeologisches-museum-frankfurt.de

digitally developed scroll

amulet with silver scroll

digital reconstruction of the text

3rd century burial and marked amulet