Archeologists from the University of Innsbruck in Austria have unearthed a 1,500-year-old ivory box filled with Christian motifs, including what is believed to be a depiction of Moses receiving the 10 Commandments and the Ascension of Jesus Christ.
The box was discovered in a marble shrine inside a church in what is now Irschen, Austria. The church was located in a settlement that is believed to have been abandoned sometime around the year 610 AD.
The church has been undergoing excavation since 2016, with another ivory box being discovered by archeologists in 2022.
The lead archeologist in the excavation, Gerald Grabherr, told MSN,
We know of around 40 ivory boxes of this kind worldwide and, as far as I know, the last time one of these was found during excavations was around 100 years ago - the few pyxes that exist are either preserved in cathedral treasures or exhibited in museums.
The archeologist went on to say of the specific images in the motifs,
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 is typical of late antiquity and thus fits in with our pyx; however, the depiction of the ascension of Christ with a so-called biga, a two-horse chariot, is very special and previously unknown.
The box, which is known as a pyx, would have been used to hold the remains of saints. This pyx was broken long ago, so no remains were preserved, but Grabherr went on to note,
the archaeological and art-historical significance of the pyx cannot be denied.
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