A LONG-LIST medieval altar thought to be destroyed in a fire has been discovered at one the holiest Christian churches in the world.
Construction workers made the sensational discovery at a church in Jerusalem, where it is believed Jesus was buried and resurrected.
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Workers thought they were moving a stone slab covered in graffiti up against a wall inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Instead, they found that the stone slab was decorated with ribbon ornaments, a common Roman practice during medieval times.
The several-ton hunk of marble was in a publicly accessible corridor in the rear of the church and was even covered in graffiti.
Local researchers believe the altar was consecrated in 1149 based on distinct markings.
The artefact from the Crusades was previously thought to have been destroyed in a fire in 1808.
An Australian team from the Academy of Sciences said the find was “sensational”.
They wrote: ‘Firstly, the fact that the slab could have remained hidden for so long in such an intensively researched building as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – especially as it was in view of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every day.’
Ilya Berkovich, a historian at the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, said: “We know of pilgrim accounts from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries about a magnificent marble altar in Jerusalem.
“In 1808, there was a major fire in the Romanesque part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
“Since then, the Crusader’s altar was lost – at least that’s what people thought for a long time.
“The fact that something so important could stand unrecognized in this of all places was completely unexpected for all concerned.”
According to the New York Post, the unique altar was in the “Cosmatesque” style, named after the stoneworking Cosmati family who passed down their skills through several generations in Papal Rome.
A team from the Austrian Academy of Sciences said: “A characteristic feature of this technique was its masters’ ability to decorate large surfaces with small quantities of precious marble.
“In medieval Rome marble was mainly scraped from ancient buildings, forcing the Cosmatesque masters to optimize whatever marble they could find.
“Their solution was to put small marble pieces together with the utmost precision, attaching it in such a way as to create complex geometric patterns and dazzling ornaments.”
Westminster Abbey is the only known place where Comatesque art can be found outside of Italy.
It is thought that the altar in Jerusalem was created with the pope’s blessing to honour Christianity‘s holiest church and to support Christianity’s claim to the city after it was conquered in 1099.
The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is identified as the place of both the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus.
It was built on top of a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess Venus in 335AD.
Construction was commissioned by Roman emperor Constantine I and during the conversion, a tomb was uncovered that is believed to be that of Jesus who died nearly 300 years earlier.
More than four million tourists visit the holy site each year.
Another rare find
Recently, another artefact connected to Jesus was discovered in Hamburg, Germany.
The earliest record of Jesus’s childhood was found in a 2,000-year-old parchment that tells an incredible story not found in the Bible.
Scrawled on an ancient Egyptian manuscript, it reveals the Son of God performed a miracle known as the “vivification of the sparrows” when he was just a boy.
The 2,000-year-old papyrus – a material that predates paper – claims the five-year-old Messiah turned clay pigeons into live birds.
The tale, which is also referred to as the “second miracle”, is thought to have been written as part of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) around the 2nd Century.
The book details Jesus of Nazareth’s youth which was ultimately excluded from the Bible.
The papyrus had been lying unnoticed at the Hamburg State and University Library in Hamburg, Germany when experts identified Jesus’ name in the text.
The Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) said in a statement that it was “a significant discovery for the research field”.
“It was thought to be part of an everyday document, such as a private letter or a shopping list because the handwriting seems so clumsy,” said papyrologist Dr Lajos Berkes, from the Institute for Christianity and Antiquity at HU.
The earliest written example of the gospel was from the 11th Century.
Last year, a new bible chapter was discovered by scientists after it was erased by a scribe 1,500 years ago.
The incredible discovery that dates back to the 3rd century features chapters 11 through 12 from Matthew and is one of the earliest translations of the Gospels.
The page came to light thanks to the use of ultraviolet photography on a manuscript at the Vatican Library.
The hidden text was initially erased by a scribe in Palestine- a common practice at the time as parchment was scarce so manuscripts were often erased and reused.
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