Archaeologists have made a “once in a lifetime” find of a religious relic depicting Moses receiving the 10 Commandments.
The 1,500-year-old ivory box is decorated with Christian motifs and was discovered hiding inside a marble shrine of an early church excavated in Austria.
Only 40 such discoveries have been made worldwide with the last found during excavations about 100 years ago – with archaeologists describing it as a once in a lifetime find.
Gerald Grabherr, lead archaeologist, said: “We know that this only happens once in an archaeologist’s life as a scientist.”
He added: “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.”
Irschen – where the relic was found – is a municipality in the Carinthian Drava Valley in southern Austria.
Archaeologists from the University of Innsbruck have been carrying out excavations since 2016, with the box first discovered two years ago.
They are investigating a late antique hilltop settlement that has been abandoned since around the year 610 and had so far been completely forgotten.
The researchers have found and documented several dwellings, two Christian churches and a cistern in addition to the personal belongings of the settlement’s former inhabitants.
Gerald said: “Towards the end of the Roman Empire, times became more uncertain, especially in the peripheral provinces of the empire, including the area that is now Austria.
“For this reason, from around the 4th century, the inhabitants increasingly founded settlements on hilltops that were easier to defend and left the valley floor.”
The news from the university comes as a woman who purchased a vase at a charity shop several years ago is now at the forefront of an archaeological breakthrough as the vase has been determined to be between 1,200 and 1,800 years old.
Anne Lee Dozier purchased the ceramic vase at a Maryland thrift shop for less than £3.95 about five years ago, believing it to be a reproduction when she spotted it on clearance, according to a National Public Radio (NPR) report. She believed the vase to be no older than 30 years.