Ditemukan Relik Kristen Kuno di Israel

Sebuah kotak ditemukan di situs penggalian di Yerusalem. Menurut arkeolog, temuan ini menandai keyakinan Kristen telah ada dari 1.400 tahun lalu.Kotak yang diukir dari tulang sapi, kuda atau unta ini berhiaskan salib dengan ukuran hanya 0,8x0,6 inci. Menurut Yana Tchekhanovets dari Israel Antiquities Authority, kotak ini diduga kuat dibawa para umat Kristiani pada akhir abad 16.

Saat tutup kotak dibuka, tampak dua foto masih bisa dilihat dalam cat dan daun emas. Figur pria dan wanita yang ada dalam kotak ini kemungkinan besar adalah Yesus dan Bunda Maria. Kotak ini ditemukan di luar tembok Kota Tua Daud di Yerusalem yang merupakan sisa dari era Byzantium.

Kotak ini sebenarnya sudah ditemukan dua tahun lalu dan diteliti dengan seksama oleh para ahli hingga akhirnya diungkap dalam konferensi arkeologi baru-baru ini.

Kotak ini diklaim penting karena menawarkan bukti arkeologi yang ikon semacam ini digunakan di periode Byzantium dan tak terbatas hanya pada upacara gereja.

Berikut tulisan dlm bahasa inggis pada artikel di foxnews.

JERUSALEM –  A tiny, exquisitely made box found on an excavated street in Jerusalem is a token of Christian faith from 1,400 years ago, Israeli archaeologists said Sunday.

The box, carved from the bone of a cow, horse or camel, decorated with a cross on the lid and measuring only 0.8 inches by 0.6 inches, was likely carried by a Christian believer around the end of the 6th century A.D, according to Yana Tchekhanovets of the Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the directors of the dig where the box was found.

Oct. 30, 2011: An Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) restorer displays a Byzantine 0.8 by 0.6-inch Christian icon box made of bone with a cross carved on the lid in Jerusalem.

When the lid is removed, the remains of two portraits are still visible in paint and gold leaf. The figures, a man and a woman, are probably Christian saints and possibly Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

The box was found in an excavation outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City in the remains of a Byzantine-era thoroughfare, she said. Uncovered two years ago, it was treated by preservation experts and extensively researched before it was unveiled at an archaeological conference last week.

The box is important in part because it offers the first archaeological evidence that the use of icons in the Byzantine period was not limited to church ceremonies, she said.

Part of a similar box was found three decades ago in Jordan, but this is the only well-preserved example to be found so far, she said. Similar icons are still carried today by some Christian believers, especially from the eastern Orthodox churches.

The relic was found in the City of David excavation, a Jerusalem dig named for the biblical monarch believed to have ruled a Jewish kingdom from the site.

The politically sensitive dig is located in what is today the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, just outside the Old City walls in east Jerusalem, the section of the holy city captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians as their capital.

Sumber  :

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/10/30/tiny-christian-relic-found-in-israel/