Taking five or six years to read 18 lines of Latin might seem slow. But the painstaking effort was worthwhile, because archeologists who deciphered a tiny note tucked inside a nearly 1800-year-old, 1.4-inch-tall amulet found that the passage shed new light on Christianity’s spread through Northern Europe.
Archeologists first discovered the amulet in a cemetery just outside Frankfurt during a 2017 to 2018 dig. Based on where they found the amulet in the grave, the archaeologists suspect that the man likely wore it around his neck.
Translating a Tiny Text
The amulet held a tiny scroll printed on a thin sheet of silver. Experts at the Leibniz Center for Archeology (Leiza) in Mainz painstakingly restored the scroll, scanned it with CT to view the words, then translated the text, which they shared in December 2024.
It was not an easy task. “The challenge in the analysis was that the silver sheet was rolled, but after around 1800 years, it was of course also creased and pressed,” Ivan Calandra, head imaging at Leiza, said in a statement. “Using CT, we were able to scan it at a very high resolution and create a 3D model.”
Both the time of the amulet’s burial and its location are significant. Its date bumps back evidence of Christianity north of the Alps by about 50 years. Its location in a small, rural outpost, rather than a larger urban area, also suggests the religion was spreading.
The Amulet’s Unexpected Findings
Researchers found a few other unexpected aspects of the amulet as well. First, the use of Latin was surprising. Most inscriptions from similar amulets at the time used Greek or Roman.
Also, the fact that the amulet contained a hidden message and was considered important enough to its owner that he be buried with it speak volumes. The scroll might have been secreted inside the jewelry because Christianity was not yet widely accepted. Its owner wearing it to the grave may have spoken to the importance of its owner’s faith.
A Religious Choice
The use of such amulets, also known as phylacteries, was to protect their wearers from illness or other misfortune. But they generally referenced other religions and never mentioned Christianity.
The so-called “Frankfurt Silver Inscription” not only explicitly name-checks Christianity (with multiple mentions of Jesus Christ, as well as St. Titus) it also leaves out Greek or Roman gods.
“The silver inscription is one of the oldest pieces of evidence we have for the spread of the New Testament in Roman Germania, because it quotes Philippians 2:10–11 in Latin translation,” Wolfram Kinzig, a University of Bonn historian who helped translate and interpret the text, said in an interview. “It’s a striking example of how Biblical quotations were used in magic designed to protect the dead.”
The translation reads as follows:
“(In the name?) of St Titus.
Holy, holy, holy!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!
The Lord of the World
Resists (to the best of his ability?)
All attacks(?)/setbacks(?).
The God(?) grants the well-being
Entry.
This means of salvation(?) protects
The human being who
Surrenders to the will
Of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
Since before Jesus Christ
All knees bow to Jesus Christ: the heavenly
The earthly and
The subterranean and every tongue
Confess (to Jesus Christ).”
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
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