Archaeologists Make Remarkable Discovery at Christianity's Holiest Site — Covered up by Graffiti

A long-lost altar dating from the times of the Crusades was discovered hidden in plain sight by archaeologists at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem — one of the holiest sites in Christianity, where Yeshua is believed to have risen from the dead.

The stunning discovery was first made when construction workers overturned a massive stone slab leaning against a wall in the church that had been sitting there for an unknown amount of time, according to the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The several-ton hunk of marble was in a publicly accessible corridor in the rear of the church and was even covered in graffiti. The other side of the stone was magnificently decorated and identified the slab as the front panel of the altar used by Crusaders in the Middle Ages, from when it was consecrated in 1149 until it vanished from history when a massive fire destroyed part of the church hundreds of years later.

“We know of pilgrim accounts from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries about a magnificent marble altar in Jerusalem,” said Ilya Berkovich, historian at the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

“In 1808, there was a major fire in the Romanesque part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” says Berkovich. “Since then, the Crusaders’ altar was lost — at least that’s what people thought for a long time.”

The unique ornamentation on the altar was in the “Cosmatesque” style, named after the Cosmati family in papal Rome, who passed their stoneworking skills down through several generations. Cosmatesque art, which was a status symbol for the papacy, consisted of piecing small recycled pieces of marble scraped from other ancient buildings together to create complex geometric patterns, according to historians. (NYP / VFI News)

“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Yeshua, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay.’” - Matthew 28:5-6

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