The small gilded copper reliquary was exhumed in 2008 and painstakingly restored ahead of an exhibition last year. Its purification revealed some mysteries to German researchers.
It goes without saying that archaeologists rummage through the dustbins of history. The discovery of the remains of a medieval saint hidden in the rubbish, on the other hand, is an unusual discovery. In 2008, archaeologists discovered a small metal pendant during an excavation campaign in the old town of Mainz. The thing, blackened and weathered over the centuries, lay amid thousands of shards of pottery in a medieval rubbish dump identified in the courtyard of a 17th-century mansion. The object turns out to be a gilded copper ornament dating to the end of the 12th century and decorated with figures in champlevé enamel. Fourteen years later, however, the pendant reveals a new secret: it contains unsuspected relics.
An examination of this six-centimeter pendant, carried out in the laboratories of the Technical University of Munich in Bavaria in recent months, revealed the presence of five bone fragments. Hidden in an inner compartment of the jewel, they were wrapped in silk and tied with string; The presence of beeswax was also noted. So many clues to suggest that this multilobed pendant contained the relics of a holy person. However, it is difficult to know to which saint the owner of this precious jewelry was dedicated.
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“Relics of this type are generally accompanied by a strip of parchment engraved with the saint’s name. But in the present case, unfortunately, we cannot comply with that,” said Matthias Heinzel, restorer at the Leiza (Leibniz Center for Archaeology), known until 2022 under the name Central Roman-Germanic Museum, in a press release on January 5 in Mainz. “The corrosion has severely damaged the pendant light, especially the locking mechanism, so that there is a risk of irreparable damage when opening it,” adds the specialist.
View inside the small reliquary. A tomographic examination of the jewelry was entrusted to teams from the Technical University of Munich. Burkhard Schillinger, MLZ
To discover these relics, the scientists used tomographic imaging, a neutron scanning technique that has historically been used to examine mummies, for example, without opening a sarcophagus. “The neutron examination was particularly helpful because it is not intrusive and we could not simply open the object to look inside,” says Matthias Heinzel.
An impenetrable reliquary
Researchers are not yet giving up hope of getting their hands on the parchment in question. In fact, its inscriptions could be deciphered thanks to the acids of vegetable origin used in the manufacture of the black ink. Further investigations will be carried out during a future monitoring campaign.
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The restoration of the pendant was carried out in preparation for an exhibition at the Landesmuseum Mainz dedicated to the city’s medieval treasures, in which the object is currently being presented. In addition to the tomographic examinations, around 500 working hours were needed to restore the object, free it from the eroding corrosion and finally restore its shine.
According to Leiza researchers, this type of reliquary is called a phylactery. It would be one of only three objects of this exact model that can be assigned to a renowned workshop in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony. The enameled figures represent Christ surrounded by the four Gospels on one side and the Virgin Mary accompanied by four holy women on the other. The identity of the saint or saint, meanwhile, was to remain a mystery to the gods for a time yet. And under the protection of his little copper fortress.