Rare Find: A Christian Prayer Box

The box is adorned on the inside with the drawings of two figures (icons) surrounded by a background lined with gold leaf that was probably used as a personal prayer relic. The box is 2.2 cm (0.8 in) long by 1.6 cm (0.6 in) wide, made of animal bone (steer, camel, or horse), and slides open.

According to Yana Tchekhanovets, director of the excavation together with Dr. Doron Ben-Ami of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The use of icons [cultic objects portraying sacred figures] for prayer outside the church is a phenomenon known in the Christian world already in the fifth century CE [AD]. However, the painted holy relics…discovered here in the Holy Land are extremely rare, thus making this an exceptionally important discovery…The box was discovered intact, apart from a small crack, and the fact that it was hermetically sealed ensured the preservation of the drawings on the relic’s inner panels”.

The partial image of a bearded man against a gold background is portrayed at the bottom of the box. Some details of his garment can also be identified. The drawing on the inside of the box’s lid was even more fragmentary, a smaller figure, probably a female, draped in a blue garment against a gold background. The face was not preserved, the lines of hair (or a head scarf), chin, neck, and part of the left shoulder can be discerned.

In the absence of a mechanism for suspending the relic, we can assume that the box was preserved in a small cloth bag. Such boxes were carried by men on a belt around their waist, and women wore them on the upper part of their dress. According to Tchekhanovets, “Any attempt at identifying the figures would almost certainly be within the realm of conjecture.”