Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 26

Archaeologists Unearth 1,500-Year-Old Turkish Amulet With 0.1-Millimeter Gold Sheet

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 26

Archaeologists Unearth 1,500-Year-Old Turkish Amulet With 0.1-Millimeter Gold Sheet

Q: What secret biblical verse lies hidden inside a 1,500-year-old golden amulet meant to protect an ancient child from evil?

No one knows yet. Archaeologists say the tiny gold sheet inside the 1,500-year-old amulet from Türkmen Karahöyük most likely carries a biblical passage, but the inscription has not been fully read and no exact verse has been identified. What experts can say is that the object fits a well-known late antique tradition of Christian protective amulets. These were often made from thin sheets of gold, silver, copper, or lead, rolled up and placed in small cases to be worn on the body. Such texts commonly used short scriptural passages for protection, especially Gospel openings, the Lord’s Prayer, or Psalm 91, a passage strongly associated with divine shelter from danger. Excavation co-director Michele Rüzgar Massa said the amulet, dated to the fourth or fifth century A.D., was likely worn by a child and functioned much like an evil-eye charm. That interpretation is supported by parallels from early Christian practice, in which sacred words were used as apotropaic devices to ward off illness, misfortune, and malevolent forces. Because the gold leaf is extremely thin—about 0.1 millimeters—and corroded inside a copper casing, specialists still need detailed imaging and epigraphic study before they can identify the wording with confidence. Until that work is complete, any specific biblical verse would be speculation. So the “secret verse” remains hidden for now: probably biblical, probably protective, but not yet deciphered.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 26

Türkmen Karahöyük excavators in central Turkey found a 1,500-year-old Christian amulet whose copper case holds a 0.1-millimeter gold sheet believed to bear a biblical passage.
An international team of about 60 researchers from 13 countries uncovered the artifact, which dates to the fourth or fifth century A.D., though the exact text inside remains unread and unidentified.
Michele Rüzgar Massa, a co-director of the dig, said such amulets are rare—he knew of only one similar example in Germany—and suggested this one may have been worn by a small child as a protective charm.
The same site also yielded a stone seal with a hieroglyphic Luwian inscription dated to about 1500-1400 B.C., plus copper seals and a clay seal impression, reinforcing evidence that the settlement was a major administrative center.
Deputy director Hüseyin Erpehlivan said Türkmen Karahöyük spans multiple eras from the Late Hellenistic period back through the Iron and Bronze Ages, underscoring Konya's role as a crossroads of Anatolian cultures.