Nearly two years after first being discovered in an early Christian church in Irschen, a municipality in southern Austria, a 1,500-year-old ivory box — or pyx — is being hailed as a sacred find with immense “archaeological and art-historical significance.”
“We know of around 40 ivory boxes of this kind worldwide and, as far as I know, the last time one of these was found during excavations was around 100 years ago,” said archeologist Gerald Grabherr who discovered the box in August 2022. “The few pyxes that exist are either preserved in cathedral treasures or exhibited in museums.”
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Not only does the ornate artifact depict Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, but it also includes a unique portrayal of the ascension of Jesus. The two scenes show the full circle of God’s covenant with man, beginning with Moses and being fulfilled with Jesus.
“The depiction of scenes from the Old Testament and their connection with scenes from the New Testament is typical of late antiquity and thus fits in with our pyx,” Mr. Grabherr said. “However, the depiction of the Ascension of Christ with a so-called biga, a two-horse chariot, is very special and previously unknown.”
The box was found buried in a marble shrine or reliquary, which also contained pieces of wood and metal. When it was first discovered, the box was considered high risk for condensation and mold but could have faced greater damage if it dried out too quickly. For this reason, it was immediately moved to a controlled environment at the University of Innsbruck for conservation.
And while the box is now considered too damaged to be fully restored, researchers are working on a 3D reconstruction of the relic. They are also analyzing all of the materials, from the marble and ivory to the wood and metal.
“On the one hand, we still need to determine the exact origin of the marble, and we also want to specify the origin of the ivory and the elephant using stable isotope analyses. Metallic components – the hinges of the pyx were made of metal – are also still being examined, as is the glue that was used for the ivory,” said Ulrike Töchterle, head of the restoration workshop in Innsbruck. “These pieces of wood are also being analyzed more closely; we are particularly interested in the type of wood and its origin, and the age is also of interest to us.”
Archeologists have been excavating the area since 2016, which has been abandoned since around the year 610. They have made several findings in addition to the reliquary where the pyx was found, including “several dwellings, two Christian churches and a cistern in addition to the personal belongings of the settlement’s former inhabitants, [and] a star-shaped baptismal font…in one of the churches.”
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Marissa Mayer is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her work has been featured in Christian Post, The Daily Signal, and Intellectual Takeout. Mayer has a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.
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