Archaeologists claim to have found the most important artifact as they unearthed a piece of Jesus' cross preserved in a stone chest found in a 1,350-year-old church in Turkey.
Archaeologists working in an ancient Balatlar Church, built in 660AD during the Byzantine era, claim to have found a piece of the world's most famous cross, the one used to crucify Jesus. The team found a stone chest while digging at the 1,350-year-old church, which contained relics believed to be connected with the crucifixion.
"We have found a holy thing in a chest. It is a piece of a cross, and we think it was [part of the cross on which Jesus was crucified]. This stone chest is very important to us. It has a history and is the most important artifact we have unearthed so far," said the head of the excavations, Professor Gülgün Köroğlu, according to Hurriyat Daily News. "During the excavations, we have seen many things that we didn't know about before. Sinop has gained a very good ancient site that we will show visitors."
Köroğlu, historian and an archaeologist at Turkey's Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, told the newspaper that along with the relics of Jesus, her team found more than 1,000 human skeletons. The stone chest has been taken to a laboratory for further examination.
Balatlar Church is a fine example of architecture of that era(660 AD). It is a mixture of stone and bricks. Some of its walls have crumbled but the in the standing walls, one can see four lines made of stone while the following four lines are made of bricks. Some wall-paintings that depict Jesus, Mary and the Apostles are getting damaged due to exposure to sun and open-air.
Other relics associated with Jesus can be found in many churches across the world, including the Shrine of the True Cross and the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, Texas.