LINARES, SPAIN—A green glass paten dated to the fourth century has been discovered at the site of a religious building in southern Spain. Etchings on the paten, a plate used during Christian religious services to hold consecrated bread, depict three beardless men identified as Jesus and the apostles Paul and Peter. Coins and pottery helped the Forum MMX team date the paten. “We know it dates back to the fourth century, in part because popes in the following centuries ordered all patens to be made out of silver,” Marcelo Castro, head of the team, told The Local. “We were wary about presenting the paten as a fourth century piece in case it clashed with previous studies into the chronology of Christianity in Spain,” he added. To read about the controversy surrounding an alleged early depiction of the Crucifixion unearthed in Spain, see ARCHAEOLOGY's "The Veleia Affair."
