Intact Reliquary Cross Found in Turkey

KONYA, TURKEY—According to a Türkiye Today report, an intact cross made of two pieces of bronze riveted together has been uncovered in central Turkey by İlker Mete Mimiroğlu of Necmettin Erbakan University. The artifact, which has been dated to sometime between the ninth and eleventh centuries a.d., was found in a church cemetery in the ancient city of Lystra. Such small containers were used to hold sacred objects or relics associated with Christian worship. Mimiroğlu said that similar broken reliquaries have been unearthed in the city, but this is the first to be found in a sealed condition without a mechanism to open and close it. A small piece of fabric is visible within the cross through a small gap, however. For more on archaeology in Konya, go to "Searching for Lost Cities: The Storm God's City."