Archaeologists said that such a sensational scientific discovery was made by accident.
DailyMail reported this information, reports “URA-Inform”.
As reported by the DailyMail, the valuable find was discovered by accident when builders decided to turn over a large stone slab that lay near the wall of the shrine where Jesus was resurrected.
«The builders decided to take away a stone from the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that had stood there for quite a long time. And when they did, we all saw something unusual in front of us. On the reverse side, the slab was decorated with ribbon ornaments, typical of the Roman tradition in the Middle Ages. Later, scientists also saw clear marks on the stone, which demonstrate that it was an altar consecrated back in 1149,» the publication notes.
It is worth noting that until recently, science believed that the altar was destroyed, because the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed by the Persian army in 614 and almost completely destroyed again in 1009. Also, in the 1800s, the temple suffered a large-scale fire, in which, as archaeologists believed, the altar was completely destroyed.
It is also noteworthy that it turned out that it was in front of the eyes of hundreds of believers every day, who also regularly painted it with various graffiti. At the same time, the pilgrims did not even suspect that they were looking at an invaluable Christian artifact.
Researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who were the first to study the valuable artifact, emphasized that for historians this find is simply a sensation.
«The fact that the slab could remain hidden for so long in such an intensively studied building as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre seems completely unbelievable in front of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every day,» the scientists comment.
It is noted that the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is defined as the shrine of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus. About four million pilgrims visit it annually. However, none of them have yet noticed the peculiarity of this massive stone block, which is 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide.
Recall that earlier it was reported that something was found on Mars that should not be there: a new discovery by scientists.