Ancient Turkish Christian amulet with gold sheet may hold biblical text uncovered

During recent digs at the Türkmen Karahöyük complex in central Turkey, a collaborative team of about 60 scholars from 13 nations recovered a small, corroded amulet encased in copper and dated to the fourth or fifth century A.D. The artifact contains a paper-thin gold sheet, roughly one-tenth of a millimeter thick, on which experts think a biblical passage was once written, though its content is still unknown. The amulet likely belonged to a child and may have acted as an evil-eye talisman.

Additional discoveries at the site include a stone seal with a hieroglyphic Luwian inscription naming “Kurunti-ziti,” linked to the Hittite deity Kurunta, as well as two copper seals and a clay impression, indicating a bureaucratic presence around 1500-1400 B.C. The excavation director Michele Rüzgar Massa noted the rarity of such Christian amulets, with only one comparable example reported from Germany. The site, described by deputy director Hüseyin Erpehlivan as a key Anatolian crossroads, also yielded recent biblical-related finds such as a marble statue from Sardis and a mosaic in Smyrna.