A silver amulet was found on a skeleton several years ago in the Roman ruins of Nidda, in the north edge of Frankfurt. The deciphered inscription inside is the 1st known Christian object this far north of the Alps and it dates back to the early 200s.
It has now become a stunning new artifact in the Archeology Museum in Frankfurt.
I hope to go see it this week to see if the text on the display is in English. This discovery has been in all the headlines here this past week.
Posted by
Oregon
270 posts
Scientists were surprised that the text was in Latin, as the Roman Empire didn't tolerate Christianity until the 300's.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33988 posts
please remind me on our next trip to Frankfurt to go and have a squint. Sounds wunderbar.
Posted by
Berlin
3083 posts
If this is of interest for you I also recommend the Roman Mosaique in Bad Vilbel.
Posted by
OP
Frankfurt, Germany
9247 posts
Mark, that is a beautiful mosaic! Have only seen through the glass.
The Nidda in Frankfurt was quite a decent sized fort/town, with about 3000 residents at one time.
The Saalburg Fort near Bad Homburg though a reconstruction, is a must if you like Roman stuff. I believe it is the only Roman fort that has been completely reconstructed. They are having a huge encampment there on 31.05-1.06 that I want to go to. They had one a few years ago and it was so much fun to see all those Roman soldiers there in authentic outfits, doing the jobs they would have done.
https://www.saalburgmuseum.de/en/
Interesting is also the Ampitheater at Mainz Römisches Theater station. If they had all of it, it would have been the largest one in Germany. The Isis Temple ruins in Mainz is cool too.
Posted by
Berlin
3083 posts
Very good list, Ms. Jo.
I like to add the German Limes Road.
Still remembering my wonderful old Latin teacher Mrs. Bergmann. A small elderly lady with a big heart, a huge knowledge and a wonderful mind. She was teaching the Latin Master Class which were six young teenagers bursting with testosterone - I was one of them. When we were following her walking through the school other teachers said "Look, Renate and her legionnaires.". Last session before Christmas we were allowed to watch "Life of Brian" on school's video recorder and TV - officially of course for the Latin declination scene only.
Posted by
Alsenborn, Germany
1547 posts
There's also a very good Roman museum in Bad Kreuznach, and Trier has the largest display of mosaics north of the Alps, mostly from the two large baths they had. And don't ever pass a chance to visit the Musee d'Oro in Metz; their collection of bronze age and Roman stuff is fantastic!
Posted by
OP
Frankfurt, Germany
9247 posts
I visited the Archeology museum today, but none of the text for this tiny object was in English. No one there could tell me if they were going to make an English hand-out. It was so much smaller than I expected for some reason. I did use Google translate for the German and also for the Latin, just for fun.
There was an interesting exhibit of bones from a mass grave, where they talked about what beheading does to the bones, etc. That was all in English. They had a number of skulls where they had made faces.
One of the coolest sites around this area is the Glauberg, a Celtic settlement, about 2500 years old. Huge burial mound and all that goes with it, plus all the items from the settlement. Text was all in German, English, and French.
https://www.keltenwelt-glauberg.de/en/