Researchers Make a Stunning Discovery at Christianity’s Holiest Church

Archaeologists found the long-lost altar at the site believed to be where Jesus was buried and resurrected.

Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians believe the ornate shrine called the Edicule encases the ancient cave where Jesus’s body lay entombed and was resurrected.

Unfortunately, the shrine was starting to show signs of deterioration. The stone walls were starting to buckle outward, and the structure was wearing down due to water, humidity, and candle smoke.

“I would venture to say that if this intervention hadn’t happened now, there was a very great risk that there could have been a collapse,” said Bonnie Burnham of the World Monuments Fund, a nonprofit in New York, to NPR.

The eight-foot-long and five-foot-wide altar featured ribbon ornaments. These were part of Roman practice during Medieval times. Researchers believed the altar was consecrated in 1149 due to these markings.

In 335 AD, builders constructed the church, nearly 5,400 feet in diameter, on top of a Roman temple dedicated to Venus, the goddess of love, beauty, and victory. Roman Emperor Constantine I commissioned the construction of the church. During the conversion, archaeologists uncovered a tomb believed to be the location where Jesus died nearly 300 years earlier.

Over the centuries, the church has been at the center of attacks and vandalism. However, the structure still stands and has been protected for years. Recently, researchers have noticed unusual decorations that looked similar to Cosmatesque artwork on the wall-facing side.

Builders scraped medieval Roman marble from ancient buildings, forcing them to optimize every piece they could find to construct the structure around the tomb.

The Pope cherished Cosmatesque artworks like this structure, which were so highly valued that they were rarely found outside of Rome.

“The Cosmatesque altar now rediscovered in Jerusalem must also have been created with the Pope’s blessing,” said the researchers.

In 2016, a conservation team from the National Technical University of Athens uncovered a limestone burial slab inside the tomb of Jesus, revealing it beneath layers of marble that had covered it since at least 1555.

Christian tradition teaches that after the Romans crucified Christ, they placed His body on a slab carved from a limestone cave. Scripture says He was resurrected three days later, and when women came to anoint His body, they found no remains.