An archaic altar used by the Catholic clergy to celebrate mass until the Crusaders left Jerusalem has been found, archaeologist says.
Pressed against a wall in a back corridor of Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a stone slab bore testimony only to the graffiti etched on it by multitudes of pilgrims through the ages.
“You cannot see it now, but originally it was inlaid with pieces of precious marble, pieces of glass, pieces of small, finely made marble,” said Amit Re’em, Jerusalem regional archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority. Similarly decorated altars have been found inside churches in Rome dating to the 12th and 13th centuries, the researchers said.
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