Scientists in Sudan discovered a tattoo with a picture on it Jesus Christ On a 1,300-year-old body excavated in a cemetery near a medieval monastery. The Polish Center for Mediterranean Archeology (PCMA) at the University of Warsaw, whose members are conducting excavations and research at the site known as Ghazali, said in a statement that this is the second time a tattoo has been found in medieval Nubia. . Nubia is a region encompassing parts of modern Egypt and Sudan.

In the statement, it was stated that the tattoo on the right leg of the person, thought to be a man, included the Greek letters alpha and omega, as well as the symbol that scientists call the “Chi-Rho” symbol.

The statement stated that the Chi-Rho symbol combines the Greek letters “chi” and “rho” to form the abbreviation of Jesus, and that the abbreviation began to be used around AD 324, when Constantine became the emperor of the Roman Empire. The statement stated that the letters alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and represent the Christian belief that God is the beginning and end of everything.

The location of the tattoo on the right leg is interesting because Jesus may have driven a nail there during the crucifixion, said bioarchaeologist Robert Stark of PCMA and Kari Gilbolt, a bioarchaeologist who studies tattoo practices at Purdue University in Indiana. Live Science in an email shared. Stark and Guilbolt are part of the team that discovered and analyzed the tattoo.

Stark and Guilbeau said that although the tattoo indicated the man was a Christian, it was unclear whether he was a monk. Stark and Guilbeau said the man was not buried in the same cemetery as the monastery’s monks but in a cemetery that may have been used by people from nearby communities.

Radiocarbon dating shows that the man lived somewhere between 667 and 774 years ago. Christianity was the main religion in the region at the time and was therefore “very widespread,” Stark and Guilbeau said. The person was probably between 35 and 50 years old when he died.

Stark and Guilbeau said the body was found during excavations in 2016, “but the tattoo only came to light following recent post-excavation analysis and a series of photographs.” Excavations at Ghazal were carried out between 2012 and 2018 by a Polish-Sudanese team led by Artur Obluski, professor of archeology at the University of Warsaw. Analysis of the findings is ongoing. Source