Fourth-century glass plate found in Jaén shows short-haired Jesus with no beard
Saturday, October 4, 2014 @ 10:48 PM
AN IMAGE of Jesus Christ with short hair and no beard dating back to the fourth century AD has been found in Linares (Jaén province) in southern Spain.
Fragments of the 22-centimetre glass plate, used for serving up bread during pre-Mediaeval Eucharist rituals, are so well-preserved that historians have been able to piece together over 80% of the original artefact.
It was found by archaeologists on the FORVM MMX Project who were excavating an old church in what used to be the now-defunct city of Castulo some 1500 years ago.
Jesus stands in the middle of the engraved picture on the plate next to a cross, in between two of his disciples who are believed to be Paul and Peter, all three of them with halos.
Experts say the image as a whole is that of the 'celestial orb', which sits between two curved palm trees.
This Christian iconography depicts heaven, the afterlife and immortality, they explain.
Curiously, Jesus does not appear in this early picture in his usual guise, with a beard and long hair, but instead with short light-coloured hair and no beard.
This has caused historians at FORVM MMX to question Christian imagery, as it could effectively rewrite the history of religious art.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com