Free Republic

Teams of researchers have discovered a lost crusader altar in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, supposedly built on the site of Jesus's crucifixion in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.In a rear corridor of the church a stone slab daubed in graffiti weighing several tons had been leaning against a wall for an unknown period of time.However, after it was turned around, it was found to be decorated beautiful ribbon ornaments which enabled its identification as the former front panel of the medieval Crusader altar, consecrated in 1149 and which seemed to have been lost after...

JERUSALEM, April 13 (Reuters) - 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. But the 2.5 x 1.5 metre stone turned out to be far more precious when its other side was exposed during recent renovations at the church, the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial. Researchers believe the elaborate looping ornaments they found on the long-hidden part of the slab indicate it was once the decorated front of a medieval high altar...