Free Republic

In a press announcement issued by the Studio ESSECI press office, authorities have discovered lost pieces of the Golden Tree of Lucignano, a grandiose reliquary created by the famous Sienese goldsmith, Gabriello d'Antonio.The reliquary is considered one of the finest masterpieces of Italian goldsmithing, which is a morphological tripartition (roots, trunk, foliage) and contains the metaphor of the life of Christ in the three different phases: origin, passion, and glory.Measuring 2.70 metres in height, it was created in two stages between 1350 and 1471 from gilded copper, silver and enamel, and features branches decorated with coral, crystals and miniatures on...

One of the latest discoveries in the world of biblical research comes as a result of ultraviolet light technology that allowed researchers to see and translate a portion of scripture written nearly 1,500 years ago.Historian Grigory Kessel from the Austrian Academy of Sciences published his work at Cambridge and explained how the new technology has provided more insight into the preservation of scripture:Kissel said that they found an ancient version of Chapter 12 in the book of Matthew in the Bible that had been hidden beneath a section of text for over 1,500 years. His discovering is one of the...

Denver Newsroom, Mar 19, 2021 / 03:01 am MT (CNA).- Israeli archaeologists announced this week the discovery of several new sets of Dead Sea Scrolls— ancient fragments of biblical text that have, for the past 70 years, contributed to scholars’ knowledge about the Old Testament. The new scroll fragments, which the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced March 16, include the books of Zechariah and Nahum, both minor prophets. Dr. John Bergsma, professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville who has written and spoken extensively on the Dead Sea Scrolls, told CNA that an interesting feature of the scrolls recently found...

Two Harvard University researchers announced Friday that they have found a second parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence in a tiny records office in southern England. The only other parchment copy is maintained by the National Archives in Washington, D.C., researchers Emily Sneff and Danielle Allen said in a statement. The newly discovered document — which the two have dated to the 1780s — was found in the town of Chichester archives, and is believed to have originally belonged to Duke of Richmond who was known as the “Radical Duke,’’ for the support he gave to Americans during the...

The picture above may look like a sickly amoeba; but it's fish, cooked in a very convenient and mess-free way: in parchment paper, or, en papillote The very first time we tried this, it turned out perfectly. If you line your baking sheet with foil, there's little clean-up, and if you've never created a parchment packet, there will be a tutorial in Chef John's video below. This is an especially good way to cook fish as it always comes out very moist and tender. But there are other ways to do 'food in packets', including Hobo Packs, a traditional Boy...

The new technique of analyzing DNA found in ancient parchments can shine a focused light on the development of agriculture across the centuries. Millions of documents stored in archives could provide scientists with the key to tracing agricultural development across the centuries... Amazingly, thanks to increasingly progressive genetic sequencing techniques, the all-important historical tales these documents tell are no longer confined to their texts; now, vital information also comes from the DNA of the parchment on which they are written. Researchers used these state-of-the-art scientific techniques to extract ancient DNA and protein from tiny samples of parchment from documents from...

While I was teaching Thursday, my wife and children attended the McDonough Tea Party at noon. It was a little more cozy than the larger Atlanta gathering later that day, but there was still a good group of patriots there to support the Constitution. My wife was especially impressed by Rupert Parchment, a conservative looking to unseat incumbent David Scott.

JERUSALEM — A secretive encounter with a Bedouin in a desert valley led to the discovery of two fragments from a nearly 2,000-year-old parchment scroll — the first such finding in decades, an Israeli archaeologist said Friday. The finding has given rise to hope that the Judean Desert may yield more treasures, said Professor Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University. The two small pieces of brown animal skin, inscribed in Hebrew with verses from the Book of Leviticus, are from "refugee'' caves in Nachal Arugot, a canyon near the Dead Sea where Jews hid from the...

Bedouin wanders across Biblical manuscript Fragments of a Biblical manuscript dating back to the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in 135 AD Judaea, have been uncovered near the Dead Sea. After four decades with a dearth of new finds, archaeologists had resigned themselves to believing the desert caves in the modern-day West Bank had already yielded all their secrets from the Roman era. "It's simply sensational, a dream come true," archaeology professor Hanan Eshel, a Biblical specialist at Israel's Bar Ilan University, said. For the past 20 years, he has scoured the Judaean desert around the Dead Sea, overturning...

The Mysteries of Rennes-Le-Chateau. Perched on a dusty hilltop in Languedoc in the French Pyrenees lies the little village of Rennes-le-Château. Three little words, Rennes-le-Chateau…The passing millennia have produced many bizarre mysteries; the riddle of the Sphinx and the Pyramids on the Giza plateau are probably the most famous, but in recent years, perhaps the most engrossing of these enigmas concerns what transpired in the quiet village of Rennes-le-Chateau in the foothills of the French Pyrenees during the dying years of the 19th century. There have been many theories proffered to explain the events, but in essence, not one has...