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Oldest images of apostles discovered in Roman catacombsJun 27, 2010Italian archeologists made a discovery of the oldest known icons of Saints Peter, Paul, John and Andrew at the Santa Tecla catacomb, Fabrizio Visconti, the superintendent of archaeology for the catacombs.
"These are the first images of the apostles that refer to the end of the 4th century," said the scientist. "As for the apostles John and Andrew, these are the earliest images of them. As for the apostle Peter, there are some images of him from the middle of the 4th century but he is drawn alone here so that makes it the first discovered real icon of him", clarified Visconti.
As journalists found out, there were four images discovered in a tomb at the Santa Tecla catacomb, at the distance of about one kilometer from the famous Roman Cathedral of St. Paul. The images were located on the ceiling of a rectangular tomb where Christians were buried in Ancient Rome. It is most likely that the order for images from Bible was placed by a woman from a noble family of the Late Empire.
The tomb discovered by the scientists was located under the building of the 1950s. Luckily, during the restoration works the catacombs weren't damaged at all. The archeological diggings on this territory have been carried for almost two years. Thanks to modern technologies, the images were uncovered using a new laser technique that allows restorers to burn off centuries of thick white calcium carbonate deposits without damaging the brilliant dark colors of the paintings underneath.
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