To say that the museum doesn't make too much of a fuss about its most spectacular exhibit is a mild understatement. A freezing cold winter Saturday in the centre of Frankfurt. A handful of visitors are waiting at the ticket desk of the Archaeological Museum. A leisurely, whisper-quiet exhibition routine prevails. Doubts briefly arise: Is this really the place where the greatest archaeological sensation of the recent past is being exhibited for the first time? The „Frankfurt Silver Inscription“ that has caused the history of Christianity north of the Alps to be rewritten?

Yes, it really is. After a little searching, you finally find the glass display case (A little tip: Right in the centre of the large exhibition room on the ground floor) containing the earliest evidence of Christian faith ever found in this region.

Around six years ago, archaeologists excavating in the north-west of Frankfurt, on the former site of the Roman city of Nida, discovered an inconspicuous silver amulet barely three and a half centimetres in size. Hidden inside is a thin silver foil, so delicate that it cannot be unrolled without causing damage. Which is why it was not until 2024 that scientists were able to decipher the Latin text carved into the foil, using a computer tomograph.

The 18 lines of the inscription reveal a sensation: a Christian confession, written between 230 and 260 AD – and therefore at least 50 years older than the previously known finds – all to the west of the Rhine. The Frankfurt silver inscription is therefore „one of the most important testimonies to early Christianity in the world“, according to the museum. Not only the archaeological experts were overjoyed by the discovery. The city of Frankfurt proudly notes on its website that since then, more than 400 reports have appeared around the world in 29 languages, as well as countless television and video programmes dealing with the „sensation“ and the „extraordinary find“. The start of a unique archaeological hype?

Au contraire! Frankfurt's Archaeological Museum has simply and rather calmly integrated the silver inscription into the appropriate historical context of its permanent exhibition. An illuminated panel with explanations, a reference to a video documentary, that's it. No dedicated exhibition space, no explicit signposts, no special guided tours. Admirable understatement compared to the fanfare with which far less significant artefacts are marketed elsewhere.

The museum does report increasing visitor numbers. But so far, those interested in archaeology have been able to view the silver amulet in peace without the Mona Lisa crowd. And to visualise the passage of time that this tiny, delicate, and yet so important artefact has endured over the past 1,800 years.