Archaeologists discover medieval iGod

A portable altar found as part of a dig at a Christian cemetery.

Want to hold a service, but don’t have an altar handy? Archaeologists excavating in Varnhem, Sweden, have discovered a handheld altar. Medieval priests would often find that one of the perils of travelling was that there was no convenient altar when they wanted to say mass. The solution was to download a blessing onto a small tablet, which could then function as an altar when placed on a wooden table. As well as portability it would have been stylish too, being inlaid with Greek porphry. It’s no shock to find it was a prized possession, found on the chest of man’s skeleton.

The excavation was part of a campaign of digs at Varnhem, which is one of the oldest Christian sites in Sweden, if I remember what little I know about Swedish archaeology correctly. I can’t say much more as my grasp of Swedish is abysmal. It’s a shame because the website of the Museum conducting the digs seems to have an extensive section covering the subject, including what looks like an interesting diary of the dig. The photos in the press pack are however all multilingual (look down the right-hand column at the thumbnails and click). There’s a lot of bones and it looks like a huge amount of work.