CBS News
Ancient relic depicting Moses, Ten Commandments found in Austria, archaeologists say
Researchers in Austria found an ancient relic depicting the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments in a centuries-old church in the southern part of the country, according to a news release from the University of Innsbruck.
The archaeologists were exploring a Christian church in a hilltop settlement in Irschen that was abandoned in 610 A.D. in 2022 when they found a small marble shrine hidden under the altar of a side chapel. Inside the shrine was a “heavily fragmented” box, or pyx, made of ivory and “richly decorated with Christian motifs.”
The item was a reliquary that would typically be taken from a church when it was abandoned, but this one was left behind, the news release said, allowing for more research opportunities. This is the first one found in an excavation in about a century, lead archaeologist Gerald Grabherr said in the news release. Just 40 such boxes have been found worldwide, most of which are now on display in museums.
University of Innsbruck
The 1,500-year-old relic is still being studied at the University of Innsbruck, and researchers have made new progress in analyzing it. Ulrike Töchterle, the head of a restoration workshop at the university, said the relic is very fragile and cannot be put back together, but a 3D reconstruction is underway.
The ongoing research helped Töchterle, Grabherr and other researchers learn more about the carvings on the relic. At one end of the pyx is a carving of a man at the foot of a mountain while a hand descends from the sky to give him an object.
University of Innsbruck
“This is the typical depiction of the handing over of the laws to Moses on Mount Sinai, the beginning of the covenant between God and man from the Old Testament,” Grabherr said.
Other locations on the box show biblical figures, including a man riding a chariot pulled by two horses as a hand emerges from the sky to pull him to heaven. Grabherr said researchers assume this is “a depiction of the ascension of” Jesus Christ.
“The depiction of scenes from the Old Testament and their connection with scenes from the New Testament is typical of late antiquity and thus fits in with our pyx; however, the depiction of the Ascension of Christ with a so-called biga, a two-horse chariot, is very special and previously unknown,” he said.
University of Innsbruck
Töchterle said researchers are continuing to analyze the relic to learn more about the origin of the marble it was carved from, and to learn about other materials, like wood and metal, that were used in the item.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
