Researchers have gotten a glimpse inside an 800-year-old pendant, which was discovered in 2008 in a medieval refuse pit in the Old City section of Mainz, Germany. They did so not by cracking open the heavily corroded relic, but with a high-tech solution: neutron imaging.
The study was carried out by a team from the Leibniz Center for Archeology (LEIZA), which recognized the delicacy of the artifact. “Centuries of corrosion have heavily damaged the object as a whole and especially the lock mechanism,” said LEIZA restorer Matthias Heinzel. “Opening the pendant would have meant destroying it beyond all hope of repair.”
Made out of copper in the shape of a quatrefoil, the pendant is decorated with images of Jesus, Mary, four disciples, and four female saints. Since its excavation, it has been dated to the late 12th century and is one of four such objects attributed to a…
