A late-antique baptismal ointment receptacle excavated at Hippos?

LITURGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY? Enigmatic Artifact Found in Hippos May Reveal Forgotten Stage in Baptism. Marble slab with three identical cups carved into its top found in cathedral in northern Israel may have held oils for 3-stage baptism and anointment, archaeologists suggest (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

In one of [the Hippos cathedral's] two baptismal halls, the expedition unearthed a unique object, in that nothing like it has been found before in such contexts: a marble block with three hemispheric cavities carved out of its top, excavation directors Michael Eisenberg and Arleta Kowalewska of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa reported in Palestine Exploration Quarterly in March. They cannot explain its function, but have a theory.

This artifact may be rare solid evidence of a forgotten stage in the baptism rite, they suggest. The cup shapes carved into its surface may have housed oils or other sanctified liquids. No known parallel to the object exists in the archaeological record, they add. So it may not only be a forgotten stage but an unusual one.

In late antiquity, a candidate for baptism was anointed with oil before the baptismal ceremony. For a near contemporary (early sixth-century) account of the process, see chapter 2 of Pseudo-Dionysius's Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Baptism is called the rite of "illumination" there. The same work describes the rite of the consecration of the sacred ointment (the myron), used for baptism and other liturgical rituals, in chapter 4. Perhaps the cups in this marble block once held the baptismal ointment.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on artifacts and architecture recovered in and around the site of Hippos-Sussita (here a.k.a. Antiochia Hippo) from the Maccabean era to the Byzantine period, start here and follow the links. Hippos is one of those sites that just keeps on giving.

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