© Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität Wien (Gabriele Gattinger)

A MAGICAL DISCOVERY. This Shema‘ Yisrael inscription (based on the text of Deuteronomy 6:4) was inscribed on a small gold leaf rolled into a scroll and fitted inside a silver amulet capsule. Dating to the third century C.E., it was meant to be worn for protection. It is unlikely that the capsule was ever opened after the scroll was placed inside. The scroll was discovered in an infant grave in a Jewish cemetery of a Roman settlement near the Germanic frontier.