now that ao3 is live again, i can talk about it.... i am making a Minecraft Diaries fic!

PHYLACTERY

treating this as an homage and creative reinterpretation of Minecraft Diaries, I am finally sitting down and writing the whole thing in true fantasy novel form. There will be so small and major changes made throughout, but will hopefully stick to the spirit of MCD as it was for so long.

Somehow, he manages to send it to Cassandra before everything goes south, and she receives it some weeks after the Inquisitor delivers to her the bad news

An ancient Greek Phylactery for protection ⛧

"as a bodyguard against malicious daimons, against phantasms, against every sickness and suffering, to be written on a leaf of gold or silver or tin or on hieratic papyrus. When worn it works mightily for it is the name of power of the great god and [his] seal."

Example shown above is mine, written on hieratic (Egyptian) papyrus with traditional myrrh ink written with a bronze cuneiform stylus and then consecrated under Hekate. Censored parts are names as written in the ancient formulae.

“(In the name?) of St Titus.

Holy, holy, holy!

In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!

The Lord of the World

Resists (to the best of his ability?)

All attacks(?)/setbacks(?).

The God(?) grants the well-being

Entry.

This means of salvation(?) protects

The human being who

Surrenders to the will

Of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

Since before Jesus Christ

All knees bow to Jesus Christ: the heavenly

The earthly and

The subterranean and every tongue

Confess (to Jesus Christ).”

There is no reference in the text to any other faith besides Christianity, which would also have been unusual at this time.

According to the Frankfurt Archaeology Museum, reliable evidence of Christian life in the northern Alpine regions of the Roman Empire only goes as far back as the 4th century AD.

‘Fantastic find’ made possible by modern technology

Wolfram Kinzig, a church historian and professor from the University of Bonn, helped Scholz to decipher the inscription.

“The silver inscription is one of the oldest pieces of evidence we have for the spread of the New Testament in Roman Germania, because it quotes Philippians 2:10–11 in Latin translation,” Kinzig explained in an interview published on the University of Bonn’s website.

“It’s a striking example of how Biblical quotations were used in magic designed to protect the dead,” said Kinzig.

Peter Heather, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London with a specialist interest in the evolution of Christianity, described the discovery as a “fantastic find.”

Heather, who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN:

“The capacity to be able to decipher the writing on that rolled-up piece of silver is extraordinary. This is something that’s only possible now with modern technology.

If they’d found it 100 years ago they wouldn’t have known what it was. Silver amulets are probably going to contain some kind of magical scroll but you don’t know what – it could be any religion.”

He added:

"Soul Vessel Gem - Ish"

"SHOTIKA NAXSE'ETH - ISH"

Watercolours on handmade paper. 2024.

A stone of blood and soul.