188 14th c. reliquary figurines found in Berlin

An archaeological excavation at Molkenmarkt, Berlin’s oldest square in the heart of the historic center, has unearthed 188 reliquary figurines from the 14th century, a period before the Protestant Reformation when personal reliquaries were popular devotional objects. The large number of figurines in a single burial context is a unique find on the Berlin archaeological record.

While most of the ceramic statuettes are in fragments, the reconstructed figurines are consistently about three inches high. There are two types: with crowns and without. The crowns likely represented martyrdom or holy marriage. They are all female figures and have medallion-shaped frames in the chest where the relics of saints were preserved for veneration. Fragments of bones were found inlaid into the medallions.

Two later figurines were found in the same context. One is a mid-15th century Madonna with Child. The statuette has lost its head, but the white clay figurine still cradles the infant Jesus in her left arm and in her left holds an apple. The iconography of Mary giving the Baby Jesus an apple (or the Child holding one himself) was popular in medieval art. It symbolized the redemption of man, linking Mary to Eve, only now instead of temptation leading man to his fall, this new Eve and her apple bring redemption through the sacrifice of the new Adam, Christ.

The other figurine is also from the mid-15th century and depicts Saint Catherine. It too is made of white clay, but it is intact and 4.3 inches high. The figure is finely carved and show Catherine with her martyrdom attributes: a sword and a wheel. (Legend has it the emperor Maxentius ordered her broken on the wheel, but she miraculously shattered it with a touch, so he ordered her beheaded instead. That did kill her, but milk flowed from her severed neck instead of blood.) She wears a high, crenelated crown, symbol of her noble birth as the daughter of the 4th century Roman governor of Alexandria.

“Both figures of saints are extremely rare in the archaeological context of the Berlin area – and beyond – and offer a special insight into the bourgeois piety of the late Middle Ages,” says Dr. Sebastian Heber, head of the Department of Archaeological Monuments at the Berlin State Office for Monument Preservation.

Archaeologists with the Berlin State Office for Monument Preservation have been excavating the Molkenmarkt for five years to investigate one of the oldest parts of the city. So far, they have discovered around 600,000 artifacts, including a 17th century Japanese short sword. The excavation campaign will continue until the end of 2025.

* This article was originally published here