Homepage
Welcome to the new website!
Our new website is currently still under construction. For the time being, the most important information is available here. We are constantly working to expand the range of content on offer and to gradually enhance the website with further content, information and features. It’s worth visiting regularly, there’s always something new to discover.
Preserve – research – showcase – educate
The Frankfurt Archaeological Museum preserves, researches, presents and communicates the archaeology and history of the city of Frankfurt and its surrounding area within a wider regional context – from the earliest farming and pastoralist cultures in the Rhine-Main region almost 7,500 years ago right up to the 20th century.
In the exhibition rooms of the medieval church of the former Carmelite monastery, you can journey from the beginnings of human civilisation through to high and late medieval monasteries and pilgrimage along the Way of St James. Archaeological finds from Bronze and Iron Age burial mounds in the Stadtwald and from the Roman town of NIDA – including finds from four Mithras shrines, which are of not only regional but also international significance. In addition, the Kaiserpfalz franconofurd branch offers a glimpse into 2,000 years of the city’s history.
Among the museum’s special highlights are the ‘princely grave’ dating from around 700 BC, discovered in the Stadtwald; the early Christian Frankfurt silver inscription from the 3rd century AD; and the Roman painter’s grave, also discovered in NIDA. The exhibits also take visitors on a journey to Ancient Egypt, the Near East, Cyprus, Greece and Italy.
In St Anna’s Chapel, the medieval history of St Leonhard’s Church is presented through archaeological finds from 2009 and 2011, amongst which the late medieval Lamentation group is of particular art-historical significance.
In future, fragments of the Torah ark’s frame will also be on display; these were recovered in 1987 and 1990 during excavations carried out alongside building works from the rubble-filled cellars of the synagogue on Börneplatz, which was destroyed during the November Pogrom of 1938.
Frankfurt Silver Inscription
A small silver amulet, measuring just 3.5 cm, containing a thin sheet of silver rolled up inside with a mysterious inscription: the ‘Frankfurt Silver Inscription’. Experts agree that these 18 lines will greatly enrich existing research into the spread of Christianity and the late period of Roman rule on the right bank of the Rhine. The inscription was deciphered using state-of-the-art computer tomography technology. It reveals that the text can be interpreted entirely in Christian terms, which is absolutely extraordinary for this period.
What makes this find so special is its age. The grave in which the amulet was found is dated to the period between 230 and 260 AD. Until now, there has been no such early, authentic evidence of pure Christianity north of the Alps. All other finds are at least around 50 years younger. Whilst historical records do provide evidence of the first Christian groups in Gaul and perhaps also in the province of Upper Germania in the late 2nd century, reliable evidence of Christian life in the northern Alpine regions of the Roman Empire generally dates only from the 4th century AD.
