Word: aedicula
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...buried under the high altar of the Renaissance church that succeeded it in the 16th and 17th centuries, is another piece of commanding archaeological evidence: a small, three-niched shrine set up between 160 and 170, roughly a century and a half before Constantine started building. Called the Aedicula (meaning little room or shrine), it was used as the focal point of Constantine's church, and was the only structure not razed to ramp level by the church builders. As Constantine's architects did 150 years later, the builders of the Aedicula had evidently gone to considerable trouble...
Bones & Devotion. Whatever it contained, the Aedicula was revered throughout the 1,200-year life of Constantine's church, and became the heart of the present cathedral, underneath the twisting columns and great bronze canopy of Bernini. By the time Vatican archaeologists, burrowing from below, entered the subsurface grave, the shrine had been altered almost beyond recognition: the two upper niches had been combined to form the present Niche of the Pallia, two small chapels, the Covered and Open Confessio, had been added, and the whole shrine was encased by the present high altar...
...advanced age but undetermined sex. With this intriguing information −pending further Vatican disclosures about the bones or about additional excavation −the account ends. Archaeologists Toynbee and Perkins conclude only that "at least since the 2nd century, the belief [that St. Peter's bones lay in the Aedicula] has been, and always will be, a wellspring of devotion...
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