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Early Byzantine Encolpia and Images of Holy Sepulchre Shrines, fromTomb 39 A at Pella in Jordan. Byzantion 93: 123 - 156.
The unrobbed Early Byzantine Tomb 39A at Pella in the North Jordan Valley was published twice in exemplary detail in 1982, a year after excavation. McNicoll suggested a biography through tomb-goods of a pagan army veteran who had collected a piece of very early pilgrimage art in the mid-late 4th c., and this has been accepted without much further comment or review.
This burial, however, is neither military nor male, and is likely to date anywhere between the second half of the 4th c. to the first half of the 5th, perhaps closer to ca 400 than much earlier. It contains two bronze objects which are likely to be personal relic-holders (encolpia), one of which is an unusual form. It is decorated in repoussé technique with what could be the earliest surviving images of the two main shrines in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and also depicts a novel version of Christ’s Entry to Jerusalem.
