Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker provide a description, historical perspective, and analysis of an ivory panel of a Byzantine archangel. The British Museum translates the text at the top of the panel as: “Receive the suppliant before you, despite his sinfulness.”

Byzantine panel with archangel, Ivory leaf from diptych, c. 525–50, 16.8 × 5.6 × 0.35 in. (42.8 × 14.3 × 0.9 cm), probably from Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), (British Museum, London)