Fresco of Jesus as the Good Shepherd uncovered in Turkish town visited by pope

An archaeologist cleans and restores the frescoes (Khalil Hamra/AP)

Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered one of the most important finds from Anatolia’s early Christian era, a fresco of a Roman-looking Jesus as the “Good Shepherd”.

The painting was discovered in August in an underground tomb near Iznik, a town in northwestern Turkey that secured its place in Christian history as the place where the Nicene Creed was adopted in AD 325.