I dabble as a student of medieval illuminated manuscripts, although I have only recently discovered the world of...

I dabble as a student of medieval illuminated manuscripts, although I have only recently discovered the world of Ingress and investigations of operation: Essex. would like to suggest the Book of Kells as a potential prime artifact:

"Its weird and commanding beauty; its subdued and goldless colouring; the baffling intricacy of its fearless designs; the clean, unwavering sweep of rounded spiral; the creeping undulations of serpentine forms, that writhe in artistic profusion throughout the mazes of its decorations; the strong and legible minuscule of its text; the quaintness of its striking portraiture; the unwearied reverence and patient labour that brought it into being; all of which combined go to mate up the Book of Kells have raised this ancient Irish volume to a position of abiding preeminence amongst the illuminated manuscripts of the world."

Many people are familiar with the Chi-Rho page, which is reproduced in mosts texts related to Hiberno-Saxon art and history. It is a breathtaking page consisting of two stylized Greek letters: XP in which the negative space around the letters is completely filled with inhumanly precise and exquisite patterns, spirals, triangles and interlaced lines.

The text of the book contains the four synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, luke and John. The entire book is written in a single hand. Legends of the creation of the book describe St Columba copying the entire text in a single night, on the sly in a darkened cathedral, while the fingers of his hands "shone like candles". When a dispute over the spurious copy broke out, the book was carried into the resulting battle as a talisman, earning it the title of "cathach": a battle book, and securing victory for Columba at the cost of one warrior's life, versus 5000 of the enemy's.

The book itself unusually contains no gilded illuminations. At one time it was hastily buried in peat to hide it from viking raiders but the text itself survived with only some discoloration: the cover was lost.

The Book of Kells is kept at Trinity college in Dublin, last I heard, and images of the details are easily found online. I have an older cover-to-cover reproduction of the manuscript in my library. Many of the lesser illustrations bear striking resemblance to the glyphs we associate with XM portals, which is what made me think of it as a possible artifact, and the legend of its creation suggests St Columba have also been a simulacrum.