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Description: | Lead ampulla (pilgrim token) in the shape of a flask 55mm high, max 10mm thick and 35mm across the discoidal belly of the vessel. The neck is 21mm across at the base, where two suspensory lugs project. One side of the flask shows a cast pattern of a seven-petalled rosette, and on this side the edge forms a frame of angled hatching. There is also a narrow hatched band around the neck. On the reverse the central medallion of the vessel is plain, but the outer chamfered frame is ornamented with alternate barrel and rib moulding. Perhaps the most interesting feature of this ampulla is that it has been sealed by a series of punches or hammerings around the mouth of the flask. These were evidently made in order to seal within whatever the vessel originally held, probably holy water. There are also peck marks on both sides of the amphora suggesting that it has been deliberately struck in mediaeval times. The shape of this example, with its small angled lugs, resembles Mitchiner's no 422, but the pattern of the 7-petalled rose is not yet explained or paralleled from our available sources. The sealed condition of the flask suggests that it may have been used in some ritual action such as 'Blessing the Fields' (see Mitchiner p 138). This example was found with two others on the same findspot. See counterpart records SF-7B3C20 and SF-7B7E74.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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