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Description: | Irregular lead object c.40 x 28mm. with a maximum thickness of 13mm.This appears to be essentially a lead plug c.23mm in diameter and 13mm. thick, perhaps from a ceramic or glass bottle. Weighs 59.29g. The upper surface impressed with the reverse of a late 15th century Tournai jetton. Cross potent with angular sprigged quatrefoils springing into the quarters from an inner circle. The legend is lost but contained a rosette stop. For a similar jetton reverse see SMMC3 no.85 and Mitchiner no.725. Further molten lead seems to have been added around this plug presumably to improve the seal. A very similar piece also impressed with a late 15th century jetton was published in SMMC3 no.273 as a possible part of a rondel dagger pommel.These two objects now viewed together suggest that they are both seals for containers of some sort. Witches bottles used as an antidote to witchcraft are known from about 1500. German stoneware bottles were favoured containers and have been found plugged with lead. The diameter of the plug from Homington and of the piece in the Salisbury Museum collection would be appropriate to seal a stoneware bottle. The use of the cross impress on the plug from Homington may well be significant. See Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, 163 et seq.SMMC - Salisbury Museum Medieval Catalogue
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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