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Description: | Cast lead ampulla dating to the Medieval period, (1350-1530). The bowl is round and the neck is wide and long, flaring slightly towards the mouth. There are traces of decoration on both faces of the bowl. On one face the decoration consists of three semi-circular designs, one at the base and one at either side, which are filled with cross-hatching. In the centre of these designs is a heart shaped design, however the details are unclear. On the opposite face is a large heart in filled with cross-hatching. On either side of the heart, beginning at the base is what appears to be an ear of corn. Above the heart is a smaller heart-shaped moulding. The design on this face is the same as on no.186, p91, Spencer, (1990).Two simple handles connect the neck to the body, one of which is broken. The object is damaged however there is no evidence that it was pierced. Brian Spencer, formerly Senior Keeper at the Museum of London, who made a life-time study of ampullae, has written: 'Ampullae or miniature phials were an important kind of souvenir. Generally flask-shaped, but with a narrow, flattish section, they were designed to contain a dose of the thaumaturgic water that was dispensed to pilgrims at many shrines and holy wells. Ampullae were made of tin or lead or tin-lead alloy and were provided with a pair of handles or loops so that they could be suspended from a cord or chain around the wearer's neck. Coming into use in the last quarter of the twelfth century, they were, in England, almost the only kind of pilgrim souvenir to be had during the thirteenth century. They were nevertheless available at a number of shrines, and thanks to returning pilgrims or to local entrepreneurs, probably featured as secondary relics in virtually every thirteenth-century English parish church. Until the early fourteenth century, ampullae took various forms, were frequently inscribed and usually bore representations of the cult-figure or relic that they were intended to commemorate...Ampullae could be comfortably kept on the person or easily hung up in the home, or suspended , for the benefit of livestock, in the stable or cow shed or on the beehive. Ampullae were often donated to the neighbourhood, to be hung in the parish church. Almost as a matter of course, churches throughout thirteenth-century England secured possession of Canterbury ampullae containing what was perhaps the most famous of all elixirs, the water of St Thomas, tinged with the martyr's miracle-working blood' (Spencer, B. 1990, 57-58).
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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