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Description: | An incomplete gold hollow cross pendant, perhaps used as a miniature reliquary, of late medieval date (15th century AD).The pendant is in the 'budded' cross or 'cross bottony' style, with each arm terminating in three semi-circular knops. The front of the pendant is decorated with five multi-petalled engraved flowers, one at the end of each arm and one in the centre. Multiple lines of tiny punched dots radiate out from each flower. The flowers separate the words of a black-letter inscription; across the arms is written 'crux florat' (meaning 'may the cross bloom' - appropriate for the decorative scheme) and down the cross, the right way up when the suspension loop is held to the left, are the words 'amor malum' (possibly 'love - evil' as two opposites, or perhaps more likely intended as 'love - fruit') Given the meaning of the first line, perhaps the inscription overall means 'May the cross bloom; may our love fruit'. The inscription is not easy to read, and although the letters look very neat, they are not always written consistently; the 'r' of 'crux' particularly is not like the 'r' in 'florat' or 'amor'.The suspension loop has been made from a rectangular strip of gold folded into a loop and inserted through the top of the cross. The reverse of the cross is hollow and the back plate is missing. Multiple scratch and file marks are present on the edges of the cross and on the base of the recess.It measures 52.4 mm in length, 40.6 mm wide and 5.1 mm thick. The sides of the cross are 1.0 mm thick and the recess is 4.4 mm deep. The internal diameter of the suspension loop is 3.2 mm. It weighs 14.3 g. The pendant is mid yellow colour, with an even surface patina.Several other hollow reliquary crosses have been recorded on the PAS database (SF-C86BF6, LIN-75FD54, SUR-315095, DEV-4EAD04, SUR-7D27D6, WMID-115B76), although none are an exact parallel. The style of lettering dates this example, along with most others, to the 15th century.
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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