Rights Holder: Isle of Wight Council
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Unique ID: IOW-F7A962
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published
An incomplete cast lead pilgrim ampulla of Medieval date (c. 1350-c. 1530).
The body is sub-circular in plan. Part of the body, part of the mouth and the suspension loops are missing due to breaks.
The raised design on one side appears to represent and insect, perhaps a butterfly. The opposite face also has a raised. It has a border of lines with similar lines on the neck. However, the central part of the design is either missing or very worn and has rendered the full design as being indeterminate.
The object is corroded and in poor condition.
36.2 x 30.0 x 7.2mm. Weight: 19.63g.
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).
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Late
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1350
Date to: Circa AD 1530
Quantity: 1
Length: 36 mm
Width: 30 mm
Thickness: 7.2 mm
Weight: 19.63 g
Date(s) of discovery: Wednesday 7th April 2010
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Other reference: IOW2010-1-194
Primary material: Lead
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spencer, B. | 1990 | Salisbury Museum Medieval Catalogue: Part 2, Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges | Salisbury | Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum | 57-58 |