Rights Holder: Cambridgeshire County Council
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Unique ID: CAM-0D6F81
Object type certainty: Certain
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status: Awaiting validation
A Medieval lead ampulla, a pilgrim's holy water vessel.
This ampulla is shaped to resemble a bag, having a rounded base and maximum width of 36.3mm across this lower part of the artefact. This body zone curves inwards to form a waist. At a width of 32.4mm, 27.2mm up from the base an integral sub-triangular or right-angled lug projects out sideways to either side. The artefacts maximum overall width of 42.6mm is measured across these lugs. One lug is damaged, the strip being bent back on itself. The complete lug has a sub-triangular openwork centre, which would have also been present on the opposing lug prior to the strip breaking. These lugs resemble handles and may have been used to suspend the ampulla so that it could be worn as a talisman. The neck of this ampulla is relatively short, extending above the upper most part of the projecting handles by 7.6mm. There is no obvious evidence to suggest that the neck was cut down in size. The width across the top of the neck is 31.1mm.
The surface of both sides of the ampulla are decorated with lines in relief. When viewed with the complete lug to the right the decoration consists of the body being covered in diagonal criss-cross lines that form small lozenges between. An arrow points upwards from the top of this lattice decoration positioned approximately at the centre of the neck pointing towards the top of the neck and stopping 12.8mm below the vessel rim. The decoration is unclear but it seems that two short parallel lines extend off of the barbed end of the arrow to the right. The presence or absence of any marks to the left of the arrow is uncertain. Two cracks in this side of the vessel are present extending transversely across the artefact. Both run from the edge of the vessel, just below the lowest point of the lugs, approximately horizontally but slightly diagonally (upper left to lower right) towards the centre and stop 19.5mm apart. When viewed with the complete lug to the left the decoration present on the body is a circular line in relief which is concentric to the edge of the rounded artefact body. The faint, probably worn decoration makes it impossible to determine whether this circle is closed at the top, forms a penannular shape or whether there is any form of decorative feature on the neck.
This ampulla has a height of 51.6mm, and weighs 32.76g. The artefact seems to have been squashed flatter than it might originally have been and has a current maximum thickness of 5.3mm.
See PAS record SOM-C60D70, BH-07D894, LIN-E4E405, SUR-3199B6, BERK-C7FA20, SF-76AFD7.
Also see:
Spencer, B., 1990 Salisbury Museum Medieval Catalogue: Part 2, Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges Salisbury : Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum,
Griffiths, D., Philpott. R. and Egan, G., 2007 Meols: The Archaeology of the North West Wirral Coast Oxford : Oxford University School of Archaeology, pp.152 & 156, pl.28, no.1868.
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Spencer, B., 1998 Medieval finds from excavations in London: 7, Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges London : Museum of London, The Stationary Office.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1150
Date to: Circa AD 1550
Quantity: 1
Height: 51.6 mm
Width: 42.6 mm
Thickness: 5.3 mm
Weight: 32.76 g
Date(s) of discovery: Saturday 7th November 2015
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Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Griffiths, D., Philpott. R. and Egan, G. | 2007 | Meols: The Archaeology of the North West Wirral Coast | Oxford | Oxford University School of Archaeology | pp.152 & 156, pl.28, no.1868 | ||
Spencer, B. | 1990 | Salisbury Museum Medieval Catalogue: Part 2, Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges | Salisbury | Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum | |||
Spencer, B. | 1998 | Medieval finds from excavations in London: 7, Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges | London | Museum of London, The Stationary Office |