Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
CC License:
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Unique ID: LANCUM-5F058B
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A complete lead alloy medieval pilgrim's ampulla, dating from c. AD 1350-1530. The bowl is semi-circular in plan and the neck is sub-rectangular in cross-section flaring outwards at the top. The top of the ampulla is pressed together, and there is some curling of the edge away from the opposite side. There are no handles present. The length is 48mm, the width is 33mm and the weight 45.07g.
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.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1350
Date to: Circa AD 1550
Quantity: 1
Length: 48 mm
Width: 33 mm
Weight: 45.07 g
Date(s) of discovery: Thursday 8th September 2016 - Thursday 8th September 2016
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4 Figure: SD2281
Four figure Latitude: 54.21876403
Four figure longitude: -3.1977112
1:25K map: SD2281
1:10K map: SD28SW
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
No references cited so far.