Friday, January 30, 2015

Taplow Gold and Garnet buckle

Early Anglo-Saxon, late 6th century AD - Style 11

This is a beautiful buckle, and a description from the British Museum is below, you can see the Christian cross appearing in the garnet inlay at the bottom of the buckle.  This princely burial (according to L.Webster) belongs to a growing influence of costly burials, such as the Sutton Hoo, Taplow and Prittlewell burials, an Anglian influence meeting the 'Kentish' boundaries and to quote......

 "But the 'Kentish' version with its emphasis on sinuous filigree animals, soon began to travel far and wide across regional boundaries; fine metalwork of this kind not only appears at Taplow on the remote Chiltern edge, but in Wessex, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia, Lindsey and even Northumbria"

This is ostentatious jewellery as also seen in the Sutton Hoo burial, and the articles left in the boat burial show a high standard of living, consummate with a striving for power and a competitive element between the emerging rival kingdoms.  One could almost say the vitality of the jewels were reflected in a vital natural world that was changing not just through religion but the power of politics as well...To be honest I can see the long nose of a horse in the buckle but there again it would have been sideways on the belt, jewellery such as this reflected power of the wearer, a symbolic emblem which is more important in the message it gave.
This buckle was among the very rich grave goods recovered in the late nineteenth century from a burial beneath a mound in the old churchyard at Taplow Court. Like the clasps from Taplow, also in The British Museum, it displays materials and workmanship of the highest quality.
"The kidney-shaped loop of the buckle and the basal shield on the tongue are both decorated with garnet cloisonne. Cabochon garnets mark the two bosses at the broad end while the lower boss bears another cloisonne panel. The centre of the triangular plate is formed of gold sheet raised in hooked and curled sections. Each of these sections was then topped with strands of filigree wire that create the disconnected interlace of a single animal body with a head and eye at the right side.
This is one of a series of Anglo-Saxon buckles which combine panels of interlace with tongue shields in cloisonne. It is probably the finest, and the only one of solid gold. Its value is also evident in the all-over cloisonne loop and heavy multiple strands of filigree wire. The quatrefoil or cross-shaped garnet at the end of the buckle is a rare and perhaps significant shape, as it is found primarily on very high-status objects in England and Continental Europe."  British Museum"

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And to tie up what I have already written about the Taplow Buckle, and it's Style 11, some notes on the earlier styles and how they developed from Roman influence....

1) Chip Carving techniques; originally developed for wood carving, for which angled knife or chisel cuts were made to produce a v-sectioned, easily adapted to metal working; chip carving wooden or wax templates were used to create the clay mould for both cast Roman buckles and Saxon brooches.

2) Large quantities of Roman gold medallions and coinage that circulated beyond the frontiers of empire, treasure paid out to buy peace from the neighbouring tribes.  Much of which was transformed into prestige jewellery.... thousands of these coins and medallions were also accumulated in huge treasure hoards and ritual deposits..

3)The decoration of these imperial coins/medallions and of the official metalwork of the Romans had a profound effect on these Germanic people. Creation of what we now call Style 1 - animal art in Scandinavia


Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Slow Cornish lanes







A friend sent me these photos this morning, on his way to Louden stone circle, a typical high banked lane in Cornwall, obstructed somewhat by these slow moving Highland cattle. Fabulous...
They are fairly laid back on the moors as well, along with white banded cattle and of course the ponies.


And a late arrival, the front view of these great creatures, blond fringed with Viking horns in summer, and yes I do have permission for use of the photos....

Not forgetting the wicked Highlanders at Trippet Stone circle, as they scratch against the stones, all photos of course are from Bodmin Moor, and I remember meeting these cattle on a cold and  windy day, when we had a picnic not too far from them and they were well behaved.



Wednesday


This is not a rant, more a reflection;

Just thoughts on salads.  This morning the above photo from Dorothy Hartley's book on  The Countryman's England set me thinking about how our relationship with the varied ingredients of this summer meal has turned from the childhood special Sunday high tea that my nanna also put on the table for us children to the more modern adaptations.  It would be a slice of ham with leaves of fresh lettuce, a tomato, slices of cucumber, spring onions and radishes, to be served with bread and butter and of course a bottle of Heinz salad cream to be dolloped on the side.
As I grew up, and with my grandfather's cooking, we ate our salad in the French style with a dressing, and just the green stuff.  Tomatoes always deserved a dish of their own.  But it was the separation of the different ingredients that niggles at my conscious mind, the cut, soggy seed spilling tomatoes that should not end up on the lettuce or that the vertical cut 'ribboned' cucumber of today did not flop with intense weariness amongst the leaves.
There again in my childhood, there was a crispness about the spring onions and radishes that bite like fire in your mouth,  also the crunch of a cucumber.  This crunch you cannot get unless you grew your own, small, sweet, the seed I sowed  was 'burpless', still I can never remember having the hiccups with eating cucumber....
Lettuces are the same, there is a vast array you can grow, from the French 'frissee' to the Little Gems' which are a favourite, we are into a moment in time when mixed bags of salad are sold, baby leaves they are called.  I grow them myself in tubs, but they can never quite emulate the crisp heart of a fully grown lettuce,  something that seems to be lacking on the supermarket shelves as well.
So my crossness with the meal the other day, was the indifference of serving up a salad that had limp leaves and no understanding of what a salad is, at least in my books, perhaps salads should be confined to the summer months....

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

A small rant

Yesterday was a 'lost' day'. in other words we had a day filled with odds and ends.  Firstly, Chelmsford for an hour long visit to the bank, basically to set my small savings account on a whirlwind spin, which would result in some interest being paid out at the end, rather scary.  The next thing as we got back for lunch was a client/friend of LS coming from London to pick up some of his scrolls.  A small present is given of the most delicious French (Laduree) macaroons that melted in the mouth, Harrod says I, and sure enough this menu popped up from the restaurant there this morning.  I cannot judge the quality of that very long menu from here, though 'foie gras' did make me angry. No it was that terrible meal we had last night...

Fox and Raven for tea tonight said my love, as it was his turn to cook, so off we trotted to the pub, think they are called gastropubs, funny the word gastro is almost ghastly.... well that summed up my salad and chicken, barbecued chicken on a bed of salad.  I could have almost climbed into the heaped 'bed' of salad, and then hopped out of the restaurant like a rabbit....


The thing is I love the old  Barnes farmhouse in which this restaurant is, we have had happy family meals there, the children playing in the garden, climbing the old magnolia tree, walking along the river through the fields, log fires in the winter but it is has slowly turned itself a horrible 'eaterie' place, a Harvester or Wetherspoon place..with a sort of lackadaisical approach to its food, though here I should be truthful, don't think I have ever been in a Harvester, only the Whitby Wetherspoon, which got flooded by the sea last year, its newness somewhat dampened.








Sunday, January 25, 2015

Sunday A/S


A photo for Sunday, this is at St.Peters, Bradwell on Sea, Essex, from the 7th Century church still standing  on this bleak marshy area of this part of the East coast.


Quoting myself and for a moment joining the North to the South.....

"One more thing to note here is the modern altar, a square rectangular slab of stone on three pillars, and here we come to the Celtic heart of this chapel, for it is these three modern stones that represent Saint Cedd's other communities..

The left stone is a gift from Holy Island, Lindisfarne, it was here that Saint Cedd was trained by Saint Aidan.

The centre stone is a gift from the Island of Iona, the Celtic mission in Britain started here; it was here that St.Colombus founded a monastery where missionary monks were trained.
The right stone is a gift from Lastingham, Cedd left Bradwell to build a monastery at Lastingham in the Yorkshire Moors, and it was here he died of the plague in AD.664"


This morning I have spent  quite a bit of time, researching the Caedmon's Cross at Whitby, there is the original old cross and then there is a 19th reconstruction, which is very beautiful but does it copy the old cross?

The old Caedmon cross

19th Century Caedmon cross

Side view

This much better photo by Stockart which is free of the Caedmon Cross, shows that intricate carving can still be achieved in the 19th C


There is for me a moment of happiness when thinking about the design of the intricate pagan jewellery, which is in the midst of transformation from one god to another, it is also echoed in the stonework of the time.  A marriage of thought, the essence for the moment caught up in the 19th century stonework above, as the vines wind their way through the stone..... craft and art laboriously moulded by the chipping of the stonemason.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

A/S cont;

A Riddle - answer will be given at the end, though it is fairly easy to read...


Fingers folded me, and the bird's delight repeatedly made tracks across me with luck droppings. Across the burnished rim it swallowed tree's dyes, a helping of fluid, and stepped again onto me travelling a black trail.  Then a man clad me in protective boards, covered me with hide and girded me with gold.  Afterwards the splendid work of the goldsmiths adorned me, encased in filigree.  Now this decoration and the red dye and the magnificent settings make known far and wide the Protector of multitudes, and the punishment of folly, no less.


This riddle appears at the beginning of  Leslie Webster's Anglo-Saxon Art, and of course the art of A/S poetry and riddles is the spoken imagery of the mind.  Most people could not read, you had to paint the walls, sing the songs in the great hall and recite the stories from the past to give visual continuance to one's ancestors, the great battles fought, noble deaths and of course the movement of people from one place to another.
And so it is with the intricately patterned Saxon jewellery work, the elaborate swirls and coils of gold resembling mazes, the zoomorphic animals, animal bodies ending up with human faces and perhaps best of all the natural vines  and leaves that trail so invitingly round stone work, to understand the grammar of the pictorial feast.  So much of what you see is hidden in a past history of pagan religious beliefs, Woden still strides the world as the conversion to christianity took place, the fluid movement of metamorphosing from one god to another took time, it adds that extra dimension to interpretation.
The natural world though flowed through the blood of these Germanic people but christianity brought the heavy hand of the priest to the stories.
So through this visual explosion of artwork, we are left with tantalising puzzles, and that is something I would like to explore...

So for today, the Strickland Brooch, 9th century silver and niello, emphasising the dramatic light and dark of the world, see the hounds circling the  human faces.

The answer to the riddle is of course a book, the gospel-book.  Riddle 26 in the Exeter Book

Friday, January 23, 2015

A walk in the Woods

Blakes Wood to be precise, there has been woodland on this site for 10,000 years. A crisp, blue sky day, with everything etched clearly in the bright sun, and of course a ploughman's at The Cats, which fortuitously happened to be open!




Wood spurge

Sweet chestnut husks like little hedgehogs



These boots aren't obviously made for walking!

Lunch at The Cats, these are photos of Wally's steam engines.


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Crystal Balls


Anglo Saxon Crystal Ball at Maidstone Museum. - Explore Heritage


"These crystal balls were found in ladies graves in Kent and lay between the thighs. They were most likely suspended at the front of the clothing. Crystal balls have been found on the Continent too, but where found in Kent they seem to be mainly found in unusually rich graves and accompanied by silver spoons, perforated in the bowl. The crystal itself is made from quartz and there are many theories as to their uses.
This particular piece was found at Bifrons Cemetery, Patrixbourne, Kent, in grave number 42. Bifrons Cemetery dates to around AD 475-575 and was excavated by TB Godfrey-Fausset in 1867. Around 100 graves were discovered and further graves appear to have been opened but not recorded.
Accession Number: KAS 314

Today is about exploring quartz crystal balls, am I seeing them as 'scrying' devices, a crystal  ball gazing into the future a bit like Rose Lee the gypsy who plies her trade on Whitby pier, no not quite. But they have been there in past history.  As curative amulets in Roman times, Pliny said that they were used more for their ice like properties, used for cooling hands and also for cauterizing.  LS has just mentioned a 1200 year old painting which has a Japanese lady of the court holding one for a similar purpose.
They came with the Anglo-Saxon people to Kent, and belonged to the rich and noble families, hanging from the chatelaine round the female waist, excavated, they lie between the legs of the skeleton.  They are a Frankish importation and are often found next to a spoon which would seem to be used as sieve.  Either for the wine that in the halls would be poured out by the women for the menfolk, the holes stopping any herbs, etc getting through or for divination maybe such as  water poured over the crystal ball, both of course are just conjectures.
Anglo-Saxon sieving spoon

As England went through the Conversion period from paganism to Christianity, the crystal became part of the narrative of the Church, so that we find  Alfred's Jewel also made of crystal set in gold.  By this stage crystal became a symbol of the Virgin Mary and of the Immaculate Conception (because it can act as a catalyst to light passing through).
It was also a symbol of rainbows, the rainbow that shines after the storm such as that experienced in the Great Flood and Noah in the bible and god's promise after the flood.. The rational explanation of this way of seeing the properties of these stones, is of course the 'pictures' we see in stones, two examples of stones here....
This is a clear polished crystal of LS, you can almost see a water world.

This is my moonstone, which has a very Chinese landscape image in its depths, the photo is not too good though.
  1. Description of Moonstone;
  2. Moonstone is composed of two feldspar species, orthoclase and albite. The two species are intermingled. Then, as the newly formed mineral cools, the intergrowth of orthoclase and albite separates into stacked, alternating layers.
  3. Compared to crystal balls that divine our future, such a geological explanation can seem boring, but of course the properties of all stones are fascinating, and after all when you do geophysics with the machines of today, the machine is reacting to what goes on under the soil.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Saxon thoughts (part 1)

I have been reading a lot these last few days, and need to gather my thoughts in to some sort of order.  Basically Anglo-Saxon study, and a particular time within this Saxon immigration to Britain.  The second half of the 7th century is basically where I am at.  The moment when the pagan gods were replaced by Christianity, or at least for time lived alongside each other, though if one looks at the later Viking raids and settlements the old gods once more appear.  This period is called the Conversion Period.  This changeover of religious beliefs is reflected in the A/S cemeteries, but  the abandonment  of the  old pagan custom of depositing grave goods with the dead did not die out till the 8th century.  So the settled Saxon people during the 7th century  still had the custom of interesting pagan bed burials.  Though to be sure, who would not want to be buried in their bed!  The first time I  had come across such a burial like this  years ago was the Swallowcliffe Down burial of a female, identified by the things she was buried with. Excavated in 1966 by Vacher,  the book can be found on the net, which I will tackle later. But for now the bed burial at  the  Street House, Loftus excavation of the 7th AD Century A/S cemetery, and in particular Grave 42 and one of the brooches found there.



Shield Shaped Pendant from the Street House A/S Cemetery






"This shield shaped was found in grave 42, alongside the two cabochon pendants and a gold wire bicone bead, the pendant measures 27mm wide and 37 mm long, including the suspension loop and has a unique shield shape.  The pendant has a gold base upon which a framework of extremely thin gold bands less than 1mm thick, is set with 57 cloisonne gemstones, each in a separate cell.  The small size of the cells is thought to indicate a reuse of old garnets, an established 7th AD Century practice.  Each of the garnets approximately 1mm thick has been cut separately and not all form a perfect fit within the framework of cells.  All of the gemstones overlie a thin layer of gold foil impressed with a dimple pattern, placed to enhance the stone by reflecting light from behind the gem. The stones in situ are set flush with the top edge of the cell.  This suggest that the cells were part-filled with an unknown (presumably) organic substance, and the foil and gem floated on top to bring them to the correct height, the pendant has three tiers from the lowest outside edge, with the top of the central gem giving an overall depth to the pendant of 9mm...........

The centrepiece of the pendant is a larger gemstone that measures a maximum of 16mm wide and 15mm long with a series of incised lines forming a scallop shape.  Its thickness is unknown."  Stephen Sherlock.



Jewellery  is a female acquirement, though I know that is somewhat short of the truth, but things that glitter are something we all like to dress ourselves up with, and so it was with our Anglo-Saxon brethren, mostly they wore brooches to fasten their cloaks and dresses.  A  chatelaine with useful households accoutrements would dangle from a chain round their waists.  What is interesting though is  the style  and the craftmanship of the various ornaments, and the fact that many of the objects had been made from  earlier antiquarian bits and pieces such as Iron Age beads, or Roman coins, or even old garnets taken from other jewellery.  This would of course  point to the fact that gold and precious jewels were limited, and I suppose that this would be the case in a developing nation country such as England in  that period called the 'Dark Ages'.

What had struck me at the time was the fact that Saint Hilda was contemporary with our 'royal princess' and so was Saint Cuthbert, though I doubt that Cuthbert or Hilda wore jewellery as such.   Cuthbert did have a cross though.....
Saint Cuthbert's Cross, probably kept at Durham Cathedral


Pectoral cross, circa 640-670 W. 6 cm. Garnets set in individual gold cells on a gold cross-shaped base plate. The central garnet is mounted on a white shell of Mediterranean origin. English. The arms are decorated with beaded wire, dog-toothing and dummy rivet heads. The suspension loop is secondary. Repairs show that the cross was not new when buried in the grave of St Cuthbert in 687. A number of decorative elements and the general concept of a cloisonné cross show an awareness of Kentish jewellery of the 7th century, but the shape of the cross and the use of dummy rivets may place the piece in a Northumbrian environment.


When I started thinking about all this my mind was on the beautiful square headed brooches of earlier times, and as I ploughed through the PAS database, hardly any appeared, though there was a good selection of other types and I began to realise that I was undertaking a massive educational read, which needed some books, two are already ordered but not the one for £125 for just square headed brooches, such books are so expensive!

There is of course a male bed burial in Essex, dated mid 7th century, the Saxon Prittlewell burial, had both Christian crosses and pagan grave goods in the mound.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Moths and bees - orchids










Photos of these beautiful epiphyete orchid  plants, they will flower for a couple of months if I remember to water the right way.  The creamy-white one is a moth orchid, though I see the petals as butterfly wings.  But Linnaeus saw them as moth like creatures, extraordinary intricate as if these plants are turning into insects - the next stage of their evolution.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Friday 16th January



The Chelmer River

I have been up since 5 this morning, my mind a whirl, first it was research on St.Cedd, Chelmsford's patron saint, but originally from Lastingham in Yorkshire.  Then my mind started on Saxon brooches and their dating, and the female aspect of them, did they really signify all that I had read, this will be another blog..... then I finally ended up with Springfield Lyons the causewayed enclosure, just over the road by the river Chelmer,

Reconstruction painting by Frank Gardiner of the late Bronze Age Springfield Type Enclosure

also there is the Saxon cemetery which encroached upon this Bronze Age enclosure, and now lies buried under an enormous modern building since last I wrote about it.

Late Bronze Age enclosure and Saxon Cemetery now lie under this building, a reminder that each part of history is but a page in the book.

Just as a note on the Neolithic Springfield Cursus, I think the cursus end  lies under Asda car park, and if you look down on the green from the bedroom window, I have spied circular rings of dark green in the lighter grass, now could those be round houses, or even bronze age barrows right on our doorstep?

Neolithic Springfield Cursus

All this was brought to mind because today we go to the Wyevale Garden Centre to look at sale orchids, 50% off so it says, it will be my luck that the best will already have gone, but I shall take a photo of the new building as we pass in the car, times move on, and archaeology records its passage.

A Poem

A thoroughly dark poem which should thrill the soul not make it despondent, Ted Hughes at his best.


In the dark violin of the valley

All night a music

Like a needle sewing body

And soul together, and sewing soul

And sky together and sky and earth

Together and sewing the river to the sea.


In the dark skull of the valley

A lancing, fathoming music

Searching the bones, engraving

On the draughty limits of ghost
In an entanglement of stars.


In the dark belly of the valley

A coming and going music

Cutting the bed-rock deeper


To earth-nerve, a scalpel of music


The valley dark rapt

Hunched over its river, the night attentive

Bowed over its valley, the river



Crying a violin in a grave

All the dead singing in the river

Ted Hughes

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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Greensted Church - Part 2; photographs

Two things made me think yesterday, the one was a blog from Canada with its beautiful snowy photos, which I often go to see, firstly for its quiet meditative philosophy, and also for the words Beyond the Fields we Know  so beautifully described by Kerradune. The shocks in the news pass us by, there is nothing we can do except not hate, we live in a world filled with religious dissent, yet I love churches and the quiet peace that resides around them.  I approach them as an atheist, but with due respect for the centuries that have passed through them.

The other thing was that I had come across a blog on Greensted Church which had plenty of written words but only two photos though 1200 visits, which somewhat shocked me, I am hardly an expert on churches just like to record them though I have to say words are all very well but photos capture the essence of place, and this is what I like to dwell on, not human folly.

So in this church, the earliest wooden church in Europe, a marriage between Saxon and Victorian has taken place, a continuity over time, just as the graceful old yews in the grave yards unite us with the past, so the peace of largely forgotten churches lying lost in the countryside as their congregations slowly disappear is something we must capture......






















Taken from Greensted Church History


The 51 timber planks you see here today date from about 1060, although excavations undertaken in the chancel in 1960 revealed the existence of two earlier timber structures dating from the 6th, and 7th centuries, around the time that St. Cedd began his work of converting the Saxons to Christianity. The church bears witness to the work of Saxon, Norman, Tudor and Victorian builders who variously extended, repaired and restored the building over the ages. In 1848/9 the church underwent severe restoration works, and in 1990 works were undertaken to stabilise the church as it stands today, whilst in 2005 the spire was completely re-shingled in Oak.