A Roman sunhat

With the recent excessive temperatures a story which I first saw on the BBC News website about the conservation of a surprising artefact in the collection of the Museum in Bolton. seems very topical. It is about a wool fabric sun hat - one of only three known to survive - from Egypt. It is dated to the time of the Roman occupation by Augustus of the country after the death of Cleopatra VII.

I am told by a friend who is an Egyptologist that the Chadwick Museum collection in Bolton has significant holdings of ancient Egyptian textiles, reflecting the commercial interests of late nineteenth century industrialists in the town. 

The hat certainly, for obvious reasons, shows resemblances to those affected by soldiers in World War II, by cricketers in the field, and by tourists - like myself many years ago - to modern Egypt. Its closest resemblance is to a type of combined folding sun and rain hat remember my other and other women wearing in the 1960s on the basis of ‘always being prepared’.

A more substantial and more recent version in purpose and appearance is, of course, the pith helmet or solar topee of recent centuries. Wikipedia gives an interesting history of that particular piece of headgear at Pith helmet

The BBC article can be seen at Bolton Museum displays rare Roman sun hat following restoration

The sun hat is also featured by The History Blog at Roman soldier’s floppy sunhat goes on display

Arkeonews also reports on the hat at Rare Roman Soldier’s Sun Hat Rediscovered After More Than a Century as does zmescience.com at A Rare 2,000-Year-Old Roman Hat From Cleopatra’s Egypt Has Been Restored to Its Former Glory

Barbara Harvey RIP

I was sorry to see yesterday  in the Daily Telegraph the obituary of the distinguished Oxford Medievalist Barbara Harvey, who has died at the age of 97.

The obituary can be read at Barbara Harvey, historian whose Living and Dying in Medieval England revealed monastic eating habits 

Although I was never formally introduced to her she was, until recent years she was a familiar figure in and around central Oxford 

Virtually the last of those very distinguished women medievalists, including Maud Clarke, May McKisack, whom she succeeded at Somerville, and Beryl Smalley, who were distinguished products of the Oxford women’s colleges and History Faculty both before and after the Second World War.

She was also, if I remember aright, a stalwart of St Mary’s in the High

She will be remembered in particular for her meticulous work on the estate and financial records of Westminster Abbey in the later middle ages . as the obituary records.

She was a historian and researcher who has left a great legacy. May she rest in peace.

A singular example of wokery

The other day Life Site News website carried a report of a wondrous example of contemporary wokery in respect of infanticide and attitudes to pre-Columbian societies in South America.

I will let readers look at it and let you ponder the utter fatuity of Emily Pool, who from her name must surely be from the British Isles.

The Life Site article can be seen at WATCH: History teacher says Incan child sacrifices were ‘voluntary’ and ‘kind’

My response would be to quote a longstanding friend who once opined over the breakfast table to a group of us that “The best thing any dago ever did was stamping out native South American religion”

And so, I hope, say all of us.

Cleaning St Thomas’s Church in Salisbury

The BBC News website recently had a report about a project to clean the carved and painted ceilings of the very handsome late medieval church of St Thomas in the centre of Salisbury.

The church is, of course, famous for its restored fifteenth century Doom Painting on the chancel arch, which is also illustrated in the online article. 

I hope the current programme of work in the Lady Chapel can, ais is hoped, be extended to the rest of the church and that more of its medieval colour and decoration can be revealed and appreciated.

The illustrated report from the BBC can be seen at Salisbury church clean unveils medieval craftmanship

St John Henry Newman to be declared a Doctor of the Church

The announcement yesterday from the Vatican that St John Henry Newman is to be declared a Doctor of the Church is very good news indeed.

St John Henry Newman by John Everett Millais, 1881

Image:sevenoaksordinariate.wordpress.com

It is all the more appropriate that just as St John Henry was made a Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII at the beginning of his pontificate, so now Pope Leo XIV at the commencement of his has authorised the saint’s status as the thirty eighth Doctor of the Church. 

As an Englishman Newman will join the very select, and very distinguished, company of St Bede the Venerable, the only other Doctor born in these islands. To this pair can be added an adoptive son in St Anselm.

For Oratorians and their congregations he is the first son of St Philip to be given this honour, and Newman exemplified the Oratorian vocation.

For Oxford University he is the first Doctor of the Churxh to have been educated there and to have been for many years a significant contributor to its life and purpose,

For both Trinity College and Oriel College it is an honour, and one that for the latter that happily falls in the seven hundredth anniversary year of its existence.

St John Henry Newman pray for us.

Discoveries from medieval Central Europe

There have been several recent online reports of significant archaeological finds from sites in central Europe.

The first is from the Slovakian city of Zvolen, which lies in the central part of the country. Wikipedia has an account of the city at Zvolen

The discovery of note there is a handsome episcopal ring which has been dated to circa 1300. At that time, and until 1918, it was part of Hungary. The ring was found at the site of the castle of Pustý hrad, for which Wikipedia has an illustrated account at Pustý hrad

The ring is described by LiveScience at Medieval gold ring found in castle in Slovakia has rare purple sapphire imported from Sri Lanka

allthatsinteresting.com also reports on the discovery at 700-Year-Old Gold Ring Discovered In The Ruins Of A Slovakian Castle Found To Feature A Sapphire From Sri Lanka

To the north in Silesia an amethyst in a gold setting was found in an excavation at the site of a castle. This was slightly later in date but equally  striking. 

LiveScience reports on the find.and includes a useful and detailed link to a history of the castle. This can all be found at 600-year-old amethyst 'worthy of a duke' found in medieval castle moat in Poland

There is another, similar article about the brooch, but with a set of detailed drawings, on the Greek Reporter website at Amethyst of Incalculable Worth Discovered in a Castle in Poland

Further north in Gdansk/Danzig archaeologists have uncovered the carved tomb cover and grave of a knight from the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth century. The city passed from the control of the Dukes of Pomerania to that of the Teutonic Knights in 1308, so the clearly important occupant of the grave could have been associated with either.

Medievalists.net has an account of the discovery at Medieval Knight’s Grave Discovered in Poland

The discovery has received considerable publicity. There are other accounts online from Men’s Journal, with more pictures, at Archaeologists Discover Rare Skeleton of Medieval Knight Under Old Ice Cream Parlor and from archaeologymag com which has even better images of the monumental slab, at Rare medieval knight tombstone discovered in heart of Gdańsk

The article about the grave  in the Indian Defence Review concentrates too much, in my view, on the man’s height, as there is plenty of evidence that many mediaeval people were similar in height to their modern descendants, even allowing for the twentieth century spurt in height. The article can be seen at Archaeologists Discover Giant Medieval Knight in Gdańsk, Challenging Our View of the Past

Notes from Poland also report on the discovery at "Medieval knight" found buried in Polish city as does CBS at Skeleton of medieval knight found under former ice cream parlor

These discoveries all illustrate the life of elite figures in areas most English speaking people are largely unaware of in the period. Hopefully as such discoveries as they are publicised they will make people more aware of the rich and complex history of the region.

Tonsure scissors

The Liturgical Arts Journal has a short but informative article from J.P.Sonnen about liturgical scissors used for conferring the first tonsure. As I understand it in more recent centuries this was somewhat attenuated to snipping small lock or piece of hair from the head of the candidate. Chateaubriand describes receiving the ‘first tonsure’ in a such a manner in his Memoirs.

Sonnen’s article can be seen at Tonsure Scissors for Liturgical Rites

As I understand it the tonsure originated as an adaptation of the Roman custom of shaving the heads of male slaves to indicate their status, and monastics adopted it as a symbol of their subjugation to Christ, with, in the best known form, the remaining ring of hair as a reminder of the Crown of Thorns. The practice was then taken up by the secular clergy.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia has a short account of the tonsure, including an explanation of its disappearance in the English speaking world at Tonsure

An illustrated article in Ancient Origins takes the story down to its official abolition in 1972 and can be seen here

The full tonsure largely disappeared in the Tridentine era for most clergy, secular or religious. As we know from the Venerable Bede different styles of tonsure were seen as distinctive marks of confessional orthodoxy by Roman and Irish clergy in the seventh century.

In the high and later middle ages the more austere Orders, such as the Carthusians retained the idea of the shaven head. Fra’ Angelico in the mid-fifteenth century depicts his fellow Dominicans with just a circle of hair surrounding a shaven pate. 

Melozzo da Forli and Pintoricchio depict Pope Sixtus IV and his Curia and Pope Alexander VI respectively with large tonsures but with their hair falling forward similar to contemporary lay styles

Small tonsure of The secular clergy in later medieval England are depicted on brasses and effigies with a much smaller tonsure. This can also be seen in the symbol used in early printed Missals for guides to ordering processions. In these a cleric is depicted by a circle of hair around a small tonsure in what is intended as a bird’s eye view.

I recall reading many years ago in a book about St Paul’s Cathedral that in the treasury one of the cathedrals in Belgium is a metal circle designed to be a guide when shaving the tonsure on a cleric’s head that is believed to have originally been at St Paul’s.

In the age of clerical wigs it was the custom in Catholic countries to create a small tonsure with seed pearls on the top of such wigs.

My friends the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem wear a tonsure very much in the tradition of Fra’ Angelico and I also knew an Anglo-Catholic cleric who wore a very small one, like a late medieval English secular priest.

I decided some years ago that my thinning crown was my “Grow Your Own Tonsure Kit”…..

Expanding our knowledge of early Anglo-Saxon Essex

The BBC News website has a report about the discovery of a significant gold pendant, made in imitation of a Byzantine coin of the Emperor Justin II. Dated to the later sixth century and believed to have been made on the continent in imitation of the Byzantine court the pendant was found near Thaxted and adds further to knowledge about Essex in this early Anglo-Saxon period. It has been declared to be Treasure Trove and the museum in Saffron Walden hopes to acquire it.

Together with the grave of the Prittlewell Prince  on the other side of the county and other finds such as a fine ring from Epping Forest, which are referenced in the article, they all contributes to an understanding of the material wealth of the elite of the realm of the East Saxons.

The article can be seen at Thaxted gold pendant find sheds light on county's history