MEDIEVAL AMPULLA

1275

A complete cast lead pilgrim's ampulla of late medieval date. There is a scallop shell decoration on one side and an unclear monogram or insignia on the other.The neck is relatively long and flares outwards and upwards from the body towards the mouth. The body is roughly circular in plan and has a maximum width of 28.1mm. A pair of suspension loops project from the the ampulla's shoulders (where the neck joins the body). Both faces of the body are decorated in low relief. One face has radiating grooves/ridges forming a scallop design. The opposite face bears a floral motif consisting of radiating lens-shapes. There is a casting seam which extends the length of the periphery, excluding the mouth."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 1990: 57-58).