Mystery object is a handbell.

 Early in the examination of the Staffordshire hoard, three items^[1] were connected to give a single object initially described as a mystery which then elicited fanciful suggestions for its purpose.^[2] A top button, 27 mm wide, has a black and white squared millefiori glass pattern in the shape of a Greek cross.^[3] A Greek cross is one of the most common Christian symbols, in common use by the fourth century, and should have invalidated all the secular and Jewish suggestions for the object’s function. The button had holes which matched the top of a cylinder, 18 mm long. The bottom of the cylinder connected to a base plate 60 mm long, that was circular, domed and compressed. When combined it was less than 200 mm long. The base plate has holes all around the edge suggesting rivets connected the entire handle to the cup of a bronze or iron bell.^[4]  

Reconstructed hand bell with a large incised plate identical to a panel on the gold cross. Several plates show a cloisonné arrangement resembling an early Celtic hand bell. A copy of St Patrick’s bell, c. seventh century, is shown below for comparison. 

There are few references to early hand bells, but presumably a bell would have been used to call people to prayer, baptism, assembly at a shrine or at the time of dying with a passing bell. Foot thought a bell summoned the devout to prayer^[5] and quoted a poem in which men hastened from outside to the summons of ringing.^[6] Columba ran to the church when called by a bell, but died soon afterwards.^[7] Bede described Nuns called to prayer with a bell at Whitby, AD 680, and again at the death of Abbess Hild.^[8] Chapter 43 of the Rule of Benedict, c. AD 530, starts with, ‘On hearing the signal for an hour of the divine office’ with the signal possibly being a bell. Chapter 47 mentioned a signal announcing the hours and this would also apply to the time of someone dying. Wilfrid of Ripon introduced Benedictine rule to many minsters^[9] and this could have included Lichfield. Stephen’s biography of Wilfred has an occasion when a bell was rung at Ripon to call all the community together to hear Bishop Wilfrid.^[10] This evidence for the existence and use of small bells is incomplete, but enough references show they were being used at different locations for diverse purposes.

The squashed dome has two incised plates with zoomorphisms. One plate is larger and a little more elaborate. It is identical to the small panel above the central garnet on the gold cross, apart from the rings being reversed. This implies the bell was sacred. The zoomorph consists of sinuous arms with two rings, whereas the small panel has only one ring; both end with three-digit hands. A separate panel (included in Catalogue number 541) only 17 mm long, has two zoomorphs ending in three-digit hands and biting each other. Having three similar panels in which two are almost identical to the gold cross panel is intriguing. The panels could mean the same as on the cross, namely, an Anglo-Saxon enigmata for the name of Christ entombed and therefore suggests a passing bell. Tatwine’s riddle 7, early eighth century, concerns a bell with the line, ‘I am forced as the stricken widely to release mournful things’.^[11]

Almost all of the known early bells belonged to Celtic Insular churches. There are several garnet arrangements on the squashed plate in the shape of a Celtic bell and this must be highly significant. All surviving bells^[12] tend to be larger with a metal loop for holding the bell.  A smaller bell with a straight handle fits a use for ringing on a life passing; a gentle tinkling sound being preferable to a loud gong. If ‘Patrick’s bell’^[13] was his own, then it would be plausible for Northumbrian bishops like Aiden, Cedd, Chad and Wilfrid to possess one. It would be their emblem of office; the priest being figuratively a bell calling to prayer ^[14] especially for a passing life.

[1] Catalogue No. 541 (K130, K545 and K1055). Other isolated pieces were also added to this collection.

[2] Suggestions included saddle fitting, shield boss, drinking horn stopper, parchment roll stopper, lid to a ciborium, helmet decoration, mirror handle, part of a sceptre and a tefillin. Part of a Jewish priest’s headdress is a frequently given purpose.

[3] The north side of the Bewcastle cross has a panel with a millefiori pattern. Is this an interchange of design from the metalworker to the stoneworker? Similarly, it is in the cross page of the Book of Durrow, fol.1v, so  has it been adopted by a scribe of manuscripts?

[4] R. Sharp, The hoard and its history, (Studley: 2016),73.

[5] S. Foot, Monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England c.600–900 (Cambridge, 2006), 192.

[6] ibid. 200 From De Abbatibus by Æthelwulf, c. AD 800–825, 20, 613–614.

[7] I. Bradley, Columb. Pilgrim and Penitent (Glasgow, 1996), 62.

[8] J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, (Oxford: 2008), 213.

[9] J. Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society,(oxford: 2005), 97.

[10] B. Colgrave, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, (Cambridge: 1927), 138.

[11] M. J. B. Allen and D. G. Calder, Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry. The Major Latin texts in translation (Cambridge, 1976), 56.

[12] 127 bells are known from c. 500 to 1100. Ireland has 95, Scotland 19, Wales 6 and England 2. Most have four sides, see C. Bourke, ‘Early ecclesiastical hand bells in Ireland and Britain’. J. of the Antique Metalwork Soc. 16 (2008), 22. Most hand bells have clappers, but some were intended to be struck with a hammer.

[13] In the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

[14] J. H. Arnold and C. Goodson, ‘Resounding Community: The history and meaning of medieval church bells Viator, (2012), 20.

Hoard Cross with writing

     A folded silver-gilt strip,^[1] 89.5 mm long, 179 mm unfolded, and 15.8 mm wide, weighing 80g,  is thought to have been the main stem of a cross having had its side arms removed. It might have been attached to a container for a sacred relic,^[2] or the cover or bind of a Gospel Book. It has a Latin biblical text incised on the outside, filled with niello[3] that blackens the writing, and is repeated again on the underside without niello and with compressed lettering. The text ended next to a figure of a serpent, or dragon’s head, with almond shaped eyes, mouth agape with curling jaws and a threefold tongue. This appears on both sides and strongly indicates the serpent shape would have been at the base of a cross. It is strikingly similar to the left column (Latin “I” letter for Iota) on the initial page of St John’s Gospel in the Lindisfarne Gospels^[4] and the same for St Mark’s Gospel in St Chad’s Gospels. At the other end is a setting for a rivet and a jewel.

 

Drawing of the cross stem in unfolded form with lettering. The translation follows the interpretation using  Psalm 67 v2 taken from the Roman version of the Psalter, based on Jerome’s initial revision of the Old Latin Bible.

     The text was either from the Latin Vulgate Bible and interpreted to be Numbers 10 v35, or the similar Vulgate Psalm 67 v2,^[5] though neither perfectly matches the inscription. The sense of the translation was taken to be “Rise up, O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face”.^[6] This was repeated on the back, but upside down in relation to the front. On this side the wording and spacing varies slightly, the letters are without wedges and some are small and the inscribing is light. Also, there are three extra words, or groups of letters, made indistinct with (deliberate?) scratches. The three possible words could be adiute nos ds,^[7] and this has been read as “help us God”. This is a conjectured translation and the letters might simply be practice and do not mean anything. It has been presumed the whole text on the underside was a practice,[8] it does not have niello and has grammatical and spelling mistakes. It is the frontside which was the finished statement for others to see and it is a message of angst. The cross was probably attached with three rivets to a backboard of some sort and thus the underside was not seen. It has been suggested the front of the strip was a protective invocation[9] intended to face the enemies of the Lord, in apotropaic fashion, and the back to turn its protection inwards to the bearer of the object to which it was attached.[10]

            It was soon realised the inscription could possibly suggest a date range for the writing on the strip and by association point to a general date for the hoard. Based on the biblical source, a possible 5th to early 6th-century dating was suggested.[11] Based on manuscript analogies, a range of mid-7th to early-8th century was proposed.[12] Comparison of styles of lettering in Insular half-uncial manuscripts led to a date range of 650–725.[13]  Based on epigraphy a suggested date as late as the 9th century was suggested.[14] One aspect which led to this dating was the spacing between words; it was argued the lack of spacing in inscribed texts in the 7th to 9th-centuries was suggestive for a late date for the strip. The large open serifs are unusual and only a few texts are known, five were cited from the 8th and 9th-centuries that are comparable. A re-examination of these suggested dates concluded a late 7th or early-8th century dating, but it was stressed it was problematical.[15] The problem arises from some lettering which is idiosyncratic and there are few exemplars to make comparison.[16]

 

Unfolded strip decoded. The letters DNE for Lord have a dot on each side to make it more distinct.

 

Unfolded strip with serifs highlighted.

 

            Taking one aspect and concluding a date is poor analysis, but it has to be kept in mind that an open topped letter ‘e’ appears eight times on each side of the strip. It is virtually absent from the text and marginalia in St Chad’s Gospels^[17].

The open ‘e’    

The open ‘e’ does not appear much in non-uncial manuscripts before the 9th century. Of ten manuscripts listed  as probably belonging to a Mercian scriptorium,[18] the author reckoned eight do not have the open ‘e’; two could not be ascertained.^[19] There is a similarity with Offa’s charter, 793–796, (BL Add Charter 19790)^[20] and Offa’s charter, 764, (Cotton MS Augustus ii 27). Two charters of Coenwulf, Cotton MS Augustus II 74 and Stowe Charter 12 appear to have slightly open ‘e’ letters. Almost all other Anglo-Saxon charters written in the 8th and 9th centuries have a closed ‘e'. The earliest surviving copy of the Rule of St Benedict, (M.S. Hatton 48 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), is a late 7th or early 8th-century manuscript and the Roman letterforms include an open ‘e’. An open topped ‘e’ could be an affectation, but its absence from manuscripts from early 7th century to the second quarter of the 8th century must have some traction.

            Drawing conclusions from idiosyncratic writing is difficult. The writer not only had a personal characteristic of the hand, but is writing with a stylus when they might have been used to a quill. There might be a loss of accuracy because it was done in a hurry. The writer might have been illiterate and was under full instruction from a scribe. Nevertheless, there are pointers to think the cross stem received a hurried message of angst and this dates from at least the mid-8th century onwards. It gives doubt to the current view of the hoard being buried in the late-7th century.

             The angst has been connected to the impending arrival of Danish Northmen in early 874 and the burial of the cross in the hoard was to keep valued objects out of the hands of pillaging non-Christian warriors. It could correspond with the removal of St Chad’s Gospels to Carmarthenshire.[21]

[1] Catalogue No. 540 (K550)

[2] D. Symons, The Staffordshire Hoard, (Birmingham: 2014), 35. It has also been suggested to be from a shrine, helmet, nose guard, shield or sword belt, see T. Klein, ‘The inscribed gold strip in the Staffordshire Hoard: The text and script of an early Anglo-Saxon biblical inscription’. H. Hamerow (ed.) Anglo-Saxon studies in archaeology and history. (Oxford: 2013), 62.

[3] A black mixture (sulphide) of usually sulphur, copper, silver and lead added as a paste to the inlay and then heated until it melts. When it was first used in England is contentious.

[4] Possibly the same Gospel in St Chads if it had survived.

[5] Klein (2013), 64, said three out of four Anglo-Saxon biblical inscriptions known were from the Old Testament and most were from the Psalms. There would still be a knowledge and use of Numbers.

[6] “exsurgat deus et dissipentur inimici eius et fugiant qui oderunt eum a facie eius”

[7] Brown’s interpretation, see note 8. Okasha read the inscription as “dei nostri or dme nostri” see note 12. Klein thought it was “diu e(t) nos(tris) See note 5.

[8] Practice letters are known from elsewhere on portable objects.

[9] Saint Guthlac used this invocation and this has led to the suggestion he buried the hoard. See J. J. Cohen, ‘Did Guthlac of Mercia bury the Staffordshire Hoard?. In the Middle. (2009).

[10] M. P. Brown, ‘The manuscript context for the inscription’. H. Geake (ed.) Papers from the Staffordshire Hoard symposium. (London: 2010) See https://finds.org.uk/staffshoardsymposium/papers/michellebrown

[11] D. Ganz, ‘The text of the inscription’. H. Geake (ed.) Papers from the Staffordshire Hoard. (London: 2010). See https://finds.org.uk/staffshoardsymposium/papers/davidganz

[12] Brown (2010).

[13] M. P. Brown, ‘ Mercian manuscripts: The implications of the Staffordshire Hoard, other recent discoveries, and the New Materiality’.  E. Kwakkel (ed.) Writing in Context: Insular manuscript culture 500--1200. (Leiden: 2013), 14.

[14] E. Okasha, ‘The Staffordshire Hoard inscription’. H. Geake (ed.) Papers from the Staffordshire Hoard symposium. (London: 2010). See https://finds.org.uk/staffshoardsymposium/papers/michellebrown

[15] Klein (2013), 71.

[16] The following was considered idiosyncratic: an open topped letter e, the Latin epsilon є both majuscule and minuscule, a letter U without the down stroke, and tail serifs on letters q and p.

[17] On pencil marked pages 2, 144, 230 and 240 it appears as a large epsilon E to start the word evangelize. This probably was written much later by someone referring to the text for a sermon.

[18] Brown (2013), 3.

[19] Salisbury Cathedral Library part-Bible MS117 fols. 163. 164 and the St Petersburg Gospels.

[20] 18 letters out of 21 on the strip appear to be similar with those in the Charter, including an open “e”.

[21] R, Sharp, The Hoard and its history. Staffordshire’ secrets revealed. (Studley: 2016).