Hoard Cross with writing

    Abstract. An incised silver-gilt strip in the Staffordshire (Lichfield) Hoard has a Christian message of angst. The angst can be 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 link with the removal of St Chad’s Gospels to Carmarthenshire. It questions the date for the burial of the hoard in the 7th century.

     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).