The British archaeological discovery of the year must be the Staffordshire Hoard (which perhaps should better be known as the Hammerwich Hoard), which is a hoard of more than 1,500 Anglo-Saxon gold and silver items (tentatively dated to the 7th or 8th centuries) that were discovered on 5th July by a metal detectorist in a field just south of Watling Street, within the parish of Hammerwich, near the Roman staging post of Letocetum (the modern village of Wall in Staffordshire), within the bounds of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.
The majority of items are martial in nature, including sword fittings, such as hilt collars, hilt plates and pommel caps, as well as scabbard bosses and helmet cheek pieces. There appear to be no items of feminine jewellery, and only two or three religious pieces, including a folded gold cross, which has led Professor Nicholas Brooks to conclude that the contents of the hoard originally belonged to the Mercian court armourer. Others have suggested that the hoard is loot from from a battle (the valuable parts of swords and other pieces of armoury stripped off for ease of transport), speculatively loot taken by King Penda of Mercia after his defeat of King Edwin of Northumbria at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633 ... and for some reason buried next to the main road about twelve miles from the Mercian capital of Tamworth.
A Sword Hilt Fitting from the Staffordshire Hoard (NLM 449)
There are many beautiful pieces, but from my perspective the hoard might have been very much more interesting if it had included some sword blades, as Anglo-Saxon sword blades sometimes had Runic inscriptions engraved on them, but the hoard seems to have mostly comprised a collection of sword fittings.
ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳᚷᚹᚻᚾᛁᛡᛇᛈᛉᛋᛏᛒᛖᛝᛞᛚᛗᛄᚪᚫᚣᛠ
ᛒᛠᚷᚾᚩᚦ
An Enigmatic Gold Strip
Although, to my disappointment, there are no items with Runic inscriptions on them in the Staffordshire Hoard, there is one solitary piece, a gold strip folded in half (about 180 × 16 mm in size if unfolded), that has a biblical inscription in Latin letters engraved on both sides of it :
Gold Strip with a Biblical Inscription (NLM 550)
The only object from the Staffordshire Hoard with an inscription
It is not immediately obvious what this gold strip was used for, but the pin or nail on the reverse of the empty jewel setting and the two holes (one in the middle and one at the other end from the jewel setting) indicate that it must have been attached to something else. It has been suggested that the gold strip might originally have been attached to a shield or to a sword belt, but Nicholas Brooks has advanced the theory that the gold strip is the arm of a cross: the jewel setting would have been at the terminal end, and the flat end would have been attached to the central, circular fitting of the cross. This is an interesting idea, but without seeing at least one other example of an Anglo-Saxon or Celtic cross with such a construction I do not find it wholy convincing. For one thing, if the end with the jewel setting is the terminal end of a cross-arm (perhaps the top arm, with the jewel at the top of the arm, as is the case with the folded gold cross), then what is the pin sticking out the back for?
The inscription on the outside of the fold (what I will call the front side) can be read quite easily.
Inscription on the Front of the Gold Strip
Click on pictures for a high resolution image
SURGE DNE DISEPENTU || R INIMICI TUI ET
FUGENT QUI ODERUN || T TE A FACIE TU<I>A
This text is a quotation from the Vulgate Bible, where it occurs in the Book of Numbers 10:35 as Surge Domine et dissipentur inimici tui et fugiant qui oderunt te a facie tua, translated in the King James Version as Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. There are a few minor differences between the text on the gold strip and the text in the Vulgate, of the sort commonly found in Medieval Latin texts :
- the scribal abbreviation Dne is used for Domine;
- the word et is omitted after Surge Domine;
- the word dissipentur is misspelled as disepentur;
- the word fugiant is misspelled as fugent;
- the u in the word tua looks like a conjoined ui, which may just be a badly formed letter u, but I think it is more likely to be an engraving error influenced by the word tui immediately above it.
Based only on photographs of the object, Professor Elisabeth Okasha also suggests that surge is misspelled sirge, and that the final r of disepentur is written as an f; however the surge is clearly spelled with a u in the above image (albeit a little obscured by dirt), and the final letter of disepentur is in my opinion an r (cf. the f in facie and the r in oderunt).
Book of Numbers 10:35 (Codex Gigas folio 16v)
Surge Domine et dissipentur inimici tui et fugiant qui oderunt te a facie tua
Although the inscription on the inside of the fold is hidden in most of the officially released pictures, and even the visible parts are partially obscured by dirt, most of the text can still be made out if you look carefully.
Inscription on the Back of the Gold Strip
Click on pictures for a high resolution image
SURGE DNE DI... || ... ET FUGIŪT QUI ODE
RUNT TE A FA ... ||
Except for the spelling fugiūt ( = fugiunt), which is a common alternative for fugiant in Medieval Latin, the inscription on the reverse (at least as much as can presently be seen) would seem to be exactly the same as the inscription on the front. Oddly the inscription on the back is upsidedown with respect to the inscription on the front, which would not make sense if both sides were to be viewed, for example if it were one of the horizontal arms of a cross. In fact, if you look at the high resolution images, you can see that the reverse of the gold strip is covered in (what appear to be accidental rather than malicious) scratches and several deep gouges that deface the inscription. As the reverse should have been protected from damage because it is on the inside of the fold, it seems unlikely that these scratches and gouges were made after the object was added to the hoard.
My hypothesis is that only one side of the gold strip would have been visible in its original setting, and that the damage to the inscription on the reverse was done when the gold strip was attached to (and later detached from) its original setting. There is a pin or nail sticking out of the strip under the jewel setting on the front side, as well as two holes (one in the middle, and one at the other end from the jewel setting), so it seems that the gold strip must have been attached to some object at these three points. This would discount the possibility that the gold strip was the arm of a processional cross or an altar cross, but would still allow for it to be the arm of a cross nailed into the structure of a church. But if the reverse side was not intended to be seen, why is there an inscription? Well, given that the inscription appears to be identical to that on the front, I think that the simplest explanation is that it represents a first essay that proved unsatisfactory. Dissatisfied with his initial attempt at engraving the text, the engraver would have simply turned the strip over and started anew (with the result that the reverse inscription is upsidedown relative to the front inscription). This hypothesis is supported by two features of the inscription on the reverse :
- The engraved letters on the front are filled with niello (a black composition of sulphur with silver, lead, or copper, for filling engraved designs on silver or other metals), but those on the back appear not to be, thus indicating that the reverse inscription is unfinished, and was not intended to be seen.
- The letterforms of the reverse inscription are basically the same as the Insular half-uncial letterforms on the front, but lack the ornate, open serifs that are seen on many of the letters on the front inscription, which suggests that the reverse inscription was a trial engraving that did not meet with satisfaction.
The text on the gold strip is a direct quote from Numbers 10:35, but it also appears in a slightly different form in Psalm 67:2 of the Vulgate : exsurgat Deus et dissipentur inimici eius et fugiant qui oderunt eum a facie eius, which is translated as Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him (King James Version Psalm 68:1), and is glossed (word for word, in Latin word order) in Old English as a-rise god ⁊ sien to-strogdne feond his ⁊ flen from on-siene his ða fiodun hine (Vespasian Psalter Psalm 67). Unfortunately, I do not have access to an image of the psalm in the Vespasian Psalter, but here is an image of the psalm in the 12th century St. Albans Psalter :
St. Alban's Psalter page 198 (Psalm 67)
The version of the text in Psalm 67 (Psalm 68 in the modern Bible) is much more widely known and used than the version in Numbers 10. In the Eastern Orthodox Church it is known as the "Prayer to the Precious Cross", and is often engraved on crosses, and according to Professor Okasha it was used in the liturgy for the consecration of churches (but I have found no evidence to support this assertion — the Catholic Encyclopedia states that the Seven Penitential Psalms [6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143] are recited during the consecration liturgy). The details of Anglo-Saxon and early Celtic liturgy are not well-known, but it is quite possible that in Anglo-Saxon times the text of Numbers 10:35 and/or Psalm 67:2 was used in liturgical contexts, and so would have been a suitable text to be engraved on a cross or maybe on a chest used for storing the cross and/or other church items.
On the other hand, the text is very warlike in nature, and could have been adopted as a motto by an Anglo-Saxon or Celtic warrior (because the text is in Latin rather than the vernacular, it is hard to say whether this particular piece was originally Anglo-Saxon or Celtic). In later centuries the opening words of Psalm 67:2 are often used as a motto, for example occuring on Scottish coins from the time of King James III (reigned 1460–1488) onwards, and below shown on the royal coat of arms of King James VI/I (with worse Latin than on the gold strip) :
Royal Coat of Arms at St. Mary's Church in West Bergholt
Exvrgat Devs Dissipenter Inimici
So it is equally plausible that the gold strip was used in a religious setting or in a martial setting, perhaps riveted to a shield as a motto or attached to a scabbard. Unfortunately, there do not seem to be any other examples of similar inscribed gold strips to help us decide its purpose.
Epigraphy of the Gold Strip
The letters of the inscription are in the Insular half-uncial (or Insular majuscule) script, which was used in Britain and Ireland during the 7th through 9th centuries. This script is transitional between the earlier Uncial and Half-uncial scripts and the later Insular minuscule (or Insular pointed) script, and this is reflected in some of the letterforms (n may be written as a half-uncial 'N' form or as an insular 'n' form; r is usually written as an uncial 'R' form, but may sometimes be written as a half-uncial or insular 'r' form; s is usually written as an uncial 'short s' form, but may sometimes be written as an insular 'tall s' (ſ) form; d may be written as a half-uncial 'd' form with a straight back or as an insular 'ꝺ' form with a bent back).
The Insular half-uncial script that is used on the gold strip is a script that we normally associate with 7th and 8th century Celtic and Anglo-Saxon religious manuscripts such as the Book of Kells (circa 800) and the Lindisfarne Gospels (circa 715-720).
Book of Kells folio 200r
A beautiful example of Insular half-uncial script
MS Sloane 1044 folio 2 (Fragment of John 21 from an 8th-century Gospel book)
Insular half-uncial script (showing a mixture of 'short s' and 'tall s' letterforms)
Cotton MS Tiberius C.II (Bede's History of the English Church and People) folio 5v
An early 9th century manuscript showing a higher proportion of Insular minuscule letterforms (such as 's', 'r' and 'e') than most 7th and 8th century manuscripts
The Book of Armagh (early 9th century) folio 32v : Symbol of John the Evangelist
aquila in Insular half-uncial script (showing the distinctive 'oc' form of the letter a)
However, this script is only rarely used on stone and metal inscriptions of the same period, and Professor Okasha notes only five epigraphic inscriptions with a similar style of script to the Staffordshire Hoard gold strip (the first three on stone, and the last two on lead plates) :
- Ardwall
- Dewsbury
- Yarm
- Flixborough II
- Kirkdale II
The Kirkdale Lead Plate with an Inscription in Old English
...[T]ER✝ || ... ✝BANC[E/YST]... || ...[Þ]ISBREFDER...
...ter, ban-cyst ..., þis brefde R... (reading by Elisabeth Okasha)
"... coffin (lit. bone chest), ... R. wrote this"
According to Professor Okasha, the closest epigraphic analogy with our gold strip is a lead plate from Flixborough that has the names of seven individuals inscribed on it, which was probably attached to a box containing the bones of these individuals, as must also have been the case with the Kirkdale lead plate. As both the Flixborough and Kirkdale lead plates would have been attached to an ecclesiastical 'bone-chest' containing the bones of monks and abbots, it can reasonably be assumed that the inscriptions on the plaques were engraved by monks who were accustomed to writing and copying manuscripts, and so used the same Insular half-uncial letters for the lead plate inscription as they did for manuscript writing. Of the stone inscriptions, at least the Trumbert Shaft from Yarm was also carved by a monk. Clearly the Staffordshire Hoard gold strip would not have been attached to a coffin, but these examples do suggest to me that it would have had an ecclesiastical origin, an impression that is strengthened when look more closely at the gold strip inscription.
The letterforms of the gold strip inscription are quite typical of surviving Insular half-uncial manuscripts of the late 7th through early 9th centuries, and although the letters are not so neat as those found in fine Gospel manuscripts, and lacking rule lines they tend to undulate somewhat, they are still very much comparable to the Insular half-uncial letters used in the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels. The only slightly untypical feature of the letters is the use of an 'open e' letter rather than the normal 'closed e' letterform, but this is not necessarily diagnostic as it may either hark back to the earlier uncial 'open e' letterform or look forward to the later insular 'open e' letterform. Other features of the inscription are the letter n which occurs in both 'N' and 'n' forms; the letter d which is always written with a straight back; the letter s which is written as a 'short s' except for in the partially obscured word surge where it overhangs the letter u and so must be a 'tall s' (ſ) letterform; and the word et which is written with the typical et ligature. The letters on the reverse inscription are quite similar to those on the front, although it uses the insular 'r' letterform rather than the uncial 'R' letterform found on the front inscription. It is difficult to precisely date the inscription based on these features, but it does not have the high propertion of insular minuscule letters that is found in 9th century manuscripts, so it seems most likely to date to the 7th or 8th century.
The most distinctive feature of the inscription (a feature that is not visible in the inscription on the reverse) is that many of the letters have open 'wedge serifs', as can be seen in the letters d, n, i, p, u, q and f :
Detail of Inscription with Wedge Serifs Coloured In
dne disepen[tur] ... qui oderu[nt] ...
Wedge serifs are a feature of the display scripts used in the highest quality manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels (look at the ascenders of the letters b, d, h and l, and the letter u) :
Lindisfarne Gospels folio 143 (Gospel of St. Luke)
Insular half-uncial display script with wedge serifs
Some of the letters on the Kirkdale lead plate shown above also have open wedge serifs (b, f and r), but they are smaller and less conspicuous than those on the gold strip (I have not been able to find an image of the Flixborough lead plate, but Okasha notes that the letters of the Flixborough inscription do not have the same 'open serifs' that our gold strip has). The open wedge serifs on the Kirkdale lead plate and the Staffordshire Hoard gold strip appear to deliberately mimic the wedge serifs in manuscript letters, but the gold strip inscription exaggerates the serifs so that they are far more prominent than the wedge serifs seen in manuscripts. The reason for this could be that they copy a manuscript model that had enlarged open serifs that were coloured in for use as decorative display letters, similar to the coloured-in letters seen on the incipit pages of Gospel manuscripts (see Lindisfarne Gospels folio 211 below). However, I cannot find any manuscript examples that show coloured-in wedge serifs, so another possibility may be that they are an epigraphic innovation, and were intended to be inlaid with coloured enamel. Either way, the epigraphic style of the letters on the gold strip are based on and show an understanding of the manuscript tradition, and in my opinion would have been engraved by a monk at a monastic centre.
The other distinctive feature of the inscription is the strange design at the end of the strip (which is also present on the reverse side of the strip) :
Design at the End of the Gold Strip
At first sight this design appears quite mystifying, but in fact we can see the same basic design in the ornate incipit pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels :
Lindisfarne Gospels folio 211 (Incipit of the Gospel of St. John)
Cf. also folio 95 (Incipit of the Gospel of St. Mark) and the more sinuous, snake-like examples of the motif in folio 95 (Incipit of the Gospel of St. Mark).
Although the design on the Staffordshire Hoard gold strip is very much simpler and cruder than that seen in the Lindisfarne Gospels, it shares the same stylized design of what I see as a dragon's head, with two horns, a pair of large eyes, and a forked tongue (the twirls protruding to each side of the mouth may perhaps represent smoke emanating from the nostrils) :
Comparison of Designs
The rectagular shape of the gold strip can itself be seen as a reflection of the column-shaped body of the stylized dragon-creature in the Lindisfarne Gospels, and to my mind is evidence that the engraver of the gold strip was deliberately reworking in metal the designs used in manuscript illustration. Taken with the manuscript forms of the letters engraved on the gold strip, I think this is strongly suggestive that the gold strip was engraved by a monk who used manuscript text and illustration as his models.
In the 8th century Hereford Gospels we see similar column-bodied creatures, but with lifelike representations of a dog-like head at one end and a lizard-like head with a pair of clawed feet at the other end：
Hereford Gospels (Incipit of the Gospel of St. John)
In the incipit page of the Gospel of St. Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels we see much more sinuous, snake-like creatures, with a head and a tail rather a double-headed body, but with the same red eyes and forked tongue. In contrast, on the corresponding page in the Book of Kells (written about a hundred years later than the Lindisfarne Gospels) the zoomorphic designs have been tranformed into purely geometric shapes, with none of the animal features seen in the Lindisfarne Gospels (four lifeless circles now take the place of the fiery eyes). The same abstraction of the original zoomorphic designs on the incipit to the Gospel of St. John shown above can also be seen in the corresponding page of the Book of Kells.
Comparison of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells (Incipit of the Gospel of St. Matthew)
We can perhaps see an evolution in the design over time, from a lifelike animal head (as seen in the 8th century Hereford Gospels) to a stylized animal head (as seen in the early 8th century Lindisfarne Gospels) to a purely geometric design (as seen in the late 8th century or early 9th century Book of Kells). This would tentatively suggest that the Staffordshire Hoard gold strip was based on an 8th century manuscript model.
In conclusion, the Insular half-uncial letterforms with open wedge serifs and the dragon-head motif on the Staffordshire Hoard gold strip appear to be based on the models of illustrated Gospel manuscripts such as the early 8th century Lindisfarne Gospels, and so was probably produced by monks in a monastic house, and intended for use in an ecclesiastical context, and not as a decorative part of a piece of weaponry (for example attached to a shield or sword belt). I therefore suggest that the gold strip would originally have been attached to the architecture, furniture or furnishings of a church or monastery, in which case its presence in the Staffordshire Hoard can only be explained as being due to it having been looted or given as payment of taxes. As the gold strip and the gold crosses in the hoard are unceremoniously folded up, it seems to me that the former possibility is more likely.
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