a talk by Dr Rob Webley given on 20th September 2025
Rob Webley started his talk by describing the MeRit project (2023-2026). The Medieval Ritual Landscape: Archaeology, Material Culture and Lived Religion project (MeRit), is investigating lived religion in the years from c.1000 to 1600 AD, using about 330,000 objects, sourced from Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) finds from England and Wales. A wide range of devotional objects, such as pilgrim badges and ampullae, re-used papal bullae and jewellery with sacred inscriptions, are being examined, with comparisons made to references in historical sources, and also to finds from excavation case studies.
The project is looking at everyday religion; what ordinary medieval men and women did, which is not always written about in historical texts. Objects of personal devotion, such as gold rings with Christian iconography, are an indication of Christian materiality; what people owned, and also of their belief that such objects had spiritual agency; the power to influence people or events.
We looked at a manuscript illustration of the tomb of Edward the Confessor, showing men crawling under it, and praying, seeking cures from their ailments by their proximity to the deceased Christian saint. Later, Rob would describe how the practice of the remains of Christian saints acquiring spiritual agency arose from the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket. We heard how monks gave water mixed with St. Thomas Becket’s blood to pilgrims, and miracles were attributed to this, leading to the tomb in Canterbury Cathedral becoming a famous pilgrimage site.
We looked at examples of Christian materiality; a purse bar inscribed ‘Ave Maria’, and a coin made into a pendant, and to which had been added five marks, thought to signify Christ’s wounds. These everyday items may have been believed to have acquired spiritual agency by having a religious inscription and symbols added to them.
Rob showed us a gold ring from our local Reading area, that was inscribed with an image of Saint Catharine of Alexandria; a virgin martyr who was believed to help women in childbirth. We looked at other iconographic and devotionally inscribed rings, some heavily worn, perhaps from being touched repeatedly as a gesture of devotion. A copper alloy ring in the shape of a buckled belt and inscribed ‘Mater Dei Memanto’ (‘Mother of God Remember Me’), may have been worn by a pregnant woman, who believed that the ‘girdle of the Virgin Mary’ would help with childbirth.
The MeRit project uses PAS finds to trace ritual behaviour in the medieval landscape. Rob described three processes of human-landscape interaction. The first involved looking at ritual movement across the landscape, in the form of a Christian festival called Rogationtide. This religious procession around parish boundaries, with priests blessing the crops, took whole communities into the fields, with personal devotional objects sometimes dropped in the process.
We looked at a table of finds of all badges, only religious badges and coin hoards from Norfolk and from North Yorkshire, both from the counties and from parish boundaries only. My understanding of the table was that Norfolk parish boundary finds of badges, religious badges and of coin hoards were statistically significant, i.e., likely to have been associated with people visiting the boundary. Whereas the statistical significance of the results from North Yorkshire and nationally were less clear. (Apologies if I have got that wrong – maths was never my forte!)
Rob told us how the whole parish was required to go on the annual Rogationtide procession, with punishment meted out to those who did not attend. Boys in particular had the boundary impressed upon their memories, sometimes by having their heads ‘bashed’ against boundary stones. Rob suggested that this could be why coin hoards are found on parish boundaries, as the boys, when grown to manhood, may have thought they had good knowledge of where to securely bury their hoards. Sadly for them, but luckily for archaeology, some hoards were not retrieved.
The second form of human-landscape interaction involved looking at ritual focus on a particular landscape feature, such as the re-use of prehistoric sacred sites by medieval people. We looked at Thornborough Henges, which are part of a 3500 to 2500 BC ritual landscape. At this site several medieval spindle whorls have been found. Spinning was done solely by women, and it is not known why so many lead spindle whorls were either lost or deliberately deposited in this openair location. Iconographic connections to the Virgin Mary include a whorl inscribed ‘Maria’. Seven whorls in the PAS database are modified papal bullae, possibly thought to have spiritual agency from their association with popes.
The third form of human-landscape interaction involved intentional deposits. We looked at a lead ampulla from Reading Abbey, which once contained water in which the relic hand of St. James had been dipped. Many similar ampullae have been found in rural contexts, with deliberately damaged ampullae found in arable fields. These appear to have been torn open, presumably to pour the liquid contents onto the field.
We looked at other objects that had been intentionally modified before being deposited, such as an ampulla pieced with and containing copper pins. Rob explained that clusters of modified objects are more significant than individual finds, which may simply have been lost. From historical sources it is known that people, on making a vow to a saint, would sometimes fold or otherwise modify a coin. Two rolled silver coins, and two folded silver coins, deposited at different sites in North Yorkshire appear to support the literature. We learned that 10% of PAS gold coins had been modified, sometimes in a way that may have given them spiritual agency. For example, a gold coin of Edward IV had been folded twice, creating a crucifix shape on the coin, when it was unfolded.
We looked at a map showing the distribution of 556 papal bullae found in England and Wales. These lead objects appear to have been extensively re-used as weights, spindle whorls, etc., not necessarily having any spiritual agency. They are also found folded, cut and otherwise modified. Some modifications are distinctly iconoclastic, with the bulla defaced by scratching, striking or piercing. Clusters of two or more modified papal bullae have been found, and may have been believed to have apotropaic and/or iconoclastic functions.
Rob’s talk was a fascinating look at how medieval people lived, what material objects they believed had spiritual agency; the power to protect themselves, their families and their fields, and how they modified these objects in ritual acts. In the landscape, medieval lived religion included communal ritual processions along parish boundaries, the re-use of ancient sacred sites, and the intentional deposit of modified objects for apotropaic and iconoclastic purposes.
Report by Joan Burrow-Newton