Today we take another look at this beautiful little find from last year’s dig, and find it’s not quite what we thought…
During the Saints and Secrets 2013 excavation, we found what we thought was a commemorative medal, dating to 1800-1900 AD. This year, our finds supervisor took another look, and with help and suggestions from finds experts on the internet, it seems that this is actually a papal bulla of Pope Clement VI dating between 1342 and 1352.
Papal bullae were formal seals of office used by the Papal Curia to stamp and authenticate documents. The papal bullae of Pope Clement VI depicts the faces of St Paul (on the left) and St Peter (on the right) with the text ‘SPASPE’ (an abbreviation for St Paul and St Peter) above them on one side, and the text “CLE//MENS// PP VI”. PP stands for “Pastor Pastorum’, or ‘shepherd of the shepherds’.
Typical example of a papal bulla of Pope Clement IV via Portable Antiquities scheme (finds.org.uk)
But there are some curious things about our papal bulla. First, it appears to have been deliberately cut in half, something that has been seen with many other bullae of this period – but why?
Secondly, the death of Pope Clement VI pre-dates the move of Leiston Abbey to its current location by 11 years – does this show evidence of the link between the original Minsmere site and the Abbey’s current location?
So, lots of unanswered questions developing from this find. If you’ve got any suggestions, or want to have a look at some of the other finds we need help interpreting, just head over to the Digital Dig Team Finds record to check them out.
