English: A copper-alloy medieval bowl dating AD 1050-1300. The vessel is made from a sheet of metal hammered to an omphaloid shape. The rim is bent outwards and set at a right angle to the body of the bowl; it is moderately damaged on one side by modern disturbance due to deposition into the ground. The rim bears two repairs made in antiquity; the interventions interests two opposite portions of the rim. The smaller and better preserved consists of a rectangular strip of metal, which has been folded over the rim and moulded to the curvature of the body; it has been then secured by a lozenge-shaped head split rivet splayed on the outer face of the bowl. The second repair consists of a larger strip of metal moulded over the rim and secured by two similar split rivets. The latter repair has not survived well, probably because of the disturbance in the ground; in fact the strip is incomplete and the crack in the rim is open, affecting now part of the body below. The base was formed by raising a circular shallow ridge at the bottom of the bowl. The inner face of the bowl is decorated with a roughly engraved motif, depicting three large semi-oval petals or leaves, which are interested by further curvilinear engraved lines.

During the Medieval period, the so called "Hanseatic" bowls were widespread in the Baltic area and have been dated to the 11th-13th centuries (Janowski-Kurasinsk, 2003 and Tamla-Valk, 2017).

The Hanseatic bowls are a group of bronze vessels with Romanesque ornament primarily associated with ports in the Hanseatic league and with marine archaeological sites. They have been found in the cultural area that extends from the Baltic down to the Lower Rhine district and across to England. Because this area was once dominated by the Hanseatic League, the vessels are known as Hanseatic bowls, though the link is no longer considered correct but the name is retained for convenience. These bowls often had a flanged rim and an omphalos base created by raising a circular shallow ridge at the bottom of the bowl. The inner surface would have been left undecorated or engraved with several motifs including mythological and religious subjects, personifications of Virtues, animals, stars and stylized floral or geometric ornaments (Safran-Cohen, 2006).

In England they have been found in London, Leicester and a few other places ( Cottrill, 1947, p. 65). The centres of production appear to have been in the region of the Lower Rhine and the Meuse, famous in the early middle ages for engraved metalwok, although might have been more spread out. One bowl found in London is engraved with a simple design and may be a local imitation. It has been suggested that bowls of the fully developed type may have been made in England as well as abroad, but on the present evidence this remains unlikely.

A similar bowl at the British Museum belongs to this kind of vessels and it has been dated to the period c. AD 1120/130-1210. See the British Museum online catalogue no. 1915,1208.179.

According to Tamla-Valk (2017) and their study of similar vessels in Estonia, not a single bowl has been found in a grave, although several cemeteries from that time have been archaeologically investigated in their consideration area; they are found in hoards and in settlement sites with a number of 13 out of 20 cases studied in which the bowls were two or more. The simple unornamented bowls are mainly from the 11th and 12th centuries; the more elaborated with images of Virtues and Vices are dated to the 12th or early 13th centuries (ibid. pp. 99-100).

Examples of bowls found in graves in the area of Early-Piast in Poland has produced a number of vessels, which can be compared with our find. In the graves treated in the work of Janowski-Kurasinsk (2003) the so-called Hanseatic bowls are single find among a variable series of grave goods. The bowls have low and curved walls, a flanged rim and a circular base, which is hammered inwards in different ways. These bowls carry engraved decorations on the inner surface and in particular the bowl in fig. 5 is the closest in terms of decoration. Geometric and plant ornament are classified under Type V (Janowski-Kurasinsk,2003, p. 660) and dated to the 11th -13th century. Bowls of Type V are known from other European necropolis. They were found in Northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Gotland (ibid.).

According to Muller (Tamla-Valk, 2017, p. 93), the bowls were profane dishes for food or washing hands. They were artefacts of high symbolic value. In additional to practical and hygienic purposes, they also demonstrated the owner's status. The bowls can be linked to the behavioural codex, where a pragmatic striving for cleanliness is combined with symbolising rank, status and prestige. Their use for washing hands during or before festive meals, and maybe also before greeting or leaving, demonstrated the value system of their owners (ibid.). For the Viruma's (Estonian most eastern region) bowls has been suggested they were used in the Christianisation of the area, as tools for baptism, as miniature and portable 'baptismal fonts'. Also, the bowls have been interpreted as gifts from the King of Denmark to local noblemen, gifts for the loyalty expected of the new subjects: a sign to commemorate baptism and becoming subjects of the King of Denmark, during the period of the Danish crusade (ibid. pp.100-102).

Diameter: 200.00 mm; Height: 55.00 mm; Thickness: 1.8 mm; Weight: 232.07 g

Reference:

- Joass, J M, 1886, 'Notice of a hoard of bronze vessels found, in 1868, near Helmsdale, Sutherland', Proc Soc Antiq Scot Vol. 20 1885-6, p.214-18, 214-16; illust(Text/Publication/Article). SHG1242.

-Tamla T, Valk H, 2017, 'Gifts of the king. "Hanseatic" bronze bowls in Thirteenth century Estonia: sifns of Danish Crusades?', Archeologica Baltica, 24.

-Janowski A, Kurasinski T, 2003, 'The Graves with bronze bowls in the Area of Early-Piast Poland 10th/11th to 12th century.Issues of Slavic-Scandinavian contacts', Archaeologia Historica, vol. 28, pp. 653-675.

-Spearman, R M, 1991, 'The Helmsdale bowls, a re-assessment', Proc Soc Antiq Scot Vol. 120 1990, p.63-77; fiche 1: D1-10, 63-77; fiche 1: D1-10 (Text/Publication/Article). SHG1678.

-Kennett, D.1971: 'Late Roman bronze vessel hoards in Britain', Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentral Museums Minz 16,Jahrgang 1969, 123-48.

- Safran L, Cohen A, 2006, 'Learning from Romanesque Bronze Bowls', Word & Image, Vol. 22, Issue 3.

-Stoll, H.-J., 1996 'Die "Hansaschüssel" vom Burgwall Raddusch, Kr. Calau', Germania 72 (2), 509-29.

- Farley M, Henig M, Taylor J W, 1988, 'A Hoard of Late Roman Bronze Bowls and Mounts from the Misbourne Valley, near Amersham, Bucks.', Britannia XIX, pp. 357-366

- Cottrill F, 1947, 'A Medieval Bronze Bowl from Leicester', Leicestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 23, pp. 63-71.

- Brenan J, 1991, 'Hanging bowls and their contexts: an archaeological survey of their social-economic significance from the fifth to seventh AD', BAR 220.

See also

O. M. Dalton, 'On Two Medieval Bronze Bowls in the British Museum', Archaeologia, LXXII, 1922, pp. 133-60.

London Musuem Medieval Catalogue, 1967, p. 203, fig. 65.