The Sacred Tree motive on a Roman bronze from Essex

A. B. Tonnochy; C. F. C. Hawkes

doi:10.1017/S000358150003359X

The Sacred Tree motive on a Roman bronze from Essex

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012

A. B. Tonnochy and

C. F. C. Hawkes

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The rarity of any traces of Christianity among the Roman remains of this country has often been the subject of comment.

The little church at Silchester and its probable analogue at Caerwent make a poor show beside the more than twenty known pagan temples, and setting aside certain recognizably Christian tombstones, no other relics are hitherto known save some examples of the Chi-Rho monogram. The object here published is therefore anyhow worthy of remark, and the more so since its decoration exhibits a symbolism of long history and peculiar interest, namely, that of the Sacred Tree.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 1931 , pp. 123 - 128

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S000358150003359X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1931

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References

^{page 123 note 1} Collingwood, Archaeology of Roman Britain, p. 176.

^{page 124 note 1} Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. ii (1846), pp. 281, 339Google Scholar; Gent. Mag., 1847, i, p. 185; Essex Review, 1894, iii, p. 145; R.C.H.M. Essex, iii, p. 193 (cf. p. xxvii, and ii, p. 68).

^{page 124 note 2} Trans. Essex Arch. Soc, old ser., i (1858), p. 198Google Scholar.

^{page 124 note 3} Proc. Soc. Ant. v, p. 30.

^{page 124 note 4} R. C. H. M. Essex, iii, p. 140.

^{page 124 note 5} Ibid.

^{page 124 note 6} ‘Without much doubt … Kelvedon’: Codrington, Roman Roads in Britain (1919), p. 178. A parallel case is the closely inhabited Ospringe area on the Watling Street in Kent, which must have centred upon the Itinerary station DUROLEVUM.

^{page 124 note 7} Iter ix: 8 Roman miles from Colchester and 12 from Chelmsford (CAESAROMAGUS). For the theory of a junction of roads here, see Trans. Essex Arch. Soc., new ser. xvii (1925–1926), pp. 228, 241Google Scholar.

^{page 125 note 1} Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England, iv, pp. 56 ff.

^{page 125 note 2} V.C.H. Essex, i, p. 326.

^{page 125 note 3} Baldwin Brown, op. cit., pp. 599–600, 445 ff.

^{page 125 note 4} V.C.H. Essex, i, p. 327.

^{page 125 note 5} Baldwin Brown, op. cit., pl. LXXXVII, from the King's Field, Faversham (British Museum).

^{page 127 note 1} Wilpert, J., Roma Sotteranea, ii, pls. XXXI, L, CL, CCXI. Rome 1903Google Scholar.

^{page 127 note 2} Guide to Early Christian Antiquities, 2nd ed., 1921, fig. 49.

^{page 127 note 3} Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities (1901), no. 38.

^{page 127 note 4} Wulff, O., Altchristliche Bildwerke, no. 24. Berlin 1909.Google Scholar

^{page 127 note 5} A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, i, fig. 209.

^{page 127 note 6} Dalton, O. M., Byzantine Art and Archaeology, p. 699. Oxford 1911.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 127 note 7} Catalogue of Finger Rings, Early Christian … and Later, no. 179.

^{page 127 note 8} Guide to Anglo-Saxon Antiquities, fig. 108.

^{page 127 note 9} Proc. Soc. Ant. xxxii, pp. 56 ff.

^{page 127 note 10} Pagan monuments show confronted monsters with a vase between. The tomb of a Christian, Flavius Memorius, of the fourth century, which may previously have been used for a pagan burial has this subject (Le Blant, E., Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, no. 511, Paris 1856Google Scholar; illustrated in Lalauzière, Noble, Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire d'Arles, pl. XXII, Arles 1808)Google Scholar. In the museum at Charenton-sur-Cher a marble sarcophagus of the seventh century in the Merovingian style has on one side two gryphons, each touching with a fore-paw the gadrooned body of a two-handled vase, from which springs a conventional bifurcating jet of water (Blant, Le, Sarcophages chrétiens de la Gaule, p. 55, Paris 1886.Google Scholar

^{page 128 note 1} For the pine-cone surmounting the fountain of life see Proc. Soc. Ant. xxxii, pp. 60 ff.

^{page 128 note 2} Baldwin Brown, op. cit. pl. CLII, with p. 588.

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