Sometimes I feel a bit over the top thinking about this missing story so much. And then something comes along that reminds me that so many stories have yet to be told! We’ve not even begun to hear the stories of women’s experience in the past (and present day).
In April of this year an archeology team from the Museum of London Archeology excavated the remains of a burial around 630-670 AD in Northhamptonshire. Although there were only fragments of tooth enamel left, they believe it is the grave of a woman because of the things she was buried with. The grave contained an incredible necklace which was the most ornate ever found. It’s centrepiece a large jewelled cross pendant.
She was also buried with a large ornate cross, face down. At the end of the cross there were silver faces with blue glass eyes. When I look at the X-ray of the image I can’t help but think of our Ballachulish carving with their white quartz eyes.
An article about the find in The Guardian said:
“The woman – and it is a woman, even though only the crowns of her teeth remain – was almost certainly an early Christian leader of significant personal wealth, both an abbess and a princess, perhaps. Lyn Blackmore, Museum of London archeology team specialist, said: “Women have been found buried alongside swords, but men have never been found buried alongside necklaces.” Experts agree she must have been one of the first women in Britain ever to reach a high position in the church.” Read the whole article here.
There were women in high positions in the Church. Of course there were. It’s not until 664 and the Synod of Whitby that the Celtic Christian Church is really absorbed into the (much further along with their erasure of the feminine) Roman version. That’s a short 100 years after Columba (and our Erna) arrive to their great works of conversion. The old ways of the people of the islands were mostly were erased and absorbed, but it took time to do that. It took determination and time to erase the inconvenient narratives and roles of women in the church beyond handmaiden, nun. And that’s why I find this time so fascinating.
This year they have found evidence of this woman, but we don’t know her story. I’m spending my time imaging the story for one we only know by the shadows cast on history by the landscape she inhabited.
Susie
Did you know you can gift subscriptions to Saints and Stones? It can even start on the date you choose.