Dear Graham (hopefully there are also others who might be interested!),
Yes, I do include the insular hanging bowls in my corpus. There is,
however, a difficulty in comparing those found in Britain and Ireland and
the Norwegian finds, in that the latter (finds contexts) are perhaps as much
as 200 years younger than the British ones. This has, for instance, led to
the Norwegian specimens not being included in some British studies of
hanging bowls and their possible use (I am thinking in particular of Jane
Brenan's study).
I do not actually suggest that the bowls came to Norway carrying Christian
connotations or were used in Christian or proto-Christian rituals (although
some people do). They may (probably will), however, have carried sacred
connotations, but I believe that they were brought to and used in Norway
primarily as symbols of 'pagan' beliefs associated with fertility,
regeneration etc.
On the other hand, I do sometimes find the distinction between pagan and
Christian a difficult one, for, surely, related beliefs could also be found
in the Christian faith? What are, for instance, the basic ideas behind the
use of sacred vessels in the Christian church?
Ingegerd H.
Dr. Ingegerd Holand
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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