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Dear colleagues, this is the second Christmas season that has witnessed this discussion on the list! If you want to see what went on the first time around, check the messages posted in late December 1998, at our list's archive for that month: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A1=ind9812&L=medieval-religion There were several interesting messages posted by members, including Christopher Crockett, Graham Jones, Bonnie Blackburn and Jim Bugslag; here's what Jim had to say: - - - - - - - - - - - - - Two types of sculpture burial have so far been mentioned by other responders. One involves church sculptures which are no longer in use, such as the unfortunate heads from the west facade at Notre-Dame in Paris, or, as Christopher Crockett pointed out, the fragments of the Chartres jube. In the latter case, jubes were destroyed in huge numbers from the late 16th century onwards in order to accommodate post-Tridentine views on the visibility of the Mass, and it strikes me that, in a large number of cases, the parts were buried in consecrated ground. Lacking my library resources, as well, at present, I cannot cite a source for this, but F. Joubert's work on the Bourges jube might have something on this. The other type of burial mentioned is rather different: the burial of pagan sculpture in Christian churches seems rather to signal a sense of triumph over paganism; besides the English example cited, Guy Metraux has excavated a carefully smashed pagan "idol" buried at the west end of a church in Carthage, from the 4th or 5th century, I believe. In a different context, altogether, a Classical sculpture, seemingly a Venus figure, was discovered in Siena in the early 14th century and proudly set up in a prominent position in the city. Subsequently, however, things began to go badly for Siena in its conflicts with Florence, and popular sentiment apparently decided that the Classical sculpture was to blame. So, it was smashed, and the pieces surrepetitiously buried just over the border in Florentine territory, in order to pass along the bad luck to the enemy! . I don't know of any doctrinal authorities for any of this burying, but I hope some of this is of help. - - - - - - - - - - - - - Can anyone add to this, especially regarding doctrinal authorization for such burying? George Ferzoco