English: An incomplete cast lead alloy ampulla, dating to the Medieval period between AD 1175 – 1500 (length: 56mm; width: 31mm; thickness: 8mm; weight: 42.2g).

The artefact is sub-rectangular in plan with a rounded base but is narrow in side-section. The artefact becomes narrow in plan at the neck before slightly tapering outwards at the top where the opening to the hollow cavity would have been. Although it is now crushed together. Only one curved and integral lead alloy suspension/ attachment loop remains on one side of the neck, while there are only slight remains of the loop on the other side. These loops would have enabled the ampulla to be suspended around the pilgrim’s neck or belt. The artefact is only decorated on one side with a multiple-ridged scallop shell depicted (approximately twenty ridges) from the neck of the ampulla downwards. Overall, the artefact is in a slightly worn but fair condition.

In Brian Spencer’s publication [1998], ‘Medieval Finds from Excavations in London: 7: Pilgrim Souvenirs & Secular Badges’, page 41, he states that ‘the scallop was essentially the emblem of the apostle St. James the Greater. From at least the beginning of the 12th century it was also the souvenir worn by pilgrims to his shrine in Compostela in north-west Spain. From the 11th century, the scallop shell was the most widely known pilgrim sign and also the generic emblem of pilgrimage itself'.

Additionally, in his 1990 publication ‘Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum Medieval Catalogue Part 2: Pilgrim Souvenirs & Secular Badges’, pages 57-8, Brian Spencer describes ampullae as ‘flask-shaped, but with a narrow, flattish section. They were designed to contain a dose of the thaumaturgic water that was dispensed to pilgrims at many shrines and holy wells.’ He continues to state that they came ‘into use in the last quarter of the twelfth century’ and were ‘almost the only kind of pilgrim souvenir to be had during the thirteen century’.