Landelinus buckle
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 Photograph of the Landelinus buckle with a close-up of the head of the horseman via Friedrich (2023). |
The Landelinus buckle or Ladoix-Serrigny buckle is a 7th-century Merovingian belt buckle uncovered in Ladoix-Serrigny, France. The belt buckle is a notable example of early Christian iconography in Merovingian Burgundy, conjectured to depict an apocalyptic Christ on horseback. The buckle bears a Latin inscription identifying its creator as Landelinus, conjecturally identified by one scholar with Saint Landelin.
Discovery
[edit]In spring of 1971, during construction work in a Burgundian vineyard at Ladoix-Serrigny, the vineyard's owner, Christian Perrin, uncovered an ancient graveyard, in use at least since the 4th century AD, with burials stretching from the Late Roman Empire to the Merovingian period. The Landelinus buckle was found in one destroyed Merovingian grave. In this grave was also found leather remains, a knife, and a scramasax.[1]: 150 [2]: 339
The graveyard has not yet been thoroughly investigated and the grave-finds surrounding the buckle have been lost.[1]: 150–151 Though the buckle has been discussed in print continuously since 1971, archaeologists were not able to study it in detail until 1996–97, when Henri Gaillard de Sémainville, then Director of Historical Antiquities for Burgundy, obtained permission from Perrin.[2]: 339 [3] The vineyard owners were still in possession of the buckle as of 2019.[1]: 151
Description and interpretation
[edit]
The belt buckle is made of bronze and the incisings are shallow.[4]: 53–54 According to Bailey K. Young, among Germanic peoples belt buckles often served as "sites of prominent personal display",[2]: 344 and in this case "a fashion for consciously Christian imagery."[2]: 346 This particular buckle belongs to the family of Burgundian plate-buckles classified by Max Martin as "type D": such buckles are cast in bronze with decorated plates, are often found as part of elite Burgundian burials, and are generally dated between the later 6th century and to the 7th.[2]: 346 [5] The Landelinus buckle has been dated to the 7th century on this basis.[3] Several other type D buckles with Christian imagery have been found in the region, many with depictions of the biblical figure Daniel.[2]: 346–348 [6] The Burgundian who wore this belt buckle also wore a scramasax, so we can conclude the owner was an elite male.[2]: 351 Its creator was clearly educated: he knew Latin and perhaps even scripture;[3] this contrasts with the engraving, which has been described as "childish"[a] and "simplistically rendered".[4]: 53
On the buckle, a bearded horseman with rays emanating from his head (perhaps hair or a halo) sits atop his horse. Arms raised and elbows bent, the horseman brandishes a spear (or lance) in his left hand and an axe in his right. The horse is elongated and with a small, fanged mouth, rendered in such a way as has been described as "serpentine".[7] The horse's erect penis is on prominent display. To the left of the rider is small, long, four-legged creature (perhaps a dragon or bird).[4]: 53–54 [2]: 339 To the right of the rider and above the horse's head is a chi-rho, flanked by an alpha and an omega. Below the horse's mouth is a greek cross. The tongue of the belt buckle displays a simpler chi-rho (an X with a horizontal line through it).[2]: 339
Below the figures a Latin text is inscribed:
| Latin | English (after Michael Friedrich)[4] |
|---|---|
LANDELINVS FICIT |
Landelinus made this |
The Latin word numen is difficult to interpret; here it is translated as "deity", but it can otherwise mean "divine will" or "divine presence".[4]: 54 Gaillard de Sémainville notes that numen was often used by Christians to designate Christ. He translates the phrase as "Landelinus has made (a representation of) the Divinity".[3][c] However, Gaillard de Sémainville admits, numen can also be meant to "designate the object itself, an artefact provided with divine, indeed magic, powers".[2]: 352 For example, Rainer Warland has argued that given the use of ficit (fecit, literally, "made"), Christ is unlikely, and numen should be read to mean "divine guardian spirit".[4]: 54 Another thing to note is the implicit millenarism (that is, belief that the end of times would come in 1000 AD) of the inscription. Such a view had been unfashionable in the Western Church since St. Augustine criticised it.[2]: 352–354
Cécile Treffort and Henri Gaillard de Sémainville both read these figures as representing Christ of the Apocalypse on horseback. The figure is Christ upon the white horse, the rays from his head represent a halo. To his right are symbols of God and salvation, and to his left is the Beast.[3][2]: 351 Gaillard de Sémainville, however, has gone further to insist that the creator of the buckle "drew with great originality on various scriptural as well as iconographic traditions in rendering sometimes surprising details", drawing analogies between particular verses of the Book of Revelation and artistic choices in the buckle.[2]: 351–352 Michael Friedrich finds the identification of the figure with Christ "not as clear", citing as evidence Rainer Warland's interpretation of numen. Friedrich reads the "halo" as merely an attempt at rendering hair.[4]: 54 The buckle also exhibits some pagan syncretism. The erect penis and fangs of the horse are described by Young as religiously ambiguous "symbol[s] of vitality and power".[2]: 352 Gaillard de Sémainville has drawn explicit analogy between the figures such sources as the ithyphallic figure (supposed to be Christ) in the pagan-Christian Grésin plaque.[2]: 352
Another remarkable fact about the buckle is that it mentions its author's name, "Landelinus". This is very uncommon among Merovingian belt buckles.[3] Italian scholar Paolo Serra suggested that perhaps this Landelinus was identifiable with the ill-recorded 7th-century Frankish Saint Landelin. Landelinus has prefaced his name with a cross (suggesting he was a member of the clergy) and Gaillard de Sémainville's profile of the author (learned in Latin and scripture, unlearned in art) fits the saint quite well. However, such an identification raises questions, such as why a member of the Western Church was proffering millenarist beliefs.[3][2]: 352–354
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Weber, Axel Gerd (2019). Heidnische Kontinuitäten im frühen Christentum Galliens: Archäologische Zeugnisse in Spätantike und Frühmittelalter (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Cologne.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Young, Bailey K. (2009). "The Imagery of Personal Objects: Hints of 'Do-It-Yourself' Christian Culture in Merovingian Gaul". In Cain, Andrew; Lenski, Noel (eds.). The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity. Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 339–54.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Gaillard de Sémainville, Henri (2019). "Landelinus, l'auteur de la plaque-boucle mérovingienne au Christ de l'Apocalypse découverte à Ladoix-Serrigny (Côte-d'Or) serait-il saint Landelin?". Revue archéologique de l'Est. 68 (191): 349–354.
- ^ a b c d e f g Friedrich, Matthias (2023). "The Enduring Power of Images". Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West. Cambridge University Press. pp. 37–104. ISBN 9781009207768.
- ^ Martin, Max (1971). "Bemerkungen zu den frühmittelalterlichen Gürtelbeschlägen der Westschweiz". Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte. 28: 29–57.
- ^ "Plaques-boucles à motifs chrétiens". Musée Archéologie Nationale. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
- ^ Young, Bailey K. (2018). "Landelinus buckle". Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
Further reading
[edit]- Deyts, S., Rolley, C. "Une plaque-boucle mérovingienne inscrite" Revue archéologique de l’Est 22, 3-4 (1971): 403-407.
- Gaillard de Sémainville, H. "Nouvel examen de la plaque-boucle mérovingienne de Landelinus découverte à Ladoix-Serrigny (Côte-d’Or): Apocalypse et millénarisme dans l’art mérovingien" Revue archéologique de l’Est 52 (2003): 297–327
- Giesler, U. "Landelinus ficit numen. Zur Interpretation der Stele von Niederdollendorf (2)" Bericht aus dem Rheinischen LandesMuseum Bonn 1 (2007): 1–13
- Perriaux L. "Une plaque de ceinturon mérovingienne historiée (Ladoix-Serrigny 1971)". Mémoires de la Société d’Archéologie de Beaune, 56 (1972): 103-109.
- Treffort, C. "Vertus prophylactiques et sens eschatologique d’un dépôt funéraire du Haut Moyen Âge: Les plaques boucles rectangulaires burgondes à inscription" Archéologie médiévale 32 (2002): 31–53.
- Warland, R. "Byzanz und die Alemannia: Zu den frühbyzantinischen Vorlagen der Hüfinger Scheiben," Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 55 (2013): 132–139.