'Pac-Man' markings create new mystery at former stronghold of Knights Templar
Mike Wade
In a scene worthy of the opening of Dan Brown’s next bestselling novel, workmen renovating a garden wall have stumbled on two mysteriously carved gravestones at the site of the former stronghold of the Knights Templar in Scotland.
The ancient stones were unearthed under a gateway leading from a ruined medieval church to the adjoining manse in the village of Temple, Midlothian. One, believed to be of 10th-century origin, is marked with a simple early Christian cross. The second appears to be from a later era and is decorated in a much more puzzling style.
Possibly carved for a knight, it features a braided cross, a sword and a shield, which is marked with strange shapes in the style of “Pac-Man”. Wary locals note that the markings bear a striking resemblance to the characters in the 1970s arcade game and fear that they may lead to UFO enthusiasts arriving in the village en masse.
The location of the stones lends the discovery a further piquancy. Seven miles (11 kilometres) away lies Rosslyn Chapel, the astonishingly ornate church made famous in Mr Brown’s thriller The Da Vinci Code. Legend has it that the Holy Grail is hidden in its secret vaults.
Local archaeologists are reluctant to stir these increasingly fantastical myths, but they are intrigued by the discovery of the stones. After the intervention of Midlothian Council and the government agency Historic Scotland the stones are being analysed by an archaeological consultancy which is expected to report in the new year.
David Connolly, who runs the British Archaeology Jobs and Resources website from nearby Haddington, said that although many of the symbols of the larger and later stones were easy to explain, the “Pac-Men” were more unusual. “It is hard to be certain what those symbols are,” he said. “It might be sheep shears, or they could be hawking bells, the kinds of things that might be attached to a falcon. They could even be a made-up piece of heraldry.”
The other carvings make seemingly obvious allusions to the status of the departed, but even these images could be misleading.
The symbol of a sword on a tombstone is often taken to represent a knight, but it is very difficult to distinguish a Templar from a knight of another order, or from someone else entirely. “It might just have been a wealthy local landowner with enough money to afford a decent burial,” Mr Connolly said.
The legends surrounding the Knights Templar do little to unravel these new mysteries of Midlothian.
Founded in France, but dispersed across Europe, the order’s charitable works made it rich. Its downfall came after the Templars refused to finance a crusade to the Holy Land proposed by Philip IV of France. He responded with a raft of trumped-up charges against the Templars, including heresy, sodomy and the kissing of goats, and on Friday, 13 October, 1307 most of the French order were jailed, tortured and killed and their property seized.
Though Philip’s actions were endorsed by the Vatican, on the other side of the English Channel the Templars were often spared jail or death. But even in Scotland, where the order had been based at Temple in the 13th century, property was forfeit. Their preceptory, complete with its cloisters, church, kitchens, outhouses and graveyard, passed to the Knights Hospitallers, which makes the identification of the tombstones even more difficult.
Seven hundred years later Temple is a potential goldmine for amateur and professional archaeologists. Crispin Phillips, 62, who has owned the 17th-century manse for more than 20 years, is well aware of the significance of the land that it stands on. Teams of archaeologists have already surveyed his garden and discovered three bodies hunched in lead coffins, similar to a find at nearby Soutra Aisle, a medieval hospital.
Mr Phillips said that he had been present when the tombstones were discovered this year.
“We found them under two steps, almost one on top of another. At first I thought that it was just a joke,” he said. “I feel like Indiana Jones in his dotage.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 893161.ece
