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Mythical Beast Unearthed in Medieval English Cesspit
Source: ancient-origins.net
Date: 8 March, 2020
A rare medieval tile depicting a mythical beast has been discovered within the treasures recovered from a 14th-century cesspit in England.
Since discovering the 14th century chalk-lined cesspit in London, England, at the end of 2019, archaeologists at the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) have said it had been transformed over time into a fashionable cellar with a latrine. And this ancient structure designed for human waste contained several “priceless artifacts” including a gold-plated ring, an iron spur for riding horses and a fork from the post-medieval period.
But standing above all the other finds in this ancient loo, the archaeological team uncovered a rare medieval tile depicting a mythical creature with a human head at one end and a leaf-like tail at the other, said Antonietta Lerz, a senior archaeologist at MOLA, speaking to Live Science.
[...]
The mythical creature features “a human head at one end and a leaf-like tail at the other,” which perfectly describes the manticore of Persian legend, where its name was “man-eater,” which was similar to the Egyptian sphinx that so heavily influenced western European medieval art with its “human head,” body of a lion and a tail of “venomous spines,” similar to porcupine quills or a scorpions tail end.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/cesspit-0013389
Source: ancient-origins.net
Date: 8 March, 2020
A rare medieval tile depicting a mythical beast has been discovered within the treasures recovered from a 14th-century cesspit in England.
Since discovering the 14th century chalk-lined cesspit in London, England, at the end of 2019, archaeologists at the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) have said it had been transformed over time into a fashionable cellar with a latrine. And this ancient structure designed for human waste contained several “priceless artifacts” including a gold-plated ring, an iron spur for riding horses and a fork from the post-medieval period.
But standing above all the other finds in this ancient loo, the archaeological team uncovered a rare medieval tile depicting a mythical creature with a human head at one end and a leaf-like tail at the other, said Antonietta Lerz, a senior archaeologist at MOLA, speaking to Live Science.
[...]
The mythical creature features “a human head at one end and a leaf-like tail at the other,” which perfectly describes the manticore of Persian legend, where its name was “man-eater,” which was similar to the Egyptian sphinx that so heavily influenced western European medieval art with its “human head,” body of a lion and a tail of “venomous spines,” similar to porcupine quills or a scorpions tail end.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/cesspit-0013389
