Christian amulet?

Jim McDougall · 13th September 2007, 01:52 AM

I'm not sure that this interesting item would be considered a weapon, despite the fact that animal horns, teeth etc. are often employed in certain weapon forms.
The center piece seems like a shashka ring mount from a scabbard. The boars teeth are joined in the center piece to form a crescent. This would probably suggest the moon, and there does seem to be some association between the moon and the Virgin Mary in some Christian symbolism, but exact meaning seems somewhat elusive. There are symbols with her standing on a moon sickle upright, but the purpose of the dangling crucifix within an inverted crescent in this case seems puzzling.

As far as the boar itself, medieval Christian art with Germanic speaking peoples considered the wild boar a Christ symbol ( probably because of erroneous derivation of 'eber' the German name for wild boar, and the Hebrew
'ibri' the ancestor of the Hebrews. (ref: The Herder Symbol Dictionary" 1986, p.190).

I'd like to know if there might be certain provenance or information about where this was found.
Best regards,
Jim

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13th September 2007, 01:52 AM	#3
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,295	I'm not sure that this interesting item would be considered a weapon, despite the fact that animal horns, teeth etc. are often employed in certain weapon forms. The center piece seems like a shashka ring mount from a scabbard. The boars teeth are joined in the center piece to form a crescent. This would probably suggest the moon, and there does seem to be some association between the moon and the Virgin Mary in some Christian symbolism, but exact meaning seems somewhat elusive. There are symbols with her standing on a moon sickle upright, but the purpose of the dangling crucifix within an inverted crescent in this case seems puzzling. As far as the boar itself, medieval Christian art with Germanic speaking peoples considered the wild boar a Christ symbol ( probably because of erroneous derivation of 'eber' the German name for wild boar, and the Hebrew 'ibri' the ancestor of the Hebrews. (ref: The Herder Symbol Dictionary" 1986, p.190). I'd like to know if there might be certain provenance or information about where this was found. Best regards, Jim