Archaeological Echinoderm Pt. 2! Sea Eggs and St. Boniface's Pennies!

(Ovum anguinum by Pliny)

So..whilst writing up the account earlier this week (go here to see pt. 1 about urchins in folklore), I hit a treasure trove of information on the role of fossil echinoderms in historical folklore! Here's a few more interesting bits about echinoid fossils from Northern Europe!

1. Sea or Snake Eggs. Many sea urchin fossils (these look somewhat like cidaroid urchin tests) were believed to have magical healing powers or other supernatural properties.

and one such story originates in Pliny's book Natural History as described in Oakley (1965):

According to an ancient Celtic tradition innumerable snakes twining together at mid-summer make a ball out of froth which they exude. It was called the ovum anguinum. If it could be stolen from the snakes it was an object of great magical power. It was said to be covered with a crust having excrescences like the suckers of a cuttle-fish. It possession ensured success in battle and disputes.

Further info on the whole snake angle can be found on this French website and the British Museum has a solid summary here.
From the accounts I could find these "sea eggs" aka "chalk eggs" or "snake eggs" could be used for a vareity of remedies including

1. "subduing acrid humours of the stomach"
2. sea-sickness remedies SO effective that some seamen would not travel WITHOUT having a "chalk egg" handy.
3. antiodes for poison

Apparently, the role of fossil sea urchins was not limited to Western cultures..Mortensen in his monograph also records this account:

It is of the greatest interest in this connection that some similar religious superstition with regard to fossil sea-urchins appears to exist in recnet days in India. Dr. Eigil Nielsen informs me that at a party in New Delhi a lady told him that in some places in India people place fossil sea-urchins on house-altars, adorn them with flowers, which must be put on fresh every day-otherwise some misfortune will happen. I have till now not succeeded in getting exact information about this matter.

2. The oh-so delicately named "Jewstone"
One kind of fossil sea urchin, Balanocidaris (from Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones) has very peculiar shaped spines. These were so-named because they were "commonly" obtained from Judea. (altho they were also called "petrified olives")

(images from the BMNH echinodea database).

Their shape was strongly suggestive that they would serve as treatment for bladder-related medical problems in accordance with "established magic principles"!!

3. Crinoids columnals aka St. Boniface's Pennies!
And of course, what kind of fossil record would we have without crinoid columnals? These were commonly used in the Bronze Age as beads.

In Germany, these were known as Bonifacius Pfennige or St. Boniface's pennies and were used as "fairy money" (whatever that happens to be). And in the North of England, they have been known since the 17th Century as St. Cuthbert's beads as indicated in this passage from Scott's Marmion (as recounted by Oakley, 1965).

But fain Saint Hilda's nuns would learn
If, on a rock by Lindisfarne,
Saint Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame
The sea-born beads that bear his name:
Such tales had Whitby's fishers told,

Part 1 of this topic can be found here

Archaeological Echinoderm! Fairy Loaves & Thunderstones!

Today's Echinoblog is inspired by the picture above. The original caption from Vol. 5 (1) of the Mortensen Monographs reads:

Skeleton of woman and child, surrounded by a wreath of sea-urchins, apparently Micrasters, found in a tumulus at Dunstable Downs, N. of London. From Worthington G. Smith. Man, the Primeval Savage, 1894.

So yes, what you are seeing is a ceremonial grave arrangement surrounded by fossil sea urchins!

Fossil sea urchins have played important roles in the early history of humans in various cultures...Today, let's look at a few of the better known ones..... (btw.. pt. 2 of this topic is here)

The sea urchin in question is Micraster, a fossil "irregular" sea urchin which occurs from the Upper Cretaceous to the Early Tertiary in Northern Europe and Africa.

(image from the BMNH Echinoidea database)

Fossil sea urchins and other echinoderms occur widely throughout Northern Europe and were apparently used quite frequently in several Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age human communities.

Fossil irregular sea urchins had several common names (for several different fossil taxa) and found their way into several ceremonial uses. Two are pretty well documented from Northern Europe.

1. "Thunderstones." Based on one account, it was believed that the "thunderstones" (i.e., Micraster and others...) had arrived in a thunderstorm and that it served as protection because 'where it had once struck it was not worth coming again'.

Extended notions of thunderstones believed that these followed ONLY after a "crashing thunderclap" and that the stone's landing created the noise!!

(Echinoblog Theoretical Reconstruction of "Thunderstone" hitting the Earth)

Others thought that thunderstones 'sweated' when it was certain that a storm was arriving.

Thunderstones were also made into axes and kept on pantry shelves because they "kept milk fresh and caused plenty of cream".

2. "Fairy Loaves". Differently shaped urchins had different names..

For example, some such as the oblong irregular urchin Echinocorys were called "Fairy Loaves"

probably due to their resemblance to loaves of bread..
A neat account of the role of these urchins as "Fairy Loaves" is presented by the BMNH. An excerpt from their essay on the subject:

The resemblance between these echinoids and round loaves inspired people in north-east Suffolk to place them as charms by the hearth in the hope that the baking bread would be influenced by the fossil's loaf-like shape. It is said that families who kept fairy loaves in their houses could ensure they would always have bread.

Failure of the weekly bread to be properly formed was attributed to witchcraft against which Fairy Loaves had protective powers. The powers given to these fossils underlines just how vital bread and breadmaking were to daily life and village economy in Suffolk during times gone past.

The fairy loaf in Suffolk was also called pharisee-loaf which at some point became facy-loaf. Farcy is a disease in horses and it has been suggested that the fossils were also used as charms by farm horsemen .

Go here to see pt. 2 of this topic!