Recently, Mistress Christianna posted a question about a couple of images:
Here’s a mystery for you. These 2 implements were found on the Iberian peninsula (I don’t know which part) and they date back to 1,000-1,200 ad. No one knows what they were used for. They were found in women’s tombs so the experts think they may have been used for hygiene. I can’t imagine how they might have been used, but that’s the theory.
The only other information was that they were about 4 inches long. This was a really interesting journey so I wanted to document it here.I didn’t have any immediate idea what these objects were, but given the similar and specific shape (ring at bottom, bump at midpoint, decoration on top) they seemed to be a specific sort of implement that required that form.
I started with a reverse Google image search that turned up a lot of andirons and cigarette tongs and things that clearly weren’t right. They did get me thinking about other things it might be, though.
Taking a guess at what it might be after looking at all these implements, I tried searching “medieval metal stirring rod”. Perhaps the loop on the bottom was for mixing up something like a whisk? This led me to the following item (with a bunch of very interesting similar objects below):
I visited the Met item and it definitely seemed to be on the right track, but glass and Roman was not quite metal and Medieval Spain, and also the form wasn’t quite right (no bump, no decoration). But this seemed like the right direction so I doubled down and tried again with ‘medieval metal “stirring rod”‘. The quotes helped improve my results and turned up this image:
Which took me to Pinterest:
Which took me to Pinterest:
Metal now, and the shape is getting closer, but still Roman. Before I even visited this Met link, though, I looked down in the related images and saw this:
Aha! Now I seemed to be onto something. I clicked through and found a scan of a book from the Louvre with a bunch of items like what I was looking for, but of course it was in French. They seemed to refer to these items as “quenouille”, so I googled the term and (in addition to finding a lot of images of cattails) found that it meant “distaff”. Given that these were items from women’s graves, I seemed to be very close now. The only distaffs I was familiar with were the long pole type, but I figured maybe somehow these fitted on the top? So I searched “distaff metal end loop” and the very first result was this:
Bingo! Lots of these items with the same form, in various materials, often misidentified as stirring rods or other objects. Many of them even had birds on top. I feel confident that this is what I was looking for. I’m looking forward to seeing what metal workers, glass workers, and spinners can learn from making and using these.
Aha! Now I seemed to be onto something. I clicked through and found a scan of a book from the Louvre with a bunch of items like what I was looking for, but of course it was in French. They seemed to refer to these items as “quenouille”, so I googled the term and (in addition to finding a lot of images of cattails) found that it meant “distaff”. Given that these were items from women’s graves, I seemed to be very close now. The only distaffs I was familiar with were the long pole type, but I figured maybe somehow these fitted on the top? So I searched “distaff metal end loop” and the very first result was this:Bingo! Lots of these items with the same form, in various materials, often misidentified as stirring rods or other objects. Many of them even had birds on top. I feel confident that this is what I was looking for. I’m looking forward to seeing what metal workers, glass workers, and spinners can learn from making and using these.