Als Ich Kan/ As I Can

 Angel Gabriel from the Ghent Altarpiece.

Jan Van Eyck’s motto, Als Ich Kan, As I can, implies that he always made the best possible effort for any task. His ‘best possible’ is superb as evidenced in The Optical Revolution, an exhibition of his work currently on view at the MSK, the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent which is focused on the restored side panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, normally on view in St Bavo’s Cathedral. This major exhibition includes twelve of his circa 20 known paintings among the eighty works of art exhibited.

Self portrait.
Portrait of a Man in A Turban
1433.

I visited last week with six friends and we were collectively stunned by the magnificence of the exhibition itself and in particular by the luminous artistry of Van Eyck. He was not a miniaturist but his detailed and perfect works are achieved through the finest and most exquisitely wrought of detail. The several panels from the Mystic Lamb in the exhibition demonstrate the painstaking and extensive restoration work carried out since 2012. There is still one panel, stolen in 1934, unrecovered, but the whole altarpiece has had quite a chequered career over ownership and location, detailed in the following blog.

 Philip the Good.
Rogier van der Weyden.

The man himself has achieved a virtual immortality through his extraordinary artistic talent. Jan, born in Maaseik between 1385 and 1395, had a sister, Margaret, an artist, and two brothers, Hubert, a talented painter who obtained the commission for, and started to compose, the famous altarpiece, probably with Jan, circa 1420, which Jan took over when his brother died. He completed The Mystic Lamb in 1432 following which it was consecrated in St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, on 6^th May, 1432.  There is evidence of many hands involved in the creation of the masterpiece,

 Woodcut of Hubert Van Eyck
1386?-1420
By Edme de Boulonois.
Mid 16th century

undoubtedly those of Jan's apprentices. Another artist brother, Lambert, active between 1431 and 1442, stepped in to lead Jan’s workshop when he died. Jan moved from restoring the Binnenhof Palace in the Hague after the death of his patron, John of Bavaria, to Brugge in 1425, becoming Court Painter and diplomat to Philip the Good. Nothing is known of Jan’s formal education though he had knowledge of Latin and used Greek and Hebrew alphabets in his inscriptions indicating he had been schooled in the Classics, rare for a painter. His early artistic education was provided by his gifted elder brother, Hubert, an artist of at least equal talent to that of Jan.

A generous Court salary from Philip freed Jan from seeking commissions and his technical and artistic ability developed, with his reputation, over the next decade. His innovative approaches towards the handling and manipulation of oil paint led to a subsequent myth, led by Vasari, that he had invented oil painting; his inspired speciality was actually that of layering thin glazes of oil paint over the surface which brought an astonishing realism to

Margareta van Eyck
by her husband.
1432.

both his religious art and secular portraiture. Considered revolutionary within his lifetime, Van Eyck’s designs and methods were heavily copied. His motto, Als Ich Kan, As I Can, first appeared in 1433 on Portrait of a Man in a Turban, perhaps an indication of his increasing self-confidence. The years 1434 to 1436 are generally considered to be when Jan was at the zenith of his powers when Madonna of Chancellor Rolin; Lucca Madonna, and Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele were produced. Van Eyck married Margaret around 1432; from the clothes she wore in her portrait, fashionable but not sumptuous, she is judged to have, perhaps, belonged to minor aristocracy though her family name has never been recorded. Their marriage suggests that with his increasing fame and his highly-regarded position at Court, came higher social status.

Isabella of Portugal and Philip the Good.
Diptych shows the couple later, in middle age.

A well-known incident transcribed in Wolfgang Stechow's Northern Renaissance Art: Sources and Documents highlights the respect Philip held for the artist. When the exchequer withheld payment from the artist, the duke rebuked this decision, writing: "We have heard that you do not readily verify certain of our letters granting life pension to our well-beloved equerry painter, Jan van Eyck, whereby he cannot be paid said pension; and for this reason, he will find it necessary to leave our service, which would cause us great displeasure, for we would retain him for certain great works with which we intend henceforth to occupy him and we would not find his like more to our taste, one so excellent in his art and science." Subsequently, van Eyck received his annual payments without fail.

Man in the Blue Chaperon with extensive
use of lapis lazuli.
Perhaps my favourite van Eyck.
c 1430.

Jan van Eyck undertook many ‘secret’ commissions for Philip, Duke of Burgundy, probably acting as envoy; he was paid many times his annual salary for these undertakings, one of which was to ‘certain distant and secret lands’, possibly to the Holy Land. The authentic depiction of Jerusalem in his workshop’s painting, The Three Marys at the Tomb, gives weight to this theory. He was an important part of a group sent by the Duke to Lisbon, Portugal to prepare the ground for the subsequent marriage of Philip to Isabella; Jan painted her portrait twice and sent one by land, one by sea, to Philip for his perusal. Both arrived but have been subsequently lost.

Jan van Eyck died on 9 July 1441 in Brugge where he had lived and worked since 1425 and he was buried first in the churchyard, a year later, in the Church itself, of St Donaas. The actual location of the grave was lost during the destruction by the French of the Cathedral in 1799. As a mark of respect, Philip made a one-off payment equal to a year’s salary, to Jan’s widow, Margareta. Jan van Eyck left many unfinished works for his workshop and post death, his reputation became evermore burnished.

 Diptych: The Annunciation.
From the Ghent Altarpiece.

A Noble Quarantine

 Eyam village, Derbyshire.

 William Mompesson, rector of
St Lawrence's Church, Eyam.

I used to live in Derbyshire, that beautiful county, for many years so how come, given the current hysteria about the Coronavirus, that I didn’t immediately remember Eyam, the plague village, famous in the seventeenth century for the truly remarkable way in which it decided to self-isolate as the current phrase has it, during a vicious return of the bubonic plague? It was an item by Peter Wilby in last week’s New Statesman referring to the famous Plague Village story which pulled me up instantly. The narrative of Eyam is inspiring.

 Plague scenes in stained glass,
St Lawrence's.

It began in the summer of 1665 when a bale of cloth arrived from London where the plague had already killed thousands. A tailor’s assistant, George Viccars, opened the damp bale and hung it in front of a fire to dry, unwittingly stirring the disease-ridden fleas contained within the parcel.. George was visiting Eyam to help make clothes for Wakes Week but became the first victim of the plague in Eyam. The pestilence swept through the community and between September and December 1665, 42 villagers had died; by Spring of 1666, many were about to flee to save their lives.

 During the plague, Sunday services were held  outside.
Any communal gathering was held in the open air.

 Mompesson's chair still remains in
Eyam church.

The recently-appointed (and unpopular) rector, William Mompesson decided that the village must be quarantinedHis predecessorThomas Stanley, had been summarily removed from his Church position, after refusing to acknowledge the Act of Uniformity (1662) which made it compulsory for churches to use the Book of Common Prayer introduced by Charles 11. He, and most of the village, were fervent supporters of Cromwell’s Puritan Government before the restoration of the monarchy. Stanley lived on the edge of the village more or less in exile but Mompesson realised that he needed the support of Stanley whom the villagers trusted. Together, they devised a remarkable plan: on 24 June, 1666 Mompesson told his assembled parishioners that the village must be closed with no one entering or leaving. The Earl of Devonshire who lived nearby at Chatsworth, had offered to send food and supplies if the villagers agreed to be quarantined. Mompesson said he would do everything in his power to help them and he and his wife would stay.

His wife’s diary recorded that the difficult decision William had asked of the village was helped by

 Catherine Mompesson's grave.

the fact that the popular Rev. Thomas Stanley stood by his side, in strong support of the quarantine. Though, she also recorded, that there were many misgivings over the wisdom of the plan which eventually received the reluctant support of the whole village. There is a nobility about the Eyam decision which resonates today. No one else, outside Eyam, in Derbyshire caught the plague; no one else died but the villagers knew the huge risks to which they were condemning themselves. By August 1666 there were five or six deaths a day. The weather was remarkably hot, the fleas were highly active and the pestilence spread unchecked through the village. In spite of this, no one broke the cordon sanitaire and whole families died. Elizabeth Hancock, for instance, buried six of her children and her husband, all of whom had died within eight days.

Mompesson’s letters record his appreciation of his young wife, Catherine, who had worked unstintingly among the victims and in so doing, had contracted the plague herself. On 22 August 1666 they went for a walk in the hills and she spoke of the sweet smell in the air. This sweet smell in the nostrils of the afflicted, was a common feature of the bubonic plague and she died the following morning, aged 27. Mompesson wrote of the smell of ‘sadness and death’ in the air saying, ‘I am a dying man.’ He did, in fact, survive. The worst was over and the number of cases fell in September and October and by November 1, 1666, the disease had gone. In just over a year, 260 of Eyam’s inhabitants from 76 families, had died. Historians estimate the size of the village before the plague, as between 350 and 500.

 Mompesson's well.

It seems to me that the self-imposed Eyam quarantine is of a different order from today’s cancellation of public events and those afflicted by the Coronavirus imposing a self-isolation. The inhabitants of the village sentenced themselves to remain in the highly-infected theatre of the disease with no defence for anyone against the plague swirling around them. Poor Mompesson remained unloved in Eyam, and left in 1669 to work in Eakring, Nottinghamshire but such was the reputation of the plague village that he was forced to live in a hut in Rufford Park until eventually, the villagers’ fears died away.

 St Lawrence's Church, Eyam, Derbyshire.

Post Script

Until a vaccine is discovered, tested and is ready to be administered, perhaps 9-12 months in the future] it is interesting to note that the only techniques available for limiting the spread of the epidemic today are essentially mediaeval. Isolation of the afflicted while waiting to see if the patient has the illness and can survive or not. No large groups of people assembling inside; groups outside to be avoided. 

Blog-ette on Anti-Semitism

 Aalst Carnival.#
I am unsure if inclusion here as illustration, compounds the crime.

This is a hasty addition to the normal blogs because I have found difficult to believe three examples of gross anti-Semitism displayed in, of all theatres, carnivals in three different countries. My interest, not to say, disbelief and repugnance, were aroused because the first instance I read about was in Aalst, a little town between Brugge and Ghent which looks like an ordinary Flemish small town. However, small though it is, its annual carnival is highly popular, attracting tens of thousands of visitors, and famous throughout Flanders. During last year’s three-day carnival, floats depicted Orthodox Jews with hooked noses standing on gold coins. Israel Katz, Israel’s Foreign Minister, then called for the authorities to ‘condemn and ban this hateful parade in Aalst.’ Belgium, as a Western democracy should be ashamed to allow such vitriolic antisemitic display, he tweeted. However, Belgium’s Prime Minister, Sophie Wilmes, described the parade as an ‘internal affair.’ But Unesco removed the Aalst carnival from its list of ‘intangible cultural heritage’ saying the festival had been guilty of ‘recurring repetition of racist and anti-semitic representations.’ Unbelievably, following that serious censure, the offence was repeated in the carnival from February 23-26 this year by the unrepentant organisers who dismissed criticisms as ‘politically correct censorship’. The town’s mayor, Christoph D’Haese, said, ‘Here we laugh at everything, …..Islam, Judaism and Catholicism.’ Commission spokesman, Adalbert Jahnz, said that the anti-Semitism on display in the Aalst carnival was incompatible with the values and principles on which the E.U. was founded.

 Carnaval de Campo de Criptana.

Meanwhile, a huge parade in the Carnaval de Campo de Criptana, near Madrid, was apparently intended to commemorate those who died in the Holocaust. However, the Israeli Government and the Auschwitz Museum both accused the Spanish carnival of vilely and repugnantly trivialising the Holocaust after a troupe danced through the streets dressed as Nazi officers and concentration camp prisoners, accompanied by a float bearing a menorah and two crematorium chimneys. The Auschwitz museum tweeted: ‘Hard to describe: memory upside-down, far beyond vulgar kitsch, without any relevance, without reflection & respect.’ The town council of Campo de Crispana said that permission for the act had been granted on the understanding that it would honour the dead of the Holocaust. The mayor of Campo de Criptana agreed that it had not been a carnival-type theme and suggested that it would not happen again.

Sao Paulo.

It seems that carnivals all take place in February; at the same time as those in Aalst and Campo de Crispana came the world-famous Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, one of the world’s largest multi-day celebrations. This year, 100 dancers of the Vai-Vai Samba School wore costumes featuring swastikas on their backs, with a thin black line, unseen from a distance, scored through the swastikas. Israel Katz of the Sao Paulo Jewish Federation said, ‘To us Jews, it’s always shocking to see a swastika but to non-Jewish eyes, it is an historical fact.’ He gave his approval to the Vai-Vai costumes which had been used in 1999 when they were slammed by Jewish groups.

I think that the E.U. has laws against a variety of hate crimes based on religion, sex, age, race and wonder if these would apply to what were claimed to be light-hearted items in local carnivals. I feel pretty certain that such anti-Semitic presentations in public entertainments, could not happen in the

 Auschwitz, one of the chain of concentration camps
during the Holocaust where millions of Jews were
killed for their faith. 

UK because of anti-discrimination laws but I am not a lawyer. And there have been prolonged accusations against the British Labour Party over anti-Semitism in its ranks. But I remain shocked and saddened to see the carnival examples and also amazed that many of the Flemish to whom I have mentioned these carnivals’ anti-Semitism, have just demurred that it is all light-hearted, not serious, just a bit of fun. It is, in fact, ugly and dangerous to openly portray racist and anti-Semitic representations in this way, in the name of entertainment. Small wonder that Jews in Europe are reportedly feeling progressively unsafe and one reads that there has been an upsurge in anti-Semitism world-wide.

 Jewish girls identified by compulsory yellow stars.

Oostende in the Wind.

 The Pulpit. Leon Spilliaert

 Drawing by James Ensor

 De Mangerie, Oostende.

A lovely day out with friend to Oostende to celebrate his birthday. Hopefully-judicious checking on the Internet produced a booking at De Mangerie on the Albert 1 Promenade and the promise of its presence in the list of Top Ten Fish Restaurants in town, lived well up to expectations!! The meal was both wonderfully tasty and aesthetically beautiful and the service, exceptional. I thought it

extraordinary also, that I had an email this morning asking me to rate our welcome, the food and the service, in retrospect. De Mangerie, Oostende, definitely earns a second visit!

 Albert 1 Promenade, Oostende.

This was my fourth or fifth trip to Oostende in as many years and I have never enjoyed it. Always grey and gloomy; generally cold and misty; often with showers or continuous rain. Yesterday, in February, it was cold with a very strong wind but the sun shone, the sea glistened immense and distant, and I could understand why people might go there for a holiday. As in Brugge, out-of-season roadworks and re-laying of cables and pipes seemed everywhere, but even so, Lots of Room along the Promenade for games and fish stalls, couples trying to stroll, leaning against the wind, and children running in circles. It was a photo opportunity of almost summer proportions!

 Interior. James Ensor

After lunch, to the Mu-zee, the local Museum of Modern Art, Oostende’s own MOMA. I had never seen it before and was delighted with the white interior on different levels displaying a number of pictures by Leon Spilliaert, one of the local Masters, and James Ensor, already known and loved in this parish. Coincidentally, there is a Leon Spilliaert exhibition on now in the Royal Academy, a place I love and of which I was a member for countless years. I had never known that Spilliaert was virtually a local boy in Flanders. It is an excellent exhibition in the Mu-zee and I shall keep note of further exhibitions there. I really should explore more of Flanders!

 Self-portrait, Leon Splliaert, 1881-1946

 The Rower. Leon Spilliaert



"To me, the only thing that counts is my individuality; it is everything
to me; I am not so certain that all the other things exist. It is like a
phantasmagoria, when I view the life that goes on outside myself, it
is often with abundant fantasy."
Leon Spilliaert. 1925









"The mask loomed large in the work of Ensor from 1888 onwards. It became
the hallmark of his work and his most notable contribution to modern art
is the integration of carnivalesque iconography into his oeuvre.. In his work,
the mask became an instrument by which to expose human nature."

                   

 James Ensor 1860-1949.
by Rik Wouters.

 

James Ensor; Self-portrait with masks.
1899.

Cobblestones, Tartan and Puppets.

Soon to be an elegant new square

I haven’t written about the general life in Brugge recently, caught up instead with other notions and happenings. BUT I have kept an eye on the area outside the wonderful Bike Shop which serves beers from Brussels and coffee at its chic black tables on the pavement outside. The gleeful owner told me months ago that the Commune would transform the area in front of his shop, into a square, a plein. It is a small area and I did wonder quite how the miracle would occur. Well, I still don’t know but work started there about a month ago and Philipstockstraat has been closed to traffic at that corner for a fortnight now. All is upheaval at that end of Philipstockstraat at present, as in this photograph But the eventual result will be revealed soon.

Broken jaw avenged, after three years!

Meantime, I noticed this morning [18/02/20] that two workmen were busy Doing Something in Woensdagmarkt. Closer inspection revealed that a cluster of upstanding cobblestones were being dug up to be re-settled and I saw immediately that they are The Ones over which I tripped in 2016, fell and broke my jaw in two places. I did report the state of that little group of cobblestones to Officialdom at the time, but while my jaw took only six weeks to heal and permit talking and eating again, it has been much longer for the cobbles to be restored to a safe state! On Wednesday February 19, further cobblestone renovation outside my building, is occurring. Good news; pensioners will soon be able to almost glide confidently across the cobbles in Woensdagmarkt! The battle to keep pedestrians safe over the cobbles in Brugge, must be an ongoing Tremendous Effort.

Inexpert Highland Fling

And so to a Tartan Birthday Party for a young man of 70. Last Thursday, following Mah Jong, a great Scottish-themed party was held, attended by around 30 people most dressed valiantly if amateurishly, in touches of tartan; some in kilts; some in Scottish blouses, shirts, ties, berets, sashes. The house itself

Tartan cake.

 was suitably draped and dressed with two birthday cakes, one iced in tartan, the other shaped in a 7 and 0. Lots of super food and bubbly and, on the stroke of noon, came the distinctive sound of bagpipes and drum from the street outside. There, an impromptu concert was held [I wonder if one needs a permit for music in the street as in Britain?] for both the party people and quite an assortment of passing pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. After which, the musicians came into the house for food and drinks and further performances and one hoped that the near-neighbours were bagpipe lovers! The birthday boy was enchanted by it all as, indeed, were the guests.

 Concert on the terrace

And to cap an eventful week, a visit with friends to the Poppentheater Uilenspiegel on Sunday morning to enjoy a three person dramatic presentation of everyday life and politics in Brugge. I understood only a little though my companion helpfully whispered key phrases from the Brugge patois of the dialogue. The puppets were enchanting and the audience was amused and delighted. I did approve of the appearance of a splendid young man, a Green Party schepen [councillor] who gamely answered questions and dealt with complaints mainly about money wasted by the Brugge town council! I believe this puppet theatre is a revival of an earlier feature of the town and the three dozen or so seats were full; each seat cost 5 euros to include a beer or water after the performance. Amazing value which will surely be difficult to maintain!

 Just one of the memorable characters

One of the most endearing traits of life in Brugge is its ability to surprise and entertain. It never fails!!

The Art of Persuasion

I have been thinking about how to influence people who don’t have to listen to me. SO not a problem for a team in a business led by a powerful figure but for certain cross departmental groups in a large firm, or for ad hoc groups in society, more of a concern. I live in a lovely old building where I rent a super flat and where there are seven other apartments; in total, four large like mine and four smaller. Three owners [all in the same family] have three of the four largest apartments but these people do not live in their own apartments which are inherited family wealth. The building is administered only by the owners, wherever they live. Two non-family owners actually live in the building while a third large apartment has been sold with the owner yet to move in. These three owners have bought their properties on the open market.

I have recently been unsettled by the renting of the next-door apartment to a firm, and not to a person. It would be lovely to have a neighbour but the fleeting occupants, often overnight, are unknown to, and unseen normally by, me though I noted different cars in the relevant parking space next door. What I DO notice is that often messy boots have emerged outside my door from the adjacent lift. Somehow, this chiefly unseen, always unheard, cavalcade has disturbed me, perhaps by its

transience, perhaps by the slight mess on the carpet outside my door, perhaps by the idea of unknowns passing through. I am so not a nervous person but I think I have felt slighted by the discourtesy of not being informed by the owners of the situation, and by the impossibility for me of making contact. Ships that pass in the night do nothing to add to the feeling of the common good, so important to the health and well-being of life in a shared building.

For the first time in five years of happy residence here I have felt, therefore, moved to Do Something and I wrote a letter to all owners and renters before the annual owners’ meeting recently outlining my discomfort and pointing out several other things which needed action, such as more frequent cleaning of the public areas; thorough and lasting repair of the doors to the adjacent car park to prevent illegal parking and improve security. I had thought that my letter was judicious, to the point, politely explicit and I included remarks on the responsibility of owners to consider the notion of the common good which I feel is in part, at least, their responsibility and an important one. A happy atmosphere makes for happy residents.

At the owners’ meeting, consensus was reached on

Influencing others.

the cleaning but on nothing else apparently except that the adjacent flat rental has now stopped, for the time being at least. This of course was not decided at or by the meeting and may have had nothing at all to do with my letter. But this is the one really important plus for me and was the irritant which prompted my letter. An unexpected tiny sting in the tail is the vote carried to disallow anyone without a car parking space next-door, having occasional parking for their visitors in unoccupied spaces. This has been allowed for my visitors-with-cars for the last five years and happens only rarely. Most of my guests come by Eurostar. However, this restriction addresses no existing problem, adds little to the notion of the common good and does prompt the slight suspicion that those with the power, have used the time-honoured method of problem-solving: that of shooting the messenger!!

And clearly, I need to think again of how to influence people who do not want, or need, to listen to me! I enjoyed some modest success in the art of persuasion when I led a staff of around 65 people and 1100 adolescents but that was a long time ago and we were involved in, broadly, a shared endeavour.

 Tulips from Daniel, a young resident here.

The Ultimate Palindrome

After my interest, last week, in the 02-02-20-20 Palindrome [ February 2nd, 2020] and other dates Palindromic, a friend told me about the Sator Square of which I had never heard! How could I have missed it? Mystifying! It is the world’s earliest-known double Palindrome which means it can be read top-to-bottom; bottom-to-top; left-to-right; right-to-left. It dates all the way back, at least, to Ancient Rome, having been found among the ruins of the city of Pompeii, which was decimated and buried in volcanic ash in 79 A.D. during the shattering eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Here is the Sator Square [left]and it consists of five words that read as a single Palindromic Latin sentence:

Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas

The translation of the Sator Square inscription has been the subject of controversy over the centuries. Much of the disagreement has been over the word Arepo which has no direct Latin translation. Many believe it is a proper noun, a name, so the square could read: The sower Arepo holds the wheel with effort. The other theory is that the name was simply created to help with the palindrome!

The letters can be re-positioned around the ‘N’ in the centre of the square so that it reads Pater Noster, Latin for Our Father and the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer. This reads in two directions with the two remaining letters, ‘A’ and ‘O’ possibly representing Alpha and Omega, a Christian concept about God’s omnipotent presence. Since there wasn't a large Christian presence in Ancient Rome, it might have been a covert symbol for local Roman Christians, when Christianity was proscribed, to identify their faith to each other without fear of discovery and persecution. Throughout the ages, palindromes were also thought to be a safeguard against the Devil because he would be confused by the repetition of the characters. The Sator Square thus became associated with magical properties in widely different
societies, regions and eras. It was used in folk magic to protect crops and livestock and remove jinxes and curses.

 St Barnabas, Alphamstone.

 Difficult to decipher.
The Sator Square etching in
St Barnabas, Alphamstone.

The Sator Square was discovered scratched in the wall of a church, St Barnabas in Alphamstone, near Sudbury in Essex, centuries after Roman times. Although not proven, it is generally assumed that Nicholas le Gryce, rector of the church 1576-1593, was responsible as he has been credited with several other inscriptions etched on the church walls including one which reads: This chancell was repared with newe tymber worke by Nycholas Le Gryce Parson. There is no indication of what the Sator Square might have meant to these mediaeval worshippers but Christian connotations of the Sator square are consistent with the discovery in 1931 of three examples of it on the walls of a Roman garrison at Dura-Europos (abandoned in the third century), now in eastern Syria. But Jewish and Mithraic remains are also present at Dura-Europos.

The discovery of the etched palindrome in St. Barnabas was made by Bari Hooper as early as 1975 though only publicly reported in the Telegraph on 2 May 2015. Mr Hooper, who has made a lifetime study of Essex churches, suggests that the letters in the Sator etching in St. Barnabas, are 16^th century in form. Examples of the Sator-Rotas square have also been found at Cirencester on a piece of Roman wall plaster from the fourth century, and in Manchester on a potsherd in a second-century rubbish pit. Those might be of Christian origin.