Ladies Hunting: A Late Medieval Decorated Mirror Case from Shapwick, Somerset

Abstract

This paper examines a later medieval small find excavated from Shapwick, Somerset. A multidisciplinary approach is taken to understand the use of the decorated object, identified as a mirror case, and its symbolic meaning as a possible love token. Comparisons are made with other finds of metal mirror cases from mainland Britain and ivory examples from the Continent with depictions of hunting scenes. The imagery of hunting and hawking is discussed in relation to contemporary material culture in order to identify the socio-cultural significance of this activity and the mirror case.

‘Riding like Alexander, Hunting like Diana’: Gendered Aspects of the Medieval Hunt and its Landscape Settings in England and France

“…It is also associated more clearly with medieval women and depictions of ladies hunting on the most personal thirteenth-and fourteenth-century material culture, from mirror-cases to seal matrixes, invariably show them hawking. 41 However, falconry had resonances also for seigneurial men, playing an important role in the construction of elite, particularly courtly, masculinity. In no way was it considered an exclusively 'feminine' sport; in fact it was embraced by men epitomising martial masculinity.…”

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“…Gendered interpretations that explore LGBTQ+ perspectives are non-existent and very rare across archaeology more generally. While some publications do foreground ‘gender’—a malapropos for the study of women—these largely tell stories of women in the male world (Standley 2008, 2016; Hicks 2009; Richardson 2012; Wiekart 2014; Collins 2018). With few exceptions, this perceived disinterest in gender contrasts with early medieval, Anglo-Saxon and Viking studies, in which these subjects are explored to some extent (e.g.…”

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“…The proliferation of lay charters in the twelfth century is considered by Everard, who also considers the ubiquity of writing and the role of laymen in its production by this period. Standley discusses a fragment of what appears to be part of a decorated mirror found at Shapwick, Somerset; the author, drawing upon the fragment and its clear equestrian theme, suggests that it was the property of a woman, and perhaps was dropped during a hunting party in this rural location.…”