Medieval Carved Ship Images Found in Nordic Churches: the poor man's votive ships?

Abstract

The so‐called ship graffiti found inside Catholic churches of the Scando‐Baltic region may not only be graffiti. The author suggests that some may have been carved with votive intent in sacred spaces by people without greater means. The reason could have been a particular sea journey feared by sailors or their families. Actual proofs may be difficult to obtain due to the lack of inscriptions stating a particular intention, but in a Gotlandic church one ship image is accompanied by a prayer for what seems to have been its crew. This alternative interpretation appears to be in line with a current archaeological focus on the contextual polysemy of all kinds of ‘prehistoric’ pictures.

Recording and Analysis of Ship Graffiti in St Thomas’ Church and Blackfriars Barn Undercroft in Winchelsea, East Sussex, UK

“…They are, however, not limited to standing structures, sometimes being found on artefacts as well (Liebgott, ; le Bon, ). The majority are found in churches, leading to interpretations that they were made with religious intent (Champion, : 111, : 91–3, : 344–9; Peake, : 160–1, Westerdahl, : 344). Friel (a: 85), however, is of the opinion that the modern distribution of medieval ship graffiti has more to do with the survival of medieval churches compared to medieval secular buildings.…”

“…Representing a form of ‘folk art’, to use Friel's term (a: 92), free of artistic convention, they have been considered the work of people who drew what they knew or what they could see. Westerdahl (: 337) has pointed out that this initially led to a rather one‐dimensional functionalist approach focused on learning about the technology of ships in the past (Bonino, : 291; Emden, : 171; Mott, ). While Westerdahl is correct that a disproportionate amount of attention has gone into the description of the ships themselves (Pritchard, : 123–5, 131–3, 140), rather than contextualization and interpretation, the authors of this paper nonetheless believe that there is a place for the analysis of techno‐functional aspects.…”

“…Although already noted in passing by Pritchard in the late 1960s (1967: 131), over the past five years, the interpretation of these engravings has shifted towards an emphasis on their significance as part of religious ritual or popular magic. It is now generally argued that at least some of the examples found in churches should be understood as ‘the poor man's votive ships’ (Peake, : 160–1; Champion, : 111, : 93–96, Westerdahl, : 344).…”

“…Given the spatial configuration of the graffiti, located on the two pillars across from the former St Nicholas’ chapel, and established interpretations of similar graffiti in English (Peake, ) and northern European churches (Westerdahl, ), Champion's explanation of the ships as devotional in nature seems fair (: 111, : 94–6, : 347–8). If they are interpreted as part of a Christian tradition of giving a votive offering in an act of prayer, hoping to assure or give thanks for a safe journey across the sea, then this assemblage of ship graffiti can be situated in a growing corpus of material informing us about the cognitive relationship the townspeople of Winchelsea and their nearest neighbours had with the sea.…”

Seamen on Land? A Preliminary Analysis of Medieval Ship Graffiti on Cyprus

“…Similarly, Christensen (: 184) saw such contexts studied in Scandinavian sites as the work of men who lived in maritime societies and thus had a strong interest in ships, whereas Le Bon () noticed some repetitive motifs, such as the ship's bow, and argued that they were used to communicate concepts, not to depict real ships. Westerdahl (: 337) suggested the term ‘carvings’ was more appropriate, especially for representations of ships found on religious monuments, because the word graffito, having an ‘illicit, casual and nonconformist aspect’, expresses an a priori interpretation. As we demonstrate below, however, not all ships carved on the walls of churches should be classified as votive; thus we maintain the term graffito in this paper.…”