: Worship, Religion & Beliefs

The Undy Coffin during excavation in 1996. The coffin was donated to Amgueddfa Cymru by David Mclean Homes Ltd.

The Undy Coffin being raised for transportation.

Inside surface of the coffin showing the tool marks of a pick and mason's point. Image © G. Lock.

The Undy Coffin.

In the 3rd or 4th century AD a young woman was buried in a stone coffin at Undy, Monmouthshire. 1600 years later her grave was rediscovered.

In 1996 workmen unearthed a coffin while digging foundations for new houses at Undy, Monmouthshire. Following their discovery the site was investigated by archaeologists, but it remains uncertain whether this was a lone burial of part of a small cemetery.

The coffin contained the skeleton of a young, right handed, adult, probably female, aged between 25 and 34 years old. The cause of her death is unknown, but radiocarbon dating revealed she was buried in the late 3rd or 4th century AD - when the Romans occupied Wales.

Although no grave goods were found, her burial suggests that she was a relatively wealthy woman, someone who could afford a stone coffin and a proper burial.

Burial rather than cremation

Burial in this manner had not always been the norm in Roman society. Until the late 2nd century AD most people were cremated; their ashes often being buried in a glass or pottery vessel. However from this time burial traditions began to change. New ideas about the afterlife required that the body be buried 'intact'. These ideas were due to influences from the eastern part of the Empire, including the rise of Christianity, with belief in bodily resurrection.

The coffin was an optional feature. The poor might be buried in a grave without a coffin. Coffins were produced in a range of materials including wood, lead and stone.

The Undy Coffin is made of Bath Stone, a light creamy coloured limestone which is soft and easily worked when first quarried, but hardens on exposure to the air. This stone is found in the region around the spa town of Bath, England (known to the Romans as Aquae Sulis, which translates as "The Waters of Sulis"). This area is some 20 miles (35km) south-east of Undy.

The Roman stonemasons who made it used a very similar range of tools to their modern counterparts. The surface of the Undy coffin preserves these toolmarks, including those made by adze-hammers, chisels, picks and masons points. The direction of the toolmarks indicates that the mason was left-handed.

Background Reading

"Tools and Techniques of the Roman Stonemason in Britain" by T. F. C. Blagg. In Brittania, vol. 7, p152-72 (1976).

"Stone Coffins of Gloucestershire" by R. N. Willmore. In Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester Archaeological Society, vol. 61, p135-77 (1939).

The ‘Kalighat’-style paintings at Amgueddfa Cymru were brought over from India at around 1880. They represent a popular Indian art form that had died out by 1940. They are the work of professional artists called ‘patuas’ in Bengali and were sold for the equivalent of a penny each at markets and fairs in and around Calcutta, mostly at the gates of the famous temple at Kalighat, from where the style gets its name.

Storytelling

For centuries in Bengal, travelling professional artists known as &;lsquo;patuas’ or ‘chitrakars’ painted pictures or ‘pattas’ on cloth or handmade paper. These pictures were sewn together to make long scrolls of images. These artists toured rural villages, unrolling the images as they recited or sang the story. Patua families living in rural areas near Calcutta continue the tradition to this day.

Patuas move to the city

By 1806, some patuas had moved to the Calcutta – the biggest bazaar in Bengal. This new urban market had huge potential. In addition to residents, seasonal visitors to Calcutta wanted affordable souvenirs. With cheap machine-made paper and manufactured paints, the essential characteristics of the style emerged. Designs were kept simple, to be repeated as often as required according to the popularity of the picture. As demand increased, the detail in the scrolls was abandoned.

Traditions and religion

Certain Hindu traditions guided the painter. Each Divinity had a particular meditational formula – dhyan mantra – which the painters attempted to produce in line and colour. The traditional stories relate the appearance and actions of the gods and goddesses with their complexions, poses, mounts and weapons, which all had to be drawn correctly.

Hindu images and Muslim festivals

As Calcutta was extremely cosmopolitan, in addition to the Hindu images, the important Muslim festival of Muharram is also represented. It is possible that many Kalighat artists accepted beliefs from both the Hindu and Muslim faiths, as many of the scroll painters still do, having two personal names, one from each tradition.

The origin of the Kalighat Collection

The origin of the collection at the Museum is unknown before 1954. Assuming they form a single group, it is likely that they were acquired in Calcutta some time around 1873. The original owner was possibly French.

A collection now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was purchased between 1860 and 1870, and contains similar images. The collection is also similar to the seventy-three items in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acquired in India between 1865 and 1893.

The fall of the Kalighat style

1870 seems to have been the time when the popularity of these paintings reached its peak. To speed production, some families tried using a lithographic outline during the 1840s, but did not survive many years. It was the chromolithograph, capable of even brighter colours and a huge print run, which ultimately undercut the hand-painting families and took over the market and by the 1930s this popular art form had died out completely.

Sadly, very few of the thousands of Kalighat pats produced during the nineteenth century survive in India today, either in museums or private collections. They were never bought by the rich, who considered them unworthy of the name of art. In the poorer homes, the lack of protection from both the humid climate and physical damage soon destroyed the inherently weak cheap paper on which the patuas had worked their art.

Further reading

W. G. Archer, Kalighat Paintings, London 1971
Balraj Khanna, Kalighat – Indian Popular Paintings, London, 1993
Hana Knizkova, The Drawings of the Kalighat Style, Prague, 1975

Chaire (tea jar), Shigaraki stoneware, probably late 16th century

'...something unique'

When Bernard Leach first went to Japan he was a young artist just discovering Japanese pottery. However he was soon to become the pre-eminent British potter of the 20th century.

He did not doubt the value of the collection, describing it as 'something unique.' Taking advice from Japanese tea masters, he brought together objects of the type most valued in the Japanese chanoyu tradition, following principles established back in the 16th century. These dictate that the objects used should be simple and unpretentious, and contribute to the quiet sense of contemplation that a tea ceremony inspires.

The chaire (tea jar) sent by Leach displays these qualities perfectly. It is an example of the roughly made stoneware of Shigaraki, prized by tea connoisseurs since the 15th century. Guests would traditionally take pleasure in examining and praising such an object after the host had finished serving tea.

Recreating chanoyu

Chanoyu is an art of life, a highly ritualised act of hospitality. Objects are chosen, arranged and handled with meticulous care, so that the combination of objects and people, time and place, makes each ceremony a unique and unrepeatable occasion. Leach was insistent that this same regard was observed when the collection was displayed at the Museum in 1924.

Japanese traditions

Chanoyu objects collected by Bernard Leach

When Leach was in Japan, the preservation of Japanese heritage was under considerable threat from rapid industrialisation and westernisation. Some saw the tea ceremony as a metaphor for traditional Japan, and Leach hoped that this acquisition could allow a better understanding between East and West.

In later life, Leach used his experience to act as a mediator between the cultural worlds of Western Europe and East Asia. However, we now know that the Japanese circles he moved in were themselves influenced by Western thinking and that his claims to have understood an authentic Japanese tradition should be treated with scepticism.

Nevertheless, Leach stands out as one of the key figures in the ongoing history of interaction between Europe and East Asia. It seems fitting that, just as these items are valued for their beauty and their antiquity, they are now also valued for their association with Leach himself.

Background Reading

Edmund de Waal, Bernard Leach (London: Tate, 1999);

Emmanuel Cooper, Bernard Leach: Life and Work (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2003);

Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea (New York: Dover, 1964);

Paul Varley and Kumakura Isao (eds), Tea in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989)

St Teilo's Church, Llandeilo Tal-y-bont, in situ in 1984

Stone mullioned medieval window uncovered from beneath layers of lime wash and render during the dismantling process

Wall-painting of St Catherine, 'in situ', found on the east wall of the south transept, believed to have been painted c.1400

From Llandeilo Tal-y-bont to Cardiff

St Teilo's church was built during the 13th century. There was probably an earlier church on the site. Abandoned in the 1960s, it was scheduled as an Ancient Monument by Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments in the 1980s. As the decaying church could not be saved at its original site, it was offered to the Museum in 1984 for dismantling and re-erecting at St Fagans.

As the careful process of dismantling the Church began, two amazing wall-paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries were discovered, as well as numerous texts and areas of decorative patterns. These were all carefully recorded, removed and conserved.

The delicate removal of layers of lime-wash from the surface of the wall-paintings provided vital clues to the date of the original building. The removal of mortar from the outside walls enabled any Victorian or later alterations to be filtered out. After dismantling, the foundations were excavated, uncovering further clues to the Church's construction.

The history of the Church

The first surviving church was probably a small building consisting of a nave and chancel, a pattern that was standard throughout Wales at this time, thought to be 13th to 14th century. The next addition would have been the north transept, with the south transept probably built shortly after, as both are of similar construction. These probably date from the 14th or early 15th century, which corresponds to the dating of a wall-painting on the east wall of the south transept.

An extension of the south transept to form an aisle probably occurred during the late 15th century, the old south wall being replaced by an arcade of two arches, with another two cutting into both transepts. The final addition was a porch leading to the south aisle.

Expanding congregations

The Museum decided to rebuild the Church as it could have appeared around 1510-30. Architectural clues from this period can be used to understand the social, religious and political framework within which the Church was constructed and furnished. This closely follows the extension of the south transept to form the south aisle, presumably to accommodate a larger congregation. This could fit in with the economic recovery in Wales, after the Welsh Tudor dynasty became Kings of England in the late 15th century. This brought a period of relative calm after long periods of political and social unrest - including civil war.

Various clues show the nature of worship during the period up to 1530. Most important of these are the pre-Reformation wall-paintings. They show themes from the life of Christ and many saints, including St Catherine and St Christopher. Corbel stones found in the masonry work of the chancel arch show that there were once a medieval rood screen and loft. Both the wall-paintings and the rood screen and loft would have been brightly painted.

The poor man's Bible

Wall-paintings in churches have been described as "the poor man's Bible". They were designed to show scenes from the Bible to a congregation unable to read or write. They were also painted to create a sense of awe, fear and obedience. In some cases, the wall-paintings like the ones found in St Teilo must have been the only means of communicating any religious message at all, as both reading the Bible and preaching were in Latin, which congregations did not understand.

An end to worship

The growing population of the area, the development of other larger churches and frequent acts of vandalism led to St Teilo's falling into disuse. These events reflect the social, religious and political history of the Church just as much as the pre-Reformation wall-paintings do. The re-erection of the Church at the Museum is but another phase in its history, where visitors in the 21st century will be just as valued as its medieval pilgrims! St Teilo's Church now has a good chance of surviving for many more years.