Daisy Wheel, Hexafoil, Flower of Life: One Symbol’s Journey
The six-petal rosette is well known to graffiti hunters, sometimes referred to as a daisy wheel. To geometers it is known as a hexfoil (or hexafoil) and to the adherents of the New Age as the ‘Flower of Life.’
It is first recorded as a solar symbol in Near East in the 8th century BC, flanking a Syrian solar deity – although there are claims that it can be seen in the symbolic art of earlier cultures.
It appears on the Gundestrup Cauldron; an object melding Celtic, Thracian and Near Eastern mythical symbolism. Two rosettes flank a Goddess, surrounded by exotic creatures which seem to be elephants, winged griffins, and a large feline.
The symbol was carried west by the Roman Legionnaires where it often appears on their headstones. The Merovingians of the 5th century deployed the symbol alongside pagan imagery on their grave slabs. By the 8th century, it was adopted by the Carolingians and embedded within their sacred architecture.
In early Medieval Europe it was used to invoke the protection of the Virgin, sometimes placed as a ‘crown’ in holy sculptures from the Mediterranean. By the time it arrived in England, it was considered to be the motif most appropriate for the pilgrim ampullae of Our Lady of Walsingham, the second most important shrine in England after Thomas Beckets shrine Canterbury.
Following the Black Death, the symbol was appropriated by the new elite class to adorn and protect their high-status buildings in the Tudor age. To show its durability, it even went on to have a further life as a motif used on headstones in the New World.
This talk will follow the symbol’s journey of appropriation by ancient cultures, up to the point when it becomes part of the repertoire of symbols sacred to Christianity. The talk will focus upon the corpora of medieval graffiti, where it was often associated with fonts and follow it through to the Early Modern Period, where it was adopted by the elites to protect their grand residences and fortifications.
Speaker Bio
Wayne Perkins is an archaeologist of 23 years with a special interest in apotropaic graffiti, folklore and concealed objects recovered from ancient buildings.
Don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day.
