https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9203-1650
![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
SUMMARY
This paper discusses three large, almost identical oval breverls from the eighteenth century burial contexts in present-day Republic of Croatia. Two of them were discovered during archaeological excavations in Žuberak and Prozorje, while the third one from Ližnjan had not been defined as breverl until now. Breverls are the rarest and most enigmatic devotional objects but the three analysed in this paper have a common link other than their appearance. They all contained religious medals from pilgrim sites and papers with the prayer against all evils and demonic attacks on one side and the blessings of saints, the prayer for the identification of those tortured by evil spirits, and the Prologue to John’s Gospel on the other. This article compares the papers discovered in them, studies the motifs from the mentioned breverls and analyses other finds from them to provide answers to the questions of their place of production, the identity of the people who wore them and why. Tentative correlation of different bioarchaeological factors, such as age, sex, and health condition of the deceased can give us much information on who breverl bearers were. Apparently, they were the vulnerable members of society, such as pregnant women, people suffering from poor health, or, as prayers from the breverls suggest, individuals believed to be tortured by demons or evil spirits. Taking that into account, breverls were devotional objects believed to provide universal protection, a sort of medicine case for both physical and spiritual problems.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Although the author states that these are pendants, the photo of the breverl clearly shows at least two religious medals: one of them silver, probably with the depiction of St. Benedict, and the other made of copper alloy with the depiction of the Christogram ‘IHS’.
2 This side was discovered around twenty centimetres from the rest of the breverl.
3 Its outer diameter is around 0.3 cm. It is around 0.15 cm high and it weighs so little that a two-decimal scale could not weight it. These measurements are too small even for small Avemaria rosary beads. If this bead did serve as a rosary bead after all, it could have been the dividing bead between Paternoster and Avemaria beads. This was most probably an ordinary bead used for headgears, broches, and similar jewellery.
4 The dimensions of the preserved part of the medal are 1.6 x 1.5 x 0.05 cm. It is so light that it could not have been weighted on a two-decimal scale.
5 Its diameter is somewhat over 1.5 cm, it is 0.15 cm thick and it weighs 1.3 g.
6 The folded paper weighs 1.8 g.
7 The paper was opened just once, during the conservation-restoration works, when both of its pages were photographed. Unfortunately, the restorer did not measure them and it was decided that the paper would not be opened again so that it would not be additionally damaged.
8 The parentheses include parts of texts which are missing due to paper damage.
9 This was already explained earlier in the text concerning the breverl discovered in the nave of the Church of St. Martin in Prozorje.
10 Insight into the photographs of the breverl were kindly made available to us by the director of the Zadar Archaeological Museum Dr Jakov Vučić, to whom we would like to thank for his help.
11 One explanation could be that the customer (most probably the future owner) was involved in the creation of the breverl by providing their favourite medal, but since the main premise of the breverl is that the owner should not know what is inside of it we consider this unlikely.
12 The parenthesis contains the parts of text that were not preserved.
13 https://mgml.si/en/city-museum/exhibitions/248/sealed-medallion-containing-an-incantation/(October 2023.).
14 https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/15793500 and https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tjpxr99e (October 2023).
15 Chaste tree, rosemary, and common rue.
16 They are quite fragmented, making it difficult to determine whether this was one or multiple pieces of paper.
17 This number should not come as a surprise since this cemetery has by far the most discovered and researched early modern graves compared to other sites mentioned in this paper.
18 Interpreted based on the photograph made available to us by the director of the Zadar Archaeological Museum Dr Jakov Vučić.
19 Since it was introduced by Ignatius of Loyola.
20 The secularization of society must also be considered.
21 Although not all diseases will leave their trace on human bones.