 Well good evening everybody, and thank you very much indeed for coming. I hope you can hear me. Can you hear me at the back? Good. And if you can't hear me, put your hand up so that I will know. Now my subject today is the Ardhaar Celis, which you see here ringed. And it was discovered as part of a horde, which you see on the screen, Felly, yn y bach o'r ringfordd yw'r rhirastau ar y bydd y bydd yma yn Llywodraeth Llywodraeth, yn Llywodraeth Llywodraeth, yn Llywodraeth Llywodraeth. Mae Llywodraeth Llywodraeth yma yn y 8 yma. Mae Llywodraeth wedi gweld yn y 9 yma, yn y 10 yma. Felly, mae'n bwysig o'r wneud o'r wneud o'r wneud o'r wneud, felly dynnu am ddodd ystryf y gallai llawer o'r arddur, palau o'r llai ac o'r bwysig i'ch readion.on yma, y bod hynny'n gwybodol gyda'r llallus yn y Prifysgol See Llywodraeth, ac mae'n rhaiolau sy'n ddegwyrdillwydd o'r materioli ac ymwuntsio'r ardal a'r i gyflynydd meddyliadau yn yda'r bwysig, yn ymenig, yn meddylit, tan yng ngryst ar gyfer myllafolau cyfrylliannol a amr. Mae'r pertydd yn y llallus hynny yn y maenol arall o'r llai llallus, fel y cyfrifio sydd yma o'r wych ar gael syniad yn y clywed o'r llwyffydd, mae hyn yn ydych chi'n edrych ar y cantherus yng Nghymru. Oherwydd mae'n bod yn ei ddweud o'r holl bwyl yn oed o'r chaelol, ac mae'n cyfrifio o'r holl ei chaelol a'r holl yma yn y cyfrifio ond mae'n gweithio i'r 100 o'n gweithio. Ond nid yw'n ddefnydd o'r hamdliad, sy'n rhoi'r gael gweld, rhoi'n credu fanol, a roedd yn cyntaf ar y dynion gwybod hefyd, a, wrth gwrs, rhai cyllideg y chales, fynd yn gyhoedd sy assembol sy'n Medicine, ac yn cyllidglion i Christian, amser i'r chi cast, yn y cychwyn, ac yn coi awr, yn gynyddu'r chales cyllideg sy'n cyllideg sydd yn ceisio i gy chessau, ac yn cyfathor, yn gwneud â'r gyllideg sy'n cyllideg sy'n cyllideg sy'n cyllideg sy'n y Gymru yn y Llywodraeth Llywodraeth a Llywodraeth Mededigol. Ac mae'r cymdeithas llyfr yn y Llywodraeth Llywodraeth. Felly mae'n ddweud y gwaith yn y cross, roedd y cross yn yr yrwyr, yn Llywodraeth Llywodraeth yn y cross, bobl yn y cymdeithasol. Dyna, rwy'n gweithio i'r holl yn nhw a ddiweddol yn y llyfr ar ble人 o'r llyfr. A os ydw i'n ymlaen i'r llyfr, oedd yn y bwysig o'r llyfr, Ieithio i ddechrau'r Chalas a'r amser o'r gael. Rwy'n meddwl ydych chi'n gweld y bwl, y cyfryd, y bwysig, y bwysig, y bwysig, ac mae'n gwneud i'r cyfrannu, y gyfrannu, ac mae'n gwysig, ac mae'r cyfrannu, ac mae'n gwneud i'r cyfrannu. Ond ydych chi'n gael, mae'n cyfrannu, a dych chi'n gweld y bwysig. Rwy'n meddwl gyrdd y bwysig, ac mae'n cyfrannu, ac mae'r panell o gwyllwch gael ffordd yn ystod yn gyfyrddio'r bwysig ar y bwysig ar gael. Mae'r bwysig ar y gyfyrdd yn gwyllwch yn gyfyrddol. Mae'r bwysig ar gael yn cael hynny. Ond mae'n mynd i chi'n ffordd yn dŷl i'n ffordd. Ond ydy'r gwyllwch yn eich panell, ac mae'n eu cyntaf yn gwyllwch yn gwyllwch yn gwyllwch. A ddydd mor ffordd yn gwyllwch ar gyfer mwych yn gwyllwch. Working underneath the chalesnthd, we again see the bowl guardle, the handle, the handle scotion, which you can see more clearly here and of course the roundabout with the cross of arcs. In addition we have another foot ring underneath the foot. Here on the lower foot ring. Then we have an extremely elaborate has put disco in the center and right in the centre of some spectacular crystal. Mae'r chaeles wedi bod yw, yn y blyneddau y 1960, y blynedd yn ei wabwll yn y blynedd. Felly, mae'n gweithio i London o Gwylfaen i'r Museum Brysh, ond at y stag, y Museum Gwylfaen i'r Museum Nath wedi'u ffarnu ei ffarnu'r stag ar gyfer y Llywodraeth Rysgrifedd. Ond mae'n clyw o'r bwysig yn byw ychwanegwyd, mae'n mynd i'n rhoi cyflymaint i cyflymeth y byddwch i'n gweithio'n llunio'r bobl o bobl o'r llunio cyflymaint i'ch cyflymaint i'n cyffredeg y LLAAF yw'r cyffredeg. Mae'r dweud yn 1973 oedd yn yr aelwyddiwch pan oedd Robert Orkin yn yr olaiffau — sydd wedi bod yn gyllid o'r gweithoedd wrth gwrthidag... D steel yn 1973. Fe wnaeth bod y gweithio'r rhaglennig ar y snod yn y cyfnod ar lwnnod yn Llywodraeth, nid yw'r cyfan yn ei gweithio'r cyfan, ac mae'n ddiweddio'r gweithio'r cyfan i'w meddwl. Ac gennym nhw'n ei wneud ar y cyfan, oherwydd rwy'n ei ddweud'r byw i'r Gwyl Siamol Ffarned, ac mae'n cyfrifesio'r gweithio'r wych, myl o'r cyfrifesio'r cyfrifesio'r gweithio, Maevers Bimson, efallai ar y Brish Museum y Llyfrgellab, felly mae'r newid yn ymgyrch. Felly, mae'r newid yn ymgyrch o'r Llyfrgellab i'r Newid, hopr oedden nhw'n hoffi i'n hoffi y 2018. Ond oes wedi'i gwirionedd o'r cyflodiad yn yma, mae'n gweithio'n gwneud i gael cofnwyr a hynny, byddwch yn cwrwyddon Robert Organ yn ein cyfrifau cyflodiadau. Ond yma, fe fyddwn i'n cymryd i'r cyfrifau, The iconography. There have been some sporadic papers but not that many. So one chapter of this book by me will consider the iconography. I have given a preliminary version this paper at the latest!.. That was held by Ihnen there two years ago... ...thereby hangs a tale later on in the talk. Right, yes. Now down to the iconography. The chalice is a communion vessel to be used of the mass and the mass recalls crucifixion, the resurrection and the promise of eternal salvation because it is a liturgical re-enactment of the last supper when Jesus breasted the bread and the wine and gave it to the apostles and the text is here, the relevant text is here on the screen, the one about the chalice in green at the bottom of the screen from Matthew's Gospel. And I don't really need to read it to you because I'm sure it's pretty familiar to you. Now, looking at the iconography of this object, the question is, did it affect the form as well as the decoration? And I'm going to start by considering the form because at Golgotha there was a relic which was believed to be the actual chalice used at the last supper and it was viewed by pilgrims, including the one whose visit is reported by the abbot of Iona Adyfnon in Delocus Sanctus. And his description of the chalice is very interesting in this context because he says, and it's in green at the bottom of the screen, the chalice is silver, it has the measure of a gaelish pint, therefore it was fairly big, whatever a gaelish pint was, and it has two candles flashing on either side. Now it was suggested as long ago as 1932 by Liam Gogan that this description of the relic at Golgotha was the exemplar for the last chalice. And I think that's quite likely to be correct, it can't be proved. But what can be proved is that the last supper was very definitely in the minds of the designers, often of the ardar chalice, because the names of the 12 apostles who were present are inscribed in display script against a speckled background right under the bullguardle as I mentioned a moment ago. And in fact there are the 12 apostles with of course, I'm afraid Judas doesn't figure, Paul comes in as a substitute and he's named at the beginning of the list. And the point about this is actually reinforced by the fact that there are 12 gold panels above this inscription and 12 very elaborate ornate glance studs. Now I'm not going to go into this because I don't have time, but it was suggested in 1984 by the late Hela Richardson that a number of the ornaments on the chalice actually do reflect sacred numbers. And she pointed out that it's clear that this system was understood in Ireland because it's referred to in the Stomysil and by Erujana as well. And there is a reference to her paper if you're interested in following this up. But meanwhile back to the inscription. Here we have the beginning of the list, Petrie, Paulie, Andre, with an honorific pie at the beginning of Peter and Paul's name rather than a Greek P. And there is Andrew's name and there's even a little, you may not see it, but there are tiny little crosses, equal crosses following Peter and Paul's name to I think honor them. Now, the sharp-eyed among you will have observed that this inscription is not in the nomative, it's actually in the genital case. And Tom O'Lachlan, who has looked at this inscription, has said that if this was supposed to be a list which was simply in memory of the apostles, the list would be in the nomative and if it was a list dedicated to them it should be in the data, but it's not, it's in the genital and why. Here you are, here are the names. The last two names are actually in the nomative, but all the orange names there, they're all in the genitive. Now Tom thinks that the nomative at the end is simply a careless mistake and the genitive is the intended case and his publicist results here in the Journal of Celtic Studies in 2005. And what he suggested is that this use of the genitive suggests that it's derived from the liturgy, from the Communion County section of the Eucharistic Prayer of the Roman Rite, and this is supported by in fact the edition of Paul, starting with Peter and Paul. Now this prayer is recorded in the late 8th century Irish stone missile, so it was certainly known in Ireland, and the implication of this in Tom's opinion is that this inscription is not only in memory of the apostles, but it's also a prayer to them to be present in communion with the faithful during the liturgical ceremony. Of course the last supper was followed by the crucifixion and we've already seen the cross of arcs in a very prominent position in the centre of the bowl on both the front and the back of the chalice, and there's an extremely subtle detail on what I think must be the front of the chalice because it's the side where the list starts with Peter and Paul. And I'm drawing attention to here with these little arrows. The top picture on the screen is looking down on the chalice from above and I hope you can see there are two stud collars right across the cross of arcs and each is ringed by a gold stud collar and the little red arrows are pointing at that. Now these are the only two stud collars on the bowl guard with gold rings, all the rest are encircled by silver stud collars, as indeed is even the stud collar on the cross of arcs itself. So this seems to me to be a way of focusing on the front of the chapel and another little bit of honouring in this case the cross. The cross of arcs itself is jewelled and it's probably therefore refers to the jewelled cross which stood at the spot where Christ was believed to be crucified at Golgotha. But there's another very subtle link here and that is the last supper is linked to the cross because the margin and it's much clearer in fact on the bottom of the screen here in the drawing. If you see the top orange arrow points to where the angle changes, the margin surrounding the inscription deviates goes round the bottom half of the cross and ends in two lion heads here. So this is a very subtle way of linking the last supper with what followed the crucifixion and the choice of lion heads is probably also symbolic. I think they are liles because as you see they have mains and they're not at all unlike the lion here on the book of Kells because the lion is another simple, a Christological symbol. It's the lion of Judah, that's Christ, but it's also symbolises the crucifixion and the resurrection because in the physiologus which is reiterated, this detail is reiterated by, is it also of Sibyl, in the etymolopiae. The lion is sent to symbolise the crucifixion because it was believed that even while it slept its eyes were watchful just as when Christ slept on the cross his divine nature kept watch, that's a quotation. And of course the lion symbolises the resurrection because of the extremely picturesque belief that little lion cubs were born dead but on the third day they were brought to life by their father breathing and roaring on them just as Christ arose from the dead on the third day. There is probably yet another Christological symbol and there is perhaps yet another one here and that is in the form of these serpents, I hope you can see them. There are paired serpents on the cross arms here, the slave cross arms, each of these slave cross arms has got a pair of serpents. You can see their little heads seen from above and this may be a reference to a passage in John's Gospel and I quote it. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that's the brazen serpent, even so the son of God must be lifted up, i.e. comparing the brazen serpent with the crucifixion. And it's very interesting that when Benedict Bishop went to Rome and came back with some pallor paintings, they were paired and one of the pairs indeed did represent, were told by Pete, the brazen serpent paired with the crucifixion. So this concept of linking these two things is in the air. And Heather Pulliam has pointed out that on the marginal ornament in the book of Kells, serpents are particularly concentrated beside the passage describing the passion, but not only that at the moment when the Eucharist is instituted at the last supper. So again, this ornament may not be accidental, it may not just be mere embellishment. And continuing with this line of thought, yet another possible cruciological symbol is this very prominent crystal under the foot. Now the argument for this as being a cruciological symbol comes from a statement by Gregory of Great in his homily in Jerusalem. He follows plenty in believing that crystal is actually formed of frozen water, and I quote, frozen, moisture from the sky falling as pure snow, so it's very pure. And there's an extremely long simile in Gregory's homily, which I can't possibly read the whole thing, but I'll just read a little bit. Crystal hardens from water and becomes fine. So this is following plenty. The body of our edema was somewhat similar to water through the glory of that body's resurrection. It changes from corruption to the perfection of incorruption. It grew hard just as crystal hardens from water. And Jennifer Cornruth, who has actually drawn attention to this passage, has suggested that this is the reason that the crucifixion is so frequently engraved on a crystal in Carolingian art, and there is an example. Now here is the actual crystal from the art actualis, and as you can see, it's quite markedly domed. That's it taken out of its setting when it was being examined in the British Museum. Right. Now another suggestion unpublished as yet by my friend Conor Newman, about which he kindly allows me to refer to, is he has pointed out the domed nature of this dot and compared it to the well-known dome over the edicule, over the tomb of Christ. And here is a depiction of it, an early depiction. I think it's 6th century. And he's also drawn attention to the number of rings around this start, and compared it to the depiction of the Holy Sepulchre in the Vienna Codex of Adyfnon's De Locus Sanctus. Now this is incapable of proof, of course, but it is a very interesting idea. But to return to the cross, as we saw, the most prominent motif on the chalice is of course the cross of ox on the front, on the back. But this is by no means the only cross on the chalice. There are really quite a large number of crosses of diverse forms executed in different techniques all over the chalice. And then this, again, it recalls the cales, and I'm quoting here Barnett Mearn in his recent book about the book of cales, the cross occurring on almost every page of the manuscript in myriad sizes and forms that's certainly reminiscent of the chalice. It was a constant reminder of the major preoccupation of the Christian message that's Christ's sacrifice on the cross and its redemptive function. So let's start. Well now, you've seen the cross of ox before, but what I did not point out is that not only do you have a very prominent cross, a dual cross, but the dual in the centre of the cross actually depicts a little cross, another little cross. So you have a cross within a cross, and this is precisely what you get actually on the cross of ox in the book of Dorrell as well. So this seems to be a standard device in the insulin world in this period. But that is by no means all. Now we look at the glass pseudoclozone gems on the Beauregardle and also on the handless caution, and the patterns there are quite diverse, but with one exception they're cruciform. There's one, that's that one, there's another one, another cruciform pattern, there's yet another one, this one's on the handless caution. There that stud, blue and yellow, blue and gold and red stud there at the base of the handless caution and there's another one I think up there. So again we have repetition of cross patterns, little ones, and now we move down to the upper footring and lo and behold we have further crosses. This time they are equal arm crosses, there are two types, the studs are all basically blue studs, but on some you have little red crosses with yellow corners, that's the ones on that side, the far side, and on others you have the opposite, you have little yellow crosses with blue corners. And there is in the bottom of row you see a painted stud from the book of Celts, which to my eye at least looks like a stud of this type, which must have been more common, painted on the book of Celts. And that's not all. Now we look under the chalice at the lower footring and what do we have? This time we have swastkas, they are made with a punch on copper plates, some of them have got a green inlay and the British Museum team couldn't decide if that was simply a corrosion product or if it was a deliberate inlay. But if you look at the panel as a whole there, likewise a British Museum photograph, you can see I hope that the swastka is very clearly depicted and staying with the lower footring there are further crosses here. Now these ones are harder to see because they are actually hidden in interlaces and they are on four panels which the arrows point to, these are four panels, they are prespect panels, they are all stamped from the same die, so the basic pattern is identical and that's one of them below, so right. To see these crosses we have to follow the advice of Gerard at Wales, who was a very perceptive observer of Insurata. This comes from his famous description of a lost gospel book from St Bridges' Monster in Kildare, which sounds rather like the book of Celts. He said we have to penetrate with our eyes to the secrets of the artistry and that's what we have to do here. So right. So here we have above ringed, I hope you can see, we have one cross and equal across with sblade arms and then there's another one there beside it and there's a third one on that panel. There are three hidden crosses concealed in interlaces on each of these four panels. And there it is. Now again, it's by no means unique. Here we have the self-se motif this time, which has two crosses concealed in interlaces on the tall cross at Monster Boys later than the older child. It's late ninth or early tenth century. So this again is something which was well understood among the Christian artists of this period. And again, it's not only there. Here's the book of Celts. There are some hidden crosses there in interlaces. Off we go. I hope you can see them. And we now go to the Linisfarne Gospels. There's a cross here, but there are crosses within the cross. There they go. Lots of them. There they are. So again, the idea of the cross of course is the chief Christian emblem symbolising redemption through crucifixion. And it is the cross in isolation is one of the most important motifs on our dark channels. But what I would now hope to demonstrate to you that you also have the cross in combination with other motifs. And the first version, which we will discuss, is what Egon Van Mares described as a central motif complex in Christian art in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. That is the cross surrounded by representatives of the three genera of creation as described in Genesis. That's creatures of the land, of waters, air and land. In other words, fish, birds and beasts. Now this does seem a rather curious idea and the idea goes back to St Paul and to one of the church fathers, Irenaeus, who argued during on St Paul that Christ should be seen as a second Adam because what he does is he comes along and does the damage done by the first Adam through his sacrifice on the cross. And in the process creation is renewed. The world is created afresh and therefore through the crucifixion not only you have a new world and of course you have a new creation including all these categories of animal. And therefore the cross surrounded by the three genera of creation becomes a standard motif signifying redemption. Now there is no canon for the depiction of this motif. It is shown in all sorts of different ways. Here is one completely explicit way from the Essenverden portable order. That's 8th century. I hope you can see quite clearly Crucified Christ with wrecks above his head and right above that we have two winged creatures, creatures of the air. Beside him there are no less than four fish, creatures of the water and beside his legs his little creepy crawlies clearly creatures of the land quadrupeds. That's one way of depicting it. But there are plenty of others. Here we have the older Lindau gospel cover. There the cross spans the entire cover. But there's a very narrow margin around the perimeter. And on the older parts, which I've wrung there in yellow, in As Gwntaharyslawf's drawing shows we have enamel panels and what do they show? They show creatures of the land, creatures of the water and creatures of the air. So this is yet another way of depicting this motif. But it can really go quite wild the way this motif is depicted. Here is the Jalasian sacramentary, 8th century Merovingian, and we have no less than three different types of bird here. There's a pair crouching on the cross arms, another pair hanging from the alpha and the omega, and yet another little pair, different types. You see they're all different and they are eating, I presume they are consuming, getting spiritual nourishment from the tree of life. So there are our creatures of the air, we have creatures of the land in the various roundels on the cross, and indeed over here we have a deer. So right, creatures of the air, creatures of the land, and how about creatures of the water? Well they're the most charming of all, in my opinion, there's one fish, but below what do we have? The word Novarish, written in fish with a few little birds on the capital of the initial, but that's it. Now coming closer to home to the Celtic, whatever that means, world, the later much lamented Carole Hicks pointed out that the self-same motif is depicted on the Lullingstone hanging bull. And there are crosses, as she noted, there they are, there are birds, fish, by the way, which I borrowed, and of course, so sorry I've gone backwards, but creatures, there was deer as well, therefore creatures of the land. So this is known in the incident of wild, and in my opinion you find it on the Ardra Chalice, but really quite hard to see until you really start to look. Now where are these creatures? Well we return to our panels here, the four panels with the hidden crosses, because there are fish on this panel as well. Now I have to tell you, I didn't see these at all until I gave a lecture in Dublin, and I proudly pointed out the hidden crosses and the members of the order shouted out, near their fish, look their fish, I went away and I looked and sure enough what did I find? But this little pair of fish, very light the fish on the moon high cross below, this is a panel depicting the miracle of the loaves and fishes, but you see there's these fat fish that face to face little kissing fishes and one is picked out above emerging from the interlace in pink and the other in green. But as you see on the moon panel there are two types of fish here, you've got the flat fish and you've got some skinnier ones, and as pointed out to me by the members of this audience, they think and I agree now that I've seen them, little fish in the corners rather like this fish in the book of Kells there immediately above. I hope you see the eye of that little fish, which I've pointed and ringed him there in a tear shaped yellow ring, and there are actually four of these. Now here we are, there's the panel as a whole, then we have in the middle here the kissing fish, and then below in the corners there are four little fish emerging from the corner, so three crosses and four fish on this panel. Those are the only fish I've been able to find on the chalice, so they're the creatures of the water, but creatures of the air, there are a number of examples, but I'm going to just pick out one. And that's fish birds on two panels on the goldfinery panels on the Bologardle, and here again we retarded Géraldus and we really have to struggle because his description of the ornament on the book of Kildair certainly applies here. When he said such intricacies, so delicate and subtle, so close together and well knitted, so involved and bound together, but there are birds here and I hope to persuade you. Now to pick them out, what I've done with the aid of the finished product being done by the archaeological illustrator Wilfoster, colour coded the various elements and that colour coded drawing below shows what's there and there's not an extra line. It's only what's there and there I hope you see the eye of a bird and it's got a very long beak which extends into the corner and on the other side there's another eye of a bird with a shorter beak. But I know that's still quite hard to see so we need to isolate the individual motifs and here in Wilf's drawings we have them. Now we're starting at the top left of the panel and here is, there's a little bird ahead and I hope you can see with that very long beak going into the corner again, there is its wing, there is its leg and it's got an exceptionally elaborate tail. Now, although I may have been pretty courageous about identifying various species hitherto, I don't like to say categorically that this might be a highly stylised peacock but it might be because that would be a very appropriate motif on the chalice because of the belief that the peacock's flesh did not putrify like Christ of Rhys, it survives death in other words. Now there are four of these very elaborate creatures and then in between them are actually a different creature, a slightly odd creature, this is a bird head but with a fishtail and so they form the trefoil knots on the overall patterns. So there we have creatures of the air and there are other examples but I don't have time to go into that. And finally, creatures of the land. Now, the simplest way to find these are to look at the engravings, we've already seen the engraved lions with their mains and their other snump cat-like noses. So we have lions, if we look at the engraving under the bow, under the handless guttions, there are different beasts, these ones have long muzzles and ferocious teeth and I personally think that they look like hounds. And actually in, there are references in the old Irish tale, Thawin Boughfrych, the catarrate of Frych, to a stringed instrument, probably a larr, being decorated with birds, snakes and hunting dogs, meal coup, that's the word in old Irish and I think that that's what these are. And then at the top of the handle, a Scotian, there are some other little creatures and they are hesitant to identify them, are they calves, are they lambs, I don't know, I think we can't be sure, but they're a different species. And there's yet another species in the filigree panels on the bowl guardle and they are different and so I will now hope to show them to you. They have, there's the eye of the head, I'm going to try to show them with the pointer, there's the eye, there's the mouth, long neck, shoulder spiral, long leg, is this coming out, yes. And then the body goes round, there's the hip spiral and the hind leg with the hind foot and this very curious feature, a straight horn. Just pointing them out again, there's the shoulder, there's one of the forelegs, the shoulder and the hind leg and oh that's the tail which goes right off to the far corner and then this curious feature. Now there are four panels decorated with this same motif, two of these creatures in each panel and each of these creatures has this one so it's not an accident what is it. Well, there are goats in the Book of Kells but I do not see this as a goat because the horn is not sloping backwards as it is on the fairly naturalistic representation of the goat in the Book of Kells. It's not a stag either because they knew how to show stags. Here is a stag from the filigree panel on the Darren and Fran pattern. What I personally think it is, is a unicorn. That's the only thing that makes sense to me with this single horn on each of the creatures. Now if this is a correct identification that's yet another Christological symbol. Ambrose of Milan, I quote, who then is this unicorn but the only begotten son of God, a battle of Caesarea, Christ will be called the son of unicorns. And back to Isidore of Seville and the Physiologus, there's an extremely elaborate allegory in which a unicorn is trapped by a maiden. She represents the Virgin Mary and the unicorn stands for Christ descending into the Virgin womb and thus the incarnation. So, I hope I have persuaded you that we definitely have the cross surrounded by the three genera of creation on the Ardal Chalice. But that is not the only motif complex on the Chalice Inn I am now persuaded. Now I mentioned at the beginning the Insurant Conference two years ago in Galway. And at that conference was Michael Clark, who is Professor of Classics at the University there. And Michael heard my lecture and went away, sent me a most excited email saying, unicorns near music to my ears because he now thinks that there is another reference on the Ardal Chalice and that is to Psalm 21 in the Vulgate. This is the Psalm which is alluded to repeatedly in the Gospels as a prophecy of the crucifixion. And indeed it is quoted, the opening lines are quoted in the account of the passion when he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now the prophet is having an extremely hard time in this Psalm, he's been tormented by among other things the power of the dog, the lion's mouth and the horns of the unicorn. And what do we have, quite independently suggested by me on the Ardal Chalice, but in my opinion, lines, hands and unicorns. Now Michael Clark has pointed out that if this is what we have on the Ardal Chalice it would not be unique in the period, or roughly the period, because in the wonderful Stuttgart Psalter here, which illustrates each of the Psalms, we have the illustrations of the self-same Psalm actually does show the crucified Christ who you can see there on this side, there he is on the cross. And what is around him, but a unicorn, with the horn of the unicorn right touching his, under his armpit, we have a lion, and on the other folio, the facing folio, we have dogs actually biting him. So, and indeed the Eucharistic imagery is explicitly referred to here because there is an actual chalice presumably catch the holy blood of the Eucharist between the unicorn and the lion. So I am persuaded that this is a correct identification on the Ardal Chalice, and it's not just found in the Carolingian period on the Stuttgart Psalter. Egon Varmers has argued that it's also found on this dish, which he says suggests is a picks, the Holdenmore cup, and as you see there are a number of roundels, I think there are four roundels on this object, and looking at the drawing at the bottom, there's a lion in two, inviting for the foliage between each roundel in my opinion, our hands, heads, and then in the roundel which we see illustrated above there is one. Egon Varmers has suggested is a unicorn. Now it has been suggested, and if you look at the BM website, you will find that this creature is identified as a bull, and that would also be consistent with Psalm 21 because another creature harring the psalmist is actually a bull. But try as I might, there's no way I can see any bulls on the Ardal Chalice, but it's interesting that we just have three of the creatures here on the Holdenmore picks or a dish as well. The argument is that there is quite clear genitalia shown on the bulls here in the Stuttgart Psalter, but none on the vessel, and indeed the horns also are quite different, so I am persuaded that we actually have the same assemblage on this dish as we have on the Ardal Chalice. And interestingly, Martin Henig has suggested that Psalm 21 is referred to in a much earlier period on the Hinton St Mary pavement, which is clearly Christological, there is Christ with the Cairo behind him, and below you see a detail where you see a hand harring a deer. So this, like the motif of the cross surrounded by the three genera, this seems to be maybe a long standing Christological image. So to conclude, first of all it seems to me that the decoration of the Ardal Chalice is rich in Christal symbolism which can be read on a number of different levels. Now clearly the overall theme is redemption through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, but the Christian message is proclaimed by many decorative elements individually as well as by elements in combination referring to both the three genera of creation and to the foretelling of the crucifixion in Psalm 21. So the iconography of the Chalice to me at least now appears to be ever bit as sophisticated and complex as the techniques and the variety of its decoration, which have hitherto been the main study. Now clearly the style and the technique as we see in this panel here for the wallgall are typically Irish, but the message of the ornament is a basic Christian one that can only be understood in the broader context of the scriptures, biblical ectagesis and art in very different styles from other parts of the late antique and medieval world. And before concluding, I must acknowledge that I've had, after help, I have had from very many sources and here they are. So thank you very much indeed.