‘Magical’ medieval gold brooch found in Cawston field

The rediscovery of a “magical” brooch reveals how medieval people mixed the occult with religion, an expert said.

The ring-shaped gold brooch, from which two hands are suspended in prayer, was found at Cawston, Norfolk, by a metal detectorist in 2022.

Historian Helen Geake said it is engraved with “a kind of incantation” to “evoke magical protection”.

“It’s very, very hard to separate what we think of religion from the occult and magic” in this era, she added.

The 13th or 14th Century brooch is engraved “+M NV AV VN” around its outer face and “ED VM TR VN” on its inner face.

However, Dr Geake, Norfolk’s finds liaison officer, said it is not clear what order to read the letters in and as a result “they make no sense”, but “we think it’s meant to be magic, a kind of incantation”.

She suggested it might not have been necessary for the owner of the “magical amuletic brooch” to understand what the engraving stood for.

“We would want it to be decodable, but medieval people didn’t need that,” she said.

“Whatever they meant by it, God would interpret it properly as God knew everything.”

The letters were engraved on eight panels, divided by two flower bosses, the catch, and the hands.

“Those little hands are very evocative and they are held together in prayer,” she said.

It was made from gold, so would have been “high-end stuff”.

Because the piece of jewellery was more than 300 years old and made from precious metal, the detectorist reported it to Dr Geake, as required by law.

However, it was disclaimed, meaning no museum expressed a wish to acquire it, and as a result, returned to its finder.

Dr Geake said such medieval brooches offer “a little window into the medieval world”.

“Today we are more likely to know why someone died unexpectedly – they would want to evoke magical protection… to try to ward it off.”