I think this is a tricky challenge – though again I think that some of the students who attend my classes have seen the full size image. This item is kept somewhere associated with the First Lord of the Treasury.
Picture Quiz 7
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Category Archives: picture quiz
Picture Quiz 6 answers
How many of you spotted Cardinal Wolsey’s travelling sundial this week?
Museum of the History of Science
This delightful object was created by the German mathematician Nicolaus Kratzer in 1522. He came to England in about 1518 and was astronomer to King Henry VIII. The base has Wolsey’s coat of arms on one side, the arms of York Minster – he was it’s archbishop form 1514 onwards- on the other and on the two smaller sides there’s a cardinal’s hat.
The sundial is polyhedral – basically it tells the time in a number of different ways depending on which side you’re using. And yes it is completely covered in gold. Aside from being a very busy man who needed to get to his meetings on time Wolsey was also demonstrating that he was a cultured and learned chap. Or put another way he liked beautiful and complicated things and if you were really lucky you might be invited to take a closer look if you visited him – so a conversation piece as well.
Holbein depicted Kratzer holding a sundial and there’s a polyhedral sundial in his picture of the Ambassadors which can be seen in the National Gallery.
For a happy half hour finding out more about the importance of mathematical objects including sundials visit the National Gallery page below to explore the Ambassadors by Hans Holbein.
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassadors
Picture Quiz 6
This week’s picture quiz is another mechanical device – though somewhat earlier than the Enigma machine. What is it? And for no prizes whatsoever – who did it belong to? Readers of the blog who also attend my classes may recognise it as I am prone to mentioning it whenever I discuss it’s owner.
Picture Quiz 5 answer
So who spotted the Enigma Machine? It was possibly a bit easier than the Viking lock and key.
Essentially the enigma machine was developed by the Germans during World War II to encrypt messages so that they could be transmitted securely. For a time the code seemed unbreakable. Alan Turing cracked the code with his team at Bletchley Park. The brilliant mathematician was eventually able to use the Bletchley Park Bombe machine to decrypt the signals.
Polish mathematicians initially started the process which was complicated when the Germans started changing their code every day. The capture of a set of code books and an in tact enigma machine by the Royal Navy on May 9th 1941 was key to the success – in later times Holywood played fast and loose with history by replacing the British Navy with an American force.
Having been to Bletchley Park I am still more than a little confused by what went on in hut 8, despite using the children’s guide and can only conclude that some very clever people worked there.
Picture Quiz 5
As you can see we’ve moved forward in time from the Vikings. I have the feeling that this will be more obvious.
Picture quiz 4 answers
Well! This week you were certainly intrigued and so many good guesses but no one got it. The image is of a padlock and key found in York dating from the Viking era during the Coppergate Dig – something I looked forward to seeing most summers now I come to think about it.
The barrel shaped lock is opened by inserting the key into the opening at the end. I think that the action of fitting the key compresses springs to release the shackle of the bolt. The lock is a high status item in its own right.
Picture Quiz 3 answer – Roman curse tablets
This is part of an image of an unfolded Roman curse tablet that can be found in Bath. There are 130 of them inscribed on sheets of lead or pewter. They were rolled up and dropped into the spring belonging to the goddess Sulis Minerva – Sulis is Celtic and the Romans simply tagged their own most appropriate goddess into the equation. They largely contain curses relating to thieves in Latin. One of the tablets is written in the Celtic language – making it unique.
I must admit that there are many fascinating Roman artefacts that I could have chosen. I selected these because they were recognised by UNESCO in 2014
Picture quiz 3
This one is tricky – all I’ll say is that you wouldn’t want to be the subject of one! There are approximately 130 examples of these in varying states. They have to do with a Celtic goddess who was Romanised – and that’s the biggest clue I’m going to give you.
Picture quiz 2 – the Sutton Hoo helmet
The picture I gave you last weekend was the mouthpiece.
The Sutton Hoo helmet was found in 1939 when a ship burial was excavated in Suffolk near Woodbridge. The ship – identified by the ghost of its decayed timbers and rivets was 27 meters long. It is believed to have belonged to King Raedwald of East Anglia. So, of seventh century origins. But because of the dates of the coins found with the helmet there are other possible owners for the ornate helmet including my own favourite King Anna.
Bede records that Raedwald converted to Christianity during a visit to Kent but reverted to Paganism on return home.
Anna was descended from the Wufflingas family – or Wuffling – what’s not to like? His father was Raedwald’s nephew. The family was related to the famous Abbess Hild of Whitby.
As for the helmet – it contains over 4,000 garnets so it belonged to a very important man indeed. Amongst the contents of the tomb were items from Scandinavia and the Mediterranean, demonstrating the complexity of early medieval trade routes as well as changing the way that Historian’s viewed the Anglo-Saxon world.
The BBC identified the helmet as one of the world’s most important 100 objects.
History Jar picture quiz 2
How did you do with the Alfred Jewel? Remember I’m choosing items of national significance from whatever period they might be. I think this one is a bit trickier…possibly.
