Head One - Stone head from the interior of St Michael's Church, Kirklington, North Yorkshire
This head is one of thirteen "Celtic", or archaic heads that are located within the interior of the church. Twelve of those heads, including this one, are located in four rows of three, which run down either side of the churches arched columns. The thirteenth head is located in the bell tower.
This particular head is usually the first head a visitor to the church will see as they enter. It is the first head of the far, south arch row, located at the top of the column, where the arches meet.
Kirklington Head 1 - right side
Purpose of this page
It is highly unlikely that anything other than the existence of this head will come to be known about this head in any archaeological or historic research. In many ways, that is no different to any other piece of "art", and there are many archaeologists that offer interpretations of the potential meaning for such objects and artistic renderings.
Therefore, I will start to offer my own, initially, completely unsubstantiated "potential" interpretations. However, the idea is that I shall collect other related artefacts, in terms of similar typological examples (this is not the only example of this type of head that I have found), and hope to be able to create a wider set of understandings that can reflect further, helpful understandings. However, it is very unlikely that anything one can infer from this process would ever be provable.
Initial Interpretive Statement
I call him the "One Eared God".
We know now, that the right ear, feeds the left brain. And the idea is, that in the left brain of a man, you have the animus, the male logical thinker. In the right brain we have the imagination, long term memory and the unknown, that which we are unconscious of, and in most men, this is where the anima resides.
Therefore, one can say that spiritually, this head is showing a man that is not listening with their logical left brain, and is tuning into that imaginative and creative, and also feminine place, their right brain.
You'd be surprised what can be inferred by the geometry of a head. Imperfections can be equated to biases within the archetype being expressed. Here we can see this is definitely some kind of "other" being, this is not a human head.
For example, you can see that his mouth is off-centre, and is speaking with a bias to the right side. The concept here, is that an "injury" to one sense, causes the other senses to compensate. And here we see that the loss of the logical hearing has developed into a voice that compensates by sounding very logical.
Perhaps, now you might see that what we are looking at, is a mask - a face that describes an underlying character, And we can see, possibly, a person that does not think logically, but puts on a pretence of that exact opposite, in order to compensate for their inner "lacking".
Then you see they also have a big head, and we can therefore include the potential of boastfulness to this personality mix.
I don't want to end there, as I'm painting a poor picture of this fellow, yet I tell you, he is a hero, and I'll tell you why.
Look at the height difference between both his eyes and his ears.
The idea with the height difference, is to indicate "higher", or "lower" abilities, and callings. So we can see that the left ete is very noticeably higher, and the left ear is also higher, closer to heaven, or higher thoughts, if you like.
So now I am picturing someone that has their focus entirely on a bright and colourful future. Someone that tends to deeply admire the divine feminine, someone that uses art, imagination, that adoration of the divine feminine as their inspiration. But someone that is also deeply flawed. Too flawed to hold onto those things that they love.
For once, they have completed their quest, and won the hand of their lady, without any further quests, they turn into a bore, a boaster, someone that sits on their laurels long after they have dried and shrivelled.
That may well describe one version of an "Arthur", or a "Lugh", type archetype. Or am I just being romantic with a piece of stone?
A fragment of a cast one-piece copper-alloy early post-Medieval animal (crotal) bell. The suspension loop is integral, trapezoidal in shape and drilled. The upper hemisphere is broken across the opposing sound holes and has sunburst or [...]
A complete copper-alloy one-piece crotal bell of post-medieval date, c.AD 1500 - 1650. The bell is spherical and hollow, separated into two hemispheres by an integral raised circumferential ridge. An integral sub-rectangular attachment loop projects [...]
A complete copper-alloy button of medieval to Post-Medieval date, c.AD 1400 - 1700. The object is heart-shaped with a thick rectangular profile. The sides of the heart bend forward from a central groove (possibly not [...]
A worn silver halfgroat of James I of England (AD 1603-1625), struck at the Tower of London between AD 1603-4. Thistle initial mark. North N2076. [...]
A cast copper-alloy discoidal button with integral loop dating to the post-medieval period, c. AD 1700-1800. The button is formed in one piece and is decorated on the fron face with a central rose design [...]
A complete and little worn Iron Age silver unit of the North Thames Region / Catuvellauni, attributed to Tasciovanus c. 20 BC - AD 10 (Haselgrove Phase 7). "Braided hair" type. Obverse: Head left with [...]
A worn silver cut halfpenny of Henry III (AD 1216-1272), voided long-cross type dating to c. AD 1250-1256. Struck by the moneyer Randulf in Bury St Edmonds, Class 5b-c, North no. 992-993. [...]
A foot from a cast copper-alloy bow brooch dating to the later first or second century AD. The foot retains the catchplate and the lower bow has a raised central ridge. Due to being fragmentary, [...]
A small fragment of a cast copper-alloy spherical animal bell (crotal bell) of Post-medieval date (AD 1600-1800). The bell would have comprised two hemispherical domes with a raised circumferential join and a rectangular attachment loop. There are signs [...]
A silver Medieval half groat of Edward IV, first reign, light issue, type IX dating to 1464-1470. Rose initial mark and trefoils by neck of obverse bust. Canterbury mint, royal issue. As North 1589. [...]
A fragment of a Roman copper-alloy brooch, interpreted as a trumpet derivative of Wroxeter type, dating to AD 75-200. The surviving element comprises the head, upper decorative projection and a reduced bow/foot. The head is box-like [...]
A fragment of a cast copper alloy Anglo-Saxon brooch, probably a radiate-headed type dating from the mid sixth century AD. Only the foot plate remains; this is triangular with flanking knops at the junction with [...]
A Medieval silver penny of Edward II (AD 1307-1327), Withers Type 30, North Class 11, not further defined,dating to AD 1310-1314. Mint of London: Ref: Withers and Withers 2001: 32. [...]
An incomplete Post Medieval copper-alloy rowel spur dating to circa AD 1600-1700. The spur consists of a small portion of both arms - terminating in old breaks - neck, and rowel box. The box is projects from the upper [...]
A complete Medieval to Post Medieval lead-alloy loom weight dating to circa AD 1200- 1800. It is circular in plan and rectangular in section. It has a central hole of 10mm in diameter. Weights of this [...]
An incomplete Medieval copper-alloy buckle dating to circa AD 1250-150. The extant piece consists of the pin, likely from an annular buckle.The pin shaft is rectangular-sectioned. It has a loop at one and tapers into [...]
A complete Medieval to Post Medieval signet ring dating to circa AD 1400-1600. The ring comprises a broadly circular hoop with expanded sub-oval bezel when viewed from underneath. The shoulders and hoop are plain. The hoop [...]
An incomplete Medieval copper-alloy buckle dating to circa AD 1350-1550. The surviving piece consists of the frame. It is circular in plan with a central offset bar creating two D-shaped loops. The frame is plano-convex [...]
