my mom and I chose to spend our late morning at the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Қазақстан Республикасының Ұлттық Орталық Мұражайы).
After several days of traveling through markets, mountains, lakes, and small villages, this felt like a natural place to bring everything together. The museum works almost like a timeline, helping us understand how the country has evolved over time.
The museum works almost like a map of time. It takes visitors back beyond written history, starting with the movement of nomadic tribes across the vast steppe. They did not build cities in the way we usually think of them, but followed routes shaped by seasons, land, and livestock. Their way of life gradually influenced everything from daily routines to social structure.
We moved through the halls at an unhurried pace as if piecing together something we had already glimpsed during the days we spent traveling through this land.
Traditional instruments like the dombra and kobyz were not just musical tools, but also a way of preserving stories. Clothing such as chapans and takiyas reflected both the climate and aspects of identity. Smaller items, like tobacco boxes or silk pouches, gave insight into everyday life, details that are often left out of historical summaries.
As the exhibition progresses, the narrative shifts from movement to settlement, and eventually to the formation of a more structured society and cultural identity.
By the time we reached the later sections, it was easier to relate everything back to what we had seen ourselves. The landscapes, the villages, and even the pace of life we experienced during the trip began to make more sense in a broader context.
Ending the trip here added another layer to the journey. It was not only about where we went, but also what we learned along the way.
By the time we left the museum, we had a clearer understanding of Kazakhstan than when we first arrived.
These jet beads were found in a field near Canonbie, in Dumfriesshire, and probably date from the late 1200s or early 1300s AD. Thought to be one of the oldest surviving examples of paternoster beads in Britain, they are now on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Paternoster beads were used by many Christians in the Middle Ages to count prayers, and their name comes from a particularly popular prayer, the Pater Noster (i.e. the “Our Father” or the Lord’s Prayer). In the Later Middle Ages, the use of such prayer beads would eventually develop into what we now know as the Rosary. Items for helping people count their prayers have existed since the earliest days of Christianity, and prayer beads can also be found in other religions. However the western rosary as we know it today is believed to have developed in the twelfth century, when the practise of praying 150 Hail Marys, split into groups of ten, became common. Guilds of beadmakers were also established by the thirteenth century, although a Catholic tradition dating back to the fifteenth century states conversely that the first appearance of the Rosary occurred c.1214, when St Dominic was given one in a vision by the Virgin Mary.
Over time a structured framework evolved for praying the rosary, but in the High Middle Ages prayer beads could also be used more generally to keep count of the main prayers such as the Pater Noster and Ave Maria. Rosaries could also be quite valuable items, worn as status symbols as well as devotional aids. Many written references to expensive rosaries owned by the wealthy elites of Late Mediaeval Scotland have survived, such as the “grete bedis of gold contenand sex score twa bedis and a knop” discovered in one of the treasure chests of the late King James III in 1488, or the gold beads and cross which were given as a New Year’s gift to Elizabeth Barlow, a lady-in-waiting to Margaret Tudor, in 1507 and which were worth over £62*. But whether they were fashioned from simple wood or the most precious metals and jewels, rosaries never lost their spiritual importance and they remain an important devotional aid for many Catholics today.
These particular beads are made of jet and were discovered in 1863, as part of a hoard turned up by the plough on the farm of Woodhead near Canonbie, a few miles from the Anglo-Scottish border. During the initial examination of the trove, it was suggested that the beads might have formed part of a necklace. However the shape of the beads makes it more likely that they were used for counting prayers: 13 oval beads survive along with two larger faceted beads, which might have been used to mark the completion of each “decade” (set of ten prayers).
Although these beads are not quite so showy as some of the gold examples mentioned above, jet was still a costly material in the Middle Ages. Certainly the owner of these beads thought they were precious enough to hide with the rest of their valuable goods. The hoard also included 76 silver coins (from Scotland and England), several gold rings, and silver brooches, some of which can be seen elsewhere in the National Museum of Scotland. The coins might provide a clue as to when the hoard was buried. Most of them date from the reigns of Kings Alexander III (reigned 1249 to 1286) and John (r. 1292-1296) of Scotland, and King Edward I of England (r.1272-1307). This suggests that the hoard, including these jet beads, was buried at the very end of the thirteenth century or in the first years of the fourteenth.
The border between Scotland and England had long been an area of cultural exchange and in the thirteenth century it included some of the best farmland in the kingdom, as well as some of Scotland’s richest towns. In the 1290s, however, war broke out between the two countries and this conflict would last for several decades, forever altering the relationship between the two neighbouring kingdoms and the character of the counties along the Anglo-Scottish border, Dumfriesshire included. These were dangerous and uncertain times, and whoever buried the Canonbie hoard may have squirrelled away their valuables to protect them from marauders or as an emergency source of wealth to be used in a crisis.
Whatever the context, the original owner never returned to recover much of this hoard, and so their jet prayer beads remained hidden underground for centuries. But their treasure trove at least benefited future generations as we can use their long-forgotten possessions to gain an insight into cultural and social conditions in the south of Scotland during the High Middle Ages. There is an added bonus- if the beads do predate the year 1300, they may be one of the oldest surviving examples of prayer beads in Britain. The Canonbie rosary beads thus serve as an important reminder of thirteenth century Scotland’s full participation in the wider trends of mediaeval Christendom, and might provide a glimpse into the cultural world inhabited by an anonymous Borderer on the eve of the Wars of Independence.
Notes and Sources can be found below the ‘Read More’ cut.
Notes:
*I believe £62 Scots in the year 1507 was worth between £8,000 to £11,000 sterling in today’s money, however I would need to do some more research to get an exact number. Either way this rosary was certainly a princely New Year’s Day gift! For comparison Elizabeth Barlow received 50 English shillings as her half-year wage, which was probably worth between £10 and £12 Scots in 1507.
** I have used rosary, paternoster beads, and prayer beads interchangeably in this post because while the Canonbie beads are referred to as a rosary in many sources, and the term rosary is probably the most familiar to modern readers, I’m not sure that they we can definitely say that they were used for praying the rosary in its proper sense and I believe that this concept was still evolving in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (the tradition of St Dominic aside). I am not an expert on Catholic devotional aids though so someone please correct me if I’m wrong. I am also not dismissing the tradition of St Dominic being given the rosary in a vision, but personally don’t find that explanation the most convincing though I don’t have space to go into the whole argument here.
Sources:
- “Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland”, edited by Sir James Balfour Paul and Thomas Dickson, Volumes 1 and 3
- “The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society”, Vol.3 (1863)
- “Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pans: Possessions and People in Medieval Britain”, by David Hinton
- “Beads and Prayers: The Rosary in History and Devotion”, John D. Miller
I inherited my grandmother sewing box when she died. This is one of the most precious and intimate things I own and these stork-shaped embroidery scissors are clearly the best part of it. I've been fascinated by them since my early childhood while watching my grandma sewing and even now I consider them to be the most exquisite object I've ever seen.
I know embroidery scissors are literally all shaped like that but this pair is unique because it tells a story from the past and my family.
1) A vessel containing Greek fire (think hand grenade).
2) Byzantine gold openwork bracelet set with gems.
3) Jewelry box (brass, elephant bone, jewels).
4) Migration period sword with a decorated blade.
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Occassionally a visitor will ask a question about an object I don't know the answer to. Sometimes it's general historical information like when a tool that was commonplace by the time of the museum's focus was actually invented or specific to the object like what material an object that we don't talk about often in a far corner of the room is made of. All fair questions and one's that a bit of research or look at the museum records could answer but that I don't have off the top of my head and can't interrupt the whole tour just to go find. I've noticed whenever this happens I wind up staring intently at the object as if I'm expecting it to tell me the information or something. I've even done it in some workshops and demonstrations, working on a craft of some kind (textiles, medicine, cooking, etc.) and I start staring at the tools or materials like I expect the answer to just pop out from them somehow.
