Fragment of Carved Bone, Battle Abbey

This a small piece of crozier. A crozier is a hooked staff carried by a bishop as a symol of pastoral office. It is carved walrus ivory and found north of reredorter once formed part of an ecclesiastical staff, an important symbol for a senior church official. The decoration of acanthus leaves and beading is typical of very early 12th-century design, but the details are so similar to carvings found at Canterbury Cathedral that there it has been suggested that this staff came from that city. A possible explanation for this connection is Abbot Henry, who arrived in Battle in 1096 having previously been Prior of Canterbury.