One Symbol’s Journey - Wayne Perkins - Zoom

Daisy Wheel, Hexfoil, Six-Petal Rosette & Flower of Life: One Symbol’s Journey

The symbol of the six-petal rosette is well known to graffiti hunters, sometimes referred to as a daisy wheel. To geometers it is known as a hexfoil (or hexafoil) and to the adherents of the New Age as the ‘Flower of Life.’

First recorded as a solar symbol in Near East in the 8th century BC flanking a Syrian solar deity. It appears in a similar role on the Gundestrup Cauldron of the Celts and carried west by the Roman Legionnaires where it appears on their headstones. It was adopted by the Carolingians and embedded within their sacred architecture and appeared alongside pagan imagery and on the grave slabs of the Christian Merovingian lords

In medieval Europe it was used to invoke the protection of the Virgin, sometimes acting as a ‘crown’ in sculptures from the Mediterranean. By the time it arrived in England, it was considered to be the motif most appropriate for the pilgrim ampullae of Our Lady of Walsingham, the second most important shrine in England after Thomas Beckets shrine Canterbury.

Speaker Bio

Wayne Perkins is an archaeologist of 23 years with a special interest in apotropaic graffiti, folklore and concealed objects recovered from ancient buildings.

Don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day.