The Story of Wales Origins Lunchtime Talk: Making

About

Seals have been an important tool for communication since the beginning of recorded history and provide a wealth of evidence for historical and cultural studies. Hundreds of thousands of seal matrices and impressions survive in archives, museums and private collections across Britain.

Most are small but these little objects can convey a great deal of information and offer unique insights about the individuals and institutions that owned and used them. In medieval Britain, kings and princes, monasteries and towns all had seals for legal and administrative reasons. They used the words and motifs on these practical items to convey, among other things, status, authority, lineage, piety and power.

Seals were however not just the preserve of the elites. Women and men across society owned and used them, providing glimpses of lives which otherwise have all but disappeared from the historical record.

Learn more at this talk with Dr Elizabeth New, Department of History and Welsh History, Aberystwyth University.