Barcelos No. 1

A roughly rectangular granite vessel with two damaged sides now located in the lapidarium of the Museu Arqueológico of Barcelos, which may or may not have served as baptismal font. One long side of the rectangular vessel and its adjacent narrow side to the right are are decorated: the now broken long side appears to have the remains of a Tau cross, the left arm would have been on the missing part of the side; the adjacent narrow side on its right has several lines and circles incised on it; the other two sides are plain; there appears to have been a side drain at the lower end of the angle formed by the two broken sides; the drain chanel is downwards inclined. The vessel is not displayed raised on a quadrangular block of granite. BSI does not have a similar object noted in Portugal, nor has there surfaced any reference to its possible use as a baptismal font, but the cross carved on one of the sides tends to suggest some liturgical-related use. A possible reference are the 'oil-fonts' of the Eastern Pyrenees, especially the areas around the Val d'Aran, although the need for tithe oil for heating and illumination might not relate to this area of Portugal. The Museum staff could not provide information on the origin of the object at the time [source: 13 March 2012 e-mail communication from Joost Limburg to BSI]. A later communication (e-mail of 7 April 2014) from Joost Limburg gave reference to a PhD thesis on medieval epigraphy in Portugal (Barroco, 2000), in which reference is made to this object, which Barroco definitely identifies as a baptismal font [NB: Barroco cites previous sources in his text] on which is an inscription; Barroco (ibid.) notes that the complete font was taller by at least 15 cm, and that the missing part may have contained part of the incmplete inscription; he dates the inscription to between the late 12th century and the mid-13th, and mentions the existence of a second much earlier font -7thC- found in this monastery. Barroco (ibid.) describes the nature of the inscription as "Inscrição comemorativa da oferta da Pia Baptismal por D. Maria (?) ao Mosteiro de S. Salvador de Banho. Encontra-se gravada numa das faces da Pia" [=inscription commemorating the donation of the font by D. Maria to the Monastery of Our Saviour of Banho]. Baptismal font of the ruined monastery of Banho. The SIPA site [www.monumentos.pt/Site/APP_PagesUser/SIPA.aspx?id=9031] [accessed 12 April 2014] notes: "arca funerária com uma cruz gravada em cada face, adaptada a pia". C.M.Barcelos (2008) has: "pia baptismal com a inscrição [.]/ D(o)M(n)E MA/RA M(e) FEC[it] (?)"