from
Mysterious Universe...
Researchers in England analyzed it and determined that it’s a mazer bowl, a medieval container made from Wych Elm in the 14th century. It doesn’t appear to have any healing powers, which was probably apparent to believers who chewed it down from its original 12cm by 12cm to 10cm by 8.5cm. Despite being an impostor, it’s still a famous artifact and the local police are continuing their search for it.
Perhaps one might help to clear up the massively factually inaccurate reports now circulating everywhere just a tad...
Antiquarians have always said that the Nanteos Cup is a mediaeval mazer bowl. They've been saying it since the 19th Century.
Mazer bowls are usually made of maple (the word mazer comes from German, speckled, marked) although other woods are sometimes used.
Researchers in England have not analysed it at all - Wales is not in England!
A small contingent of biologists and forestry commission bods (whose names we don't even know) apparently glanced at it towards the end of August in 1977 over two days and apparently said it was made of wych-elm. They did not attempt to date the wood scientifically. All this is documented in an incredibly slim report which took nearly 8 years to produce. I have read it - it is not a scientific report by any means. It was written by a retired civil servant (now deceased) who formerly worked at the Royal Commission for Ancient Monuments based in Aberystwyth, by the name of Douglas Bland Hague.
You won't find a single line about the "scientific dating" of the Nanteos Cup in any science journal.
There are certainly testimonies to the curative powers of the cup, many of these are kept with the Cup - or were, before it was half inched. These go back to at least the 19th Century.
I will be giving a talk to the West Wales Dowsers on the 27th, which will include a good bit about the Nanteos Cup.
Ian
