Unknown Artisans
Hinton St Mary Mosaic, AD 350
Photograph
37cm x 37cm
Loaned by The Rt Revd Dr Graham Kings and Mrs Alison Kings
The mosaic is at the British Museum
Hinton St Mary Mosaic
The famous Roman mosaic of the face of Christ from about AD 350 at Hinton St Mary is one of the earliest known images of the face of Christ. It was discovered by accident in 1963 by a Baptist blacksmith, Walter White, and is now a centrepiece in the British Museum.
[adapted from https://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/articles/doing-theology-as-a-bishop/]
‘Neil MacGregor, when he was Director of the British Museum, used it in his A History of the World in 100 Objects. Walter’s son, Paul White, is the pastor of an independent charismatic church in Weymouth and was a key figure in planning the ecumenical welcome for the sailing Olympics in 2012, when I was Bishop of Sherborne. When he came to a dinner at our house, he mentioned that he had grown up in Hinton St Mary. In response to my question about the mosaic, he said that it was his father who had discovered it, by putting a washing line pole in the ground. He framed a photo of it, as a gift, from his father’s negative.’
(The Rt Revd Dr Graham Kings, Hon Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Ely)