Oath German Skull
Oath Skull German
. Probably 16th/ 17th century
Human skull,Sator formula in the letter square (Latin) "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas" ("The Creator [=Sator/Sower] [he]preserves his works") scratched on the skull and read as a palindrome. In the Middle Ages, oath skulls were used, among other things, as objects of jurisdiction and later found their place in cabinets of curiosities.
The effect of the Sator formula is unknown. There are numerous attempts at interpretation, including the arrangement of the letters in a double pater noster in the form of a cross around the fulcrum "N" and the remaining "A" and "O" (alpha-omega).
The oldest find with the Sator formula dates from the 1st century AD. from Pompeii. Other early evidence comes from Cirencester, Manchester and St. Peter's Basilica. In the Middle Ages, the Sator square was widely used; among other things, it should protect against evil.