The wheatear or spica, or buck-wheat was a frequent emblem on our British coins, and to account for this it has been suggested that the British did a considerable export trade in corn; but unfortunately for this theory the spica figures frequently upon the coins of Spain and Gaul. As a symbol the buckwheat typified plenty, but in addition to the wheatear proper there appear kindred objects which have been surmised to be, perhaps, fishbones, perhaps fern-leaves. There is no doubt that these mysterious objects are variants of the so-called “ded” amulet, which in Egypt was the symbol of the backbone of the God of Life. This amulet, of which the hieroglyph has been rendered variously as ded, didu, tet, and tat, has an ancestry of amazing antiquity, and according to Mackenzie, “in Paleolithic times, at least 20,000 years ago, the spine of the fish was laid on the corpse when it was entombed, just as the ‘ded,’ amulet, which was the symbol of the backbone of Osiris, was laid on the neck of the Egyptian mummy”.[279] Frequently this “ded” emblem took the form of a column or pillar, which symbolised the eternal support and stability of the universe. On the summit of Fig. 85 is a bug, cockroach, or cockchafer: in Etruria as in Egypt the bug amulet or scarabeus was as popular as the Eye of Horus.
Figs. 76 and 77.—Iberian. From Akerman.
Figs. 78 to 84.—British. Nos. 1 to 8 from Ancient British Coins (Evans, J.). No. 4 from A New Description of England and Wales (Anon., 1724). No. 5 from English Coins and Tokens (Jewitt & Head).
Fig. 85.—From The Correspondences of Egypt (Odhner, C. T.).
In Fig. 68 the spectral Eye was supported by Thoth, whose name varies into Thot, Taut, and numerous intermediate forms, which equate it with ded or dad: similarly it will be found that practically every place-name constituted from Tot or Tat varies into Dot or Dad, e.g., Llandudno, where is found the cradle of St. Tudno. Sometimes the Egyptians represented two or more pillars termed deddu, and this word is traceable in Trinidad, an island which, on account of its three great peaks, was named after trinidad, the Spanish for trinity. But trinidad is evidently a very old Iberian word, for its British form was drindod, as in the place-name Llandrindod or “Holy Enclosure of the Trinity”. The three great mounts on Trinidad, and the three famous medicinal springs at Llandrindod Wells render it probable that the site of Llandrindod was originally a pagan dedication to the trine teat, or triune dad.