Iona Abbey museum. Early Christian (Viking) slab, showing detail on front face and detail of carving along edge.
AGD 527/59
Description Iona Abbey museum. Early Christian (Viking) slab, showing detail on front face and detail of carving along edge.
Date 1980
Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu
Catalogue Number AGD 527/59
Category Prints and Drawings
Scope and Content Fragment of a free-standing cross-slab, from Iona, Argyll and Bute Iona is one of the most important religious sites in Scotland. The earliest community was formed by St Columba who came over from Ireland around AD 563. This was replaced by the Benedictine Abbey and Augustinian Nunnery in around AD 1200. This view shows one face of a cross-shaft that is Scandinavian in style. As well as having carvings on both faces, the shaft also has a small serpentine creature carved on one face. It may be a dolphin. It is now in the Abbey Museum (No 49). This stone is definitely Scandinavian in style, with the poor interlace design common in later Scandinavian ornament. One theory is that it was erected as a memorial to Godfred, King of Man, who was buried on Iona in 1187, but this is unlikely. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
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