Morham Description of stone
Date 7 September 2016
Event ID 1013835
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1013835
Morham, East Lothian, cross-shaft fragment
Measurements: H 1.02m, W 0.34m, D 0.21m
Stone type: red sandstone
Place of discovery: NT 5565 7259
Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (L.1928.6)
Evidence for discovery: found re-used in the south wall of the eighteenth-century parish church, the stone was removed in 1928 and donated to the museum.
Present condition: broken but the carving is in good condition.
Description
This is a central portion of a very fine Anglo-Saxon cross-shaft, broken top and bottom. All four faces are carved in relief, with a cable moulding at the edges and the ornament contained within a plain roll moulding. The cable has a median line and a fluted effect. Face A bears a vine scroll with ridged nodes, trilobed berry bunches and leaves with scooped centres, and the four surviving scrolls are inhabited by birds and animals whose heads and limbs extend beyond the confines of the scrolls. The lowest surviving quadruped is upright and has one hind leg braced against the volute and its head and other three legs extending well beyond. The body of the next quadruped faces the animal below, but its head is twisted back to bite the volute in which it stands. Its front legs are braced against the vine and its hind legs trail over the vine. The next two creatures also face downwards. The third is a bird biting a berry bunch, with one leg braced against the volute and the other stretched behind and outside the volute. Its wings extend either side of the volute and its tail feathers beyond. The fourth is a grotesque creature whose elongated neck is intertwined with the volute and whose head has the protuberant eyes of a Pictish goggle-eyed beast. Alternatively the head may be on the tail of a beast standing upright, of which the upper part of the body missing. Its front legs are braced against the main stem of the vine, but its hind-quarters are missing and outside the volute.
Face C bears two separate knotwork designs in cords with a median incised line. Narrow faces B and D are carved with simple scroll designs, very similar but not identical, with ridged nodes, trilobed and quadrilobed berry bunches and pointed leaves with scooped centres. Some of the berry bunches hang down and others are upturned.
Date range: late eighth or ninth century.
References: Callander 1933, 241-3.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016
