Mail 6 Description of stone
Event ID 1015572
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1015572
Mail 6, Cunningsburgh, Shetland, portable carved stone
Measurements: H 42mm, diam 20mm
Stone type: sandstone?
Place of discovery: HU 432 278
Present location: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh (NS.36)
Evidence for discovery: found by a crofter while removing stones from the site of the broch at Mail and given to the museum in Edinburgh in 1923.
Present condition: damaged at the front of the base and some facial damage.
Description
Shaped into a cone, this was then carved to depict a human figure dressed in a full-length robe with a hood, with only the face visible. With slits for the eyes and mouth and a flat, squared-off nose, the face looks brutal or mask-like.
Date: early medieval.
References: Ritchie et al 2006, 61–3; Scott & Ritchie 2009, no 14.
Compiled by A Ritchie 2016