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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

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