Excavation
Date 13 October 2016 - 14 October 2016
Event ID 1025192
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1025192
HY 57466 04135 (HY50SE 3) A carved stone was identified in January 2016 in the eroding coastal section at Newark Bay, at the site of a known medieval chapel and cemetery, by archaeologist Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark. Further initial investigations revealed the carved stone to be a Pictish cross slab (Class II symbol stone). Work to recover the slab and
record its depositional context with regard to the surrounding deposits and structural remains in the area was undertaken 13–14 October 2016. The slab was found to be within the backfill of earlier 20th-century excavations, but it is highly probable that it originated from the immediate vicinity of the known medieval chapel. The Newark Pictish cross slab is
only the second ‘reasonably intact’ example discovered in Orkney to date, and has carvings on both sides of the stone. The discovery of this artefact finds parallels with the Pictish cross slab found in 2011 from Appiehouse in Sanday.
The carved surfaces of the cross have suffered damage in antiquity, and full description of the carving awaits the conservation of this artefact, but initial observations are as follows: the carvings on the front face of the stone comprise a cross carved in relief, outlined by moulding and infilled
with interlace. The cross has fairly wide arms, with small, rounded armpits between them, a central roundel appears present, though damaged. The cross is set on a narrower shaft, but the lower portion of the cross has been truncated. Where present, the outer edge of the stone is surrounded
by a moulding, and in the lower left portion of the stone a zoomorphic creature is present, which is probably an ‘S beast’. The carvings on the opposing face are incised, and the clearest is the head of a beast or serpent grasping a shaft or possibly a tail in its open mouth. An incised moulding appears to have bounded the outer edge of the stone. Other
carvings are present on this face, but the exact form of these is not clear at the time of writing.
Archive: Historic Environment Scotland and Orkney Museum (intended)
Funder: Historic Environment Scotland
Dave Reay – ORCA, Archaeology Institute UHI
(Source: DES, Volume 17)
