St Vigeans2 Description of stone

Event ID 1028447

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1028447

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

St Vigeans 2 (St Vigianus), Angus, Pictish cross-slab fragment

Measurements: H 1.18m, W 0.50m, D 0.09m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO c 6384 4289

Present location: in St Vigeans Museum (HES).

Evidence for discovery: found prior to 1770 and re-used as a floor slab in the east staircase of the church. By the 1820s it was lying in the churchyard and by 1903 it had been taken into the church. It was placed in St Vigeans Museum in 1960.

Present condition: worn and the upper part of the slab is missing.

Description

Only face A retains traces of ornament, but face C may have been worn almost entirely smooth. Face A is carved in relief, leaving a plain flat-band border along both vertical edges. The shaft of a cross survives, from its curved shoulder to its base, which extends slightly beyond the lower edge of the main panel. The shaft is bordered by a roll moulding, which at the base turns in on either side to form confronted spirals, with a square of two pairs of double spirals above. Separated from the spirals by a horizontal roll moulding is a panel of heavy diagonal key pattern, itself separated from the panel above by another roll moulding. This upper panel is filled with heavy interlace, which formerly extended into the cross-head. Four Pictish symbols are carved in relief in the background to the cross, two on each side. On the left is a mirror and comb, and to the right a serpent and Z-rod above a very stylised bird of prey.

Date range: eighth to ninth century.

References: ECMS pt 3, 239-40; Fraser 2008, no 67.2; Geddes 2017, no VIG002.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017