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Strathmartine 2 Description of stone
Event ID 1033655
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1033655
Strathmartine 2 (St Martin), Angus, Pictish recumbent graveslab
Measurements: L 1.5m, W 0.5m, D 0.18m
Stone type: grey sandstone
Place of discovery: NO 3784 3525
Present location: McManus Galleries, Dundee (1969-271).
Evidence for discovery: found sometime before 1832 during grave-digging in the churchyard of St Martin and erected beside the road opposite the churchyard. It was later moved to Craigmill House just east of the graveyard and bolted to the wall inside the gate. In 1969 it was given to the museum in Dundee.
Present condition: the upper surface of the head of the slab is missing and it is very weathered.
Description
This was part of a composite grave monument, for there is a socket 90mm deep at the broader end to take an upright cross. The recumbent element is carved in relief with a long central sunken panel within a roll-moulded decorative border. The border contains both running double spirals and diagonal interlace, and the sunken panel contains two serpents in relief, their heads echoing the double spiral pattern on the border.
Date range: ninth or tenth century.
Primary references: Skene 1832, 15; ECMS pt 3, 231.
Desk-based assessment compiled by A Ritchie 2018
