Field Visit
Date 16 June 1926
Event ID 1099165
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099165
Portions of a sarcophagus or altar-tomb in the shape of a rectangular box constructed of eight stone slabs, three of which, however, are missing. The tomb measures 5 feet 9 inches long by 2 feet 11 inches wide by 2 feet 4 inches high. Each long side has been composed of three slabs, that in the middle, which is the largest, fitting into a groove cut in each of the other two. The single slab at either end is similarly fitted into a groove on the inner face of the adjoining side-slabs. On the one side which is complete (Fig. 390 ) the large central slab is filled mainly with hunting scenes, the upper left-hand corner having a background of foliage after a fashion familiar in such designs in. the East. In the upper centre is a man on horseback having a hawk on his wrist and being attacked by a lion. Below is a man on foot, armed with spear and shield. To the right is the figure of David (Early Christian Monts., p. 351), the full height of ·the panel, wearing a pallium above a tunic and tearing open the jaws of a lion. Above one shoulder is a horned sheep, and above the other is a sitting beast from which the head is broken away. The slabs to right and left are decorated with animal forms intertwined in the most complicated manner. One end is also complete (Fig. 388). Here the slab has an equal-armed cross with stepped intersections, the cross and margins being decorated with a continuous plait-work. In the centre of the cross-head is a boss of spiral work, and at diagonally opposite corners are other bosses of interlaced work developed from the tails of serpents. Each of the remaining corners is occupied by two seated figures in different attitudes. The ends of the adjoining side-slabs are treated as flanking panels and are covered with interlaced work. One of these is the narrow end of the only remaining portion of the incomplete side of the tomb. On the front it shows a diagonal key-pattern sunk within borders of interlaced work and plait-work. A fragment of the other end slab was found near St. Rule's Church and is preserved in one of the cases. It indicates a design similar to that on the end which is complete; two of the small panels are visible, in the lower of which are two seated figures interlocked, while in the upper one is an animal developed into interlaced work. At this end the flanking panel, formed of the one side-slab which is still in situ, is ornamented with a vertical row of six small sunk crosses on a background of ten-cord plait.
RCAHMS 1933, visited June 1926
