Publication Account
Date 1933
Event ID 1099375
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099375
Sculptured Stone from Tullibole.
This stone, which originally stood within the old churchyard at Tullibole, is now preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities. It is an upright cross-slab of sandstone, of nearly rectangular form but tapering slightly upwards, measuring 4 ¼ feet high, 1 foot 8 inches wide at the top, 1 ½ feet at the bottom, and from 6 to 7 inches thick. It is sculptured in relief on all four sides thus: -
FRONT. In the middle, and extending the full length of the slab, is a cross decorated with a six-cord plait and having spiral terminations to the arms. At the sinister side of the shaft the background shows traces of a diagonal key pattern.
BACK. A plain framework is divided by two plain horizontal lines into three panels, the lower of which is subdivided by a plain vertical line. The four panels thus formed are filled with figure-subjects and other ornamentation. The uppermost and largest contains a group, apparently a hunting scene. Behind a man on horseback stands another man on foot, wearing a sword at his left side and having his left arm upraised, while below are a hind and what seem to be two other animals, as seen from the front. The panel beneath this is occupied by two circular bosses, both of which show traces of indeterminate carving. Of the two panels at the bottom the one on the dexter side shows two men wrestling, and the other, on the sinister side, two eared or horned serpents, coiled together in much the same manner as those on the Dogton Stone, Fife.
LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES. A broken four-cord plait-work. Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., xiii (1878-9), p. 316 fl. ; Early Christian Monuments, pp. 375-6.
RCAHMS 1933
