Artefact Recovery

Date 2007

Event ID 558102

Category Recording

Type Artefact Recovery

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/558102

NH 737 576 The fragment is incised with a quadrant of an incised ringed cross. It is carved on one face only, Its condition is good and there is no differentiation in the colour of the sandstone between front and back. The surface background of the carved face is finely dressed. The surviving quadrant of the connecting ring is well proportioned in respect to the cross arms, and is accurately carved. The transverse arm meets the edge of the

slab which has no marginal moulding. The groove of the incision is comparatively broad (10mm) and may have been worked or rubbed to form a rounded profile after the initial cutting. There is a terminal circular hollow at the end of the groove of the external margin of the ring where it meets the surviving transverse arm and the lower, or upper, arm of the cross. This feature can also be seen where a vestige of another section of the ring has survived in this area. The groove which expresses this lower or upper arm has the same breadth as the groove used for the ring but it is cut slightly deeper. The surviving armpit of the crosshead is gently rounded. It is carved with a slightly broader (13mm) groove than that used for the ring. One edge is straight and dressed. It tapers slightly from 65mm to 72mm. The fracturing of the other edges of the fragment are rough, suggesting the breaking up of the slab for reuse as rubble. Secondary damage to the dressed edge is visible on the front face of the slab but two depressions on this edge adjacent to the back face may be part of the original

working of the edge. The bedding planes are clearly visible on the dressed edge and this internal structure of the slab accounts for the apparently natural smoothness of the back face. There is no evidence for the pebble inclusion which features on the back of ROMGH.1992.9.

The design of what survives of the cross is typical of Pictish and Ionan outlined ringed crosses. The straight edge suggests that the slab may have been regularly cut but straight edges and irregular top and bottom edges are also found. The meeting of the transverse arm with the edge of the slab and the lack of an edge

moulding is a usual feature. Such slabs are more usually carved with shafted, Latin, crosses, but equal-armed crosses, sometimes supported on a narrow shaft, are also found. The slight taper of the thickness of the slab and the deeper cutting of the surviving arm, which is not a transverse arm, suggests that the orientation

of the slab is probably what makes the straight edge the right side of the slab. The probability is that the arm which lies at the left of the fragment is the shaft. From the surviving design the width of the slab can be calculated. From the straight edge of the slab to the centre of the shaft is 173mm. At 346mm wide the slab is not large, but slabs of similar width are found in the collection on Iona and are common generally. If the slab bore a Latin cross then the height of the slab would probably have been around 750mm. The slab was probably funerary. It is difficult to tell whether slabs carved on one face only stood erect or were recumbent. Slabs can taper whatever their position. Only the fact that the depressions on the otherwise dressed straight edge were thought to be acceptable indicates that this slab lay on the ground where they would not be seen.

The fine dressing of the surface background of the front face, the confidence of the positioning of the ring, the conscious variation of the nature of the grooves, and the individual mannerism of the decorative circular hollows at the ends of the grooves, all suggest that this fragment is a remnant of a slab that easily takes its place in quality of design and execution with the rest of the exceptionally fine cross-marked funerary sculpture being produced in Rosemarkie in the Early Christian period.

I Henderson and I G Scott 2007