Field Visit

Date 14 August 2000

Event ID 920361

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/920361

(Inverurie no. 2). The southernmost of the stones, the Class I symbol stone known as Inverurie no.2, is a fragment of a larger slab, which has been cut down for reuse as a building stone and is now lying upon the ground. A roughly square block of pink granite, it measures 0.32m high, 0.42m in breadth and 0.19m in thickness. The face bears portions of two incised symbols. The upper, at the top, is a mirror-case symbol, but only the lower half and its handle survive. Above the handle, the disk contains a concentric circle, around the edges of which curving lines give the impression of a petal-like pattern. The handle of the mirror-case, which has concave sides and a slightly concave base, is ornamented with curving lines and two hollows. Below the mirror-case, and its foot, is what at first appears to be the upper half of a large disk, filled with curvilinear ornament. However, the ornament is suggestive of a bilaterally symmetrical symbol, such as an arch, rather than one of the discoid symbols. The reverse of the stone is rough and irregular.

The close proximity of the two symbols has resulted in its interpretation as an unusually large and elaborately decorated mirror. It is illustrated as such in Allen and Anderson, although the text identifies the two symbols as a mirror-case and an arch.

Visited by RCAHMS (IF), 14 August 2000.

J R Allen and J Anderson 1903.