Reference
Date 1975
Event ID 923212
Category Documentary Reference
Type Reference
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/923212
This hogback is held in Dumfries Burgh Museum. It was found during ditching operations at the foot of a garden in Mossknow between 1900 and 1910, and until recently served as a step. The ends are lost and it is of pink sandstone; it is of eccentric type and is attributed to the 10th century. Length 61.0cm; width at ends (broken) 27.0cm; width at crown 33.0cm; height at ends 20.0 and 19.0cm; height at crown 24.5cm. Both ends are lost but the bombe lines are noticeable. The broad ridge is 11.5cm wide at the centre tapering to 10.0cm at the ends and is decorated with a bold run of interlace in bevelled band, 2.3cm wide, in fairly high relief. It consists of interlocked figure-of-eight elements with elliptical terminations, arranged so that the intersections and terminations occur within the ellipses.
Side A: There are four unornamented clinker bands, each 5.0cm deep, seperated by incised lines and with a very slight overhang. There is some vertical hatching and the surface is pitted in places, but there is no tegulation.
Side B: The side carries a well-cut late figure-of-eight vinescroll in bevelled band 1.7cm wide. It terminates at one end and is 13.0cm deep at its centre. It consists of two main stems which remain seperate at the terminal end and which interlace so as to form vesicas containing off-shoots which cross and terminate either in arrow head leaves or discs, 3.5cm in diameter. Similar off-shoots curl from the outside of the main stems, their arrowhead terminals pointing inwards to the intersections, although at the more defective end they form scroll lappets, like one of the interior off-shoots. At the terminal end there is a worn raised area, 6.5cm long and 5.5cm, joining the vinescroll to the broken end of the stone.
Below the ornamented roof pitches are plain plinths, on side A almost vertical and 6.5cm deep, on side B 6.0cm deep and inclined inwards towards the base.
J T Lang 1975.
