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St Vigeans, 'drosten Stone'

Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)

Site Name St Vigeans, 'drosten Stone'

Classification Cross Slab (Pictish), Pictish Symbol Stone (Pictish)

Canmore ID 35560

Site Number NO64SW 3.01

NGR NO 6383 4294

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/35560

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Angus
  • Parish Arbroath And St Vigeans
  • Former Region Tayside
  • Former District Angus
  • Former County Angus

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

St Vigeans 1 (Drosten Stone) (St Vigianus), Angus, inscribed Pictish cross-slab fragments

Measurements: H 1.84m, W 0.55m, D 0.19m

Stone type: grey sandstone

Place of discovery: NO c 6384 4289

Present location: in St Vigeans Museum (HES).

Evidence for discovery: the lower fragment was found sometime before 1845 in re-use as a floor slab in the church, and it was removed and erected in the south-east part of the churchyard before 1854. By 1899 it had been taken into the west porch of the church. The upper fragment was found re-used in the east gable or staircase of the church during the restoration of 1871, and sometime before 1903 it was joined to the lower fragment. Together the fragments were placed in St Vigeans Museum in 1960.

Present condition: weathered, and a portion of the upper part of the slab is missing.

Description

These two fragments are not conjoining but appear likely to belong to the same stone. Both broad faces and the two narrow long sides are carved in relief within plain flat-band borders. Face A bears a cross spanning the height and width of the rectangular slab, which is outlined by a heavy roll moulding. The shaft is filled with dense interlace, using median-incised cords and diagonal glides, and there are cruciform voids between the glides. The two surviving terminals show that the arms were filled with interlace and there were large open circular armpits, but the centre of the cross-head is missing. A winged anthropoid figure crouches on the left arm of the cross. The background on either side of the shaft is filled with animals and snakes, arranged vertically to fill the narrow available space.

Face B is carved with interlace above a small basal panel containing an inscription in half-uncial letters, which consists of three personal names: Drosten, Uoret and Forcus.

Face C brims with life and fable. At the top is a hunting scene with stag and hounds, above several damaged or missing motifs. Across the width of the slab is a large double disc and Z-rod symbol, with interlaced triangles filling the discs and perhaps forming crosses. Below again are a decorated crescent and a comb and mirror. Next come a bear and a doe with a suckling fawn, and then a goggle-eyed beast, an eagle feeding on a salmon and a quadruped with a large horned head. At the foot of the panel is a finely delineated scene with a crouching archer, crossbow at the ready, facing a massive boar.

Face D is carved with one long panel containing a simple vine-scroll with lanceolate leaves and upturned berry bunches. Towards the top, the penultimate scroll features an otter-like creature nibbling the berries, and the damaged scrolls beneath may also have been occupied.

Date range: eighth to ninth century.

Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 234-9; Fraser 2008, no 67.1; Geddes 2017, no VIG001.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017

Activities

Reference (1964)

NO64SW 3.01 6383 4294.

No.1. 'The Drosten Stone'. Upright cross-slab. Particularly well-known because of the inscription at the bottom of one of the narrow sides.

The front face of the slab bears a cross which occupies most of it. The cross is decorated all over with interlace or knotwork. In the top left-hand corner is a little winged angel or 'soul' figure. On the left of the shaft, at the top, is an extended animal seen from above. At the bottom of this panel is a long-necked winged dragon whose tail is twisted through its rear legs. On the right of the shaft, at the top, is a probably winged beast with a long neck, below it a snarling creature with claws, then a beast with three sets of bristles or humps (a dromedary?), and at the bottom a pair of interlaced serpents. On the other side, at the top, is a hunt; two hounds in full pursuit of a stag: also a small animal and parts of others (behind the stag a bird?).

Below this scene are the three symbols, the double-disc and Z-rod, the crescent, and on the right of the crescent the mirror and comb. The lower part of this side has a group of animals. At the bottom a cloaked Pictish archer aims at a well-tusked boar.

The narrow sides bear interlace and foliage. The interlace above the inscription is characteristically Pictish (see the cross-shaft), but the trailing vine-leaf on the other narrow side is not Pictish but is characteristic of Anglian or Northumbrian sculpture of the later ninth century. The inscription and the art style of this stone therefore agree to date it approximately to the period 850-900 AD. It is probably nearer 850.

This stone was recovered in two broken parts, recently united. It is still incomplete, as can be seen. Removed from St Vigeans Church to museum 1960 (NO 6383 4294).

S Cruden 1964

Publication Account (1987)

The church at St Vigeans presents a striking sight, perched on a small steep knoll above the Brothock Bum. Although most of the present building belongs to a 19th century restoration, the site has a long ecclesiastical history and bears the name of a 7th century Irish saint, Vigianus. The collection of early stone-carving now housed in a converted cottage at the foot of the knoll was discovered during the re-building of the church, most of the stones having been incorporated into its walls. Most were originally freestanding upright monuments, a few were recumbent or horizontal tombstones, and one or two may have been architectural pieces which once decorated an early church on the site. Overall, the collection is similar in range to that at Meigle (no. 76), and the absence of early symbol stones is a notable feature of both. Many of the St Vigeans stones have suffered badly from misuse as building material, and some survive only as fragments; only the most interesting of the 32 pieces will be treated here in detail.

Stone no. 1 is known as the Drosten Stone, after the first word of the unusual inscription set within a panel at the base of one of the narrow sides of the slab. This is one of only eight inscriptions written in roman script that have been found in Pictland. It reads

DROSTEN:

IREUORET

[E]TTFOR

CUS

The precise meaning is obscure, but it is generally agreed amongst scholars that Drosten, Uoret and Forcus are personal names and that the inscription is most probably commemorative. The stone was carved in the early 9th century, a handsome tall cross-slab with prominent Pictish symbols created in relief on the back, above various animals, a bird and a fish, and hooded archer; this is one of the rare representations of a crossbow.

Although sadly mutilated (the carving on the back obliterated and the slab re-shaped), no. 7 retains enough of its sculptured face to give an impression of its former grandeur, with robed and seated clerics and fine interlacing on the cross. No. 11 is another damaged but still impressive cross-slab, with two robed clerics sitting on a bench and a quaint figure in baggy pleated trousers on the reverse. No. 8 is probably part of an architectural frieze, perhaps unfinished as one panel is empty. No. 14 is an elaborate recumbent tombstone, heavily decorated, with a slot at one end to take an upright cross.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).

Reference (1997)

Six class II symbol stones.

St Vigeans 1 (The Drosten Stone) : on cross face decoration including an angel with animals and birds and inscription in Hiberno-Saxon script.On the reverse a complex hunting scene with underneath a double-disc and Z-rod over a crescent and mirror-and-comb.

St Vigeans 2 : cross shaft with a mirror on the left and serpent and Z-rod over an eagle on the right.

St Vigeans 3 : fragment with double-disc and Z-rod.

St Vigeans 4 : on the reverse is a standing figure with vertical double-disc on the right.

St Vigeans 5 : fragment with double-disc and Z-rod on the cross face.

St Vigeans 6 : double-disc and Z-rod on one face.

A Mack 1997

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