Forteviot Churchyard, Cross-slab

Forteviot 1, Perthshire, cross-slab fragment

Measurements: H 0.61m, W 0.46m, D 0.18m

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO 0514 1747

Present location: at Forteviot parish church.

Evidence for discovery: recorded standing upright in the churchyard in the mid nineteenth century by Stuart.

Present condition: broken but carving well preserved.

Description

This is the basal portion of a cross-slab or possibly cross-shaft carved in low relief on all four faces above a well-shaped and smoothed tenon. Face A is bordered by a roll moulding, within which a dense pattern of interlace resolves itself into four elements: an interlinked border and inner panel beneath the base of a cross-shaft itself consisting of an outer border and inner panel. Face B has a flat-band border down each side, within which is a frontal human head and torso, apparently naked, with shoulder-length hair. Springing from the top of the head is a pair of horns which become two of the three plaited tails of creatures above, now missing. Face C has flat-band borders down both sides which are the elongated bodies of animals, which at the foot of the panel have hind-quarters with ball and claw feet touching one another. Their tails curve up between their legs, in the case of the right-hand animal extending upwards to finish with an eared and goggle-eyed head with a long snout. It bites the horn of a quadruped on the left, while the latter holds its neck of the goggle-eyed creature between its jaws. The quadruped appears to be a wolf with body scrolls and dew claws, but its hind legs end in cloven hooves, its front legs in ball and claw feet, and a large curving horn springs from its head. Face D is bordered by a flat-band moulding, within which there is a basal panel of triangular interlace, the voids of which form a cross, with two cords extending upwards into looped interlace in which again the voids form crosses.

This stone is thought to be the base of the same cross-shaft as no 4.

Date range: ninth century.

Primary references: Stuart 1856, pl 119; ECMS pt 3, 323-5; Aitchison 2006, 104-9; Hall 2011, 140-1.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018

Forteviot 7, Perthshire, stone basin

Measurements: H

Stone type: sandstone

Place of discovery: NO 0514 1747

Present location: at Forteviot parish church.

Evidence for discovery:

Present condition: fractured but complete.

Description

This is an irregularly shaped natural boulder, into which a hemispherical hollow has been cut, about 0.24m in diameter and 0.14m deep.

Date range: early medieval or later.

Primary references: Aitchison 2006, 131-2.

Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2018