Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Jedburgh Abbey, Shrine Fragment

Architectural Fragment (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Jedburgh Abbey, Shrine Fragment

Classification Architectural Fragment (Period Unassigned)

Canmore ID 91515

Site Number NT62SE 15.04

NGR NT 650 204

NGR Description NT c. 650 204

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/91515

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Collections

Administrative Areas

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Jedburgh
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Roxburgh
  • Former County Roxburghshire

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Ancrum 1, Roxburghshire, fragment of panel

Measurements: H 256mm, W 315mm, D 75mm

Stone type: cream coloured Old Red Sandstone

Place of discovery: NT c629245

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey Museum, incorporated into the roof of the shrine reconstruction.

Evidence for discovery: the fragment was found in a garden near Ancrum in 1903 and brought to Jedburgh Abbey at an unknown later date. Its original provenance is unknown, although it may have come from the Old Ancrum churchyard to the north-west of Ancrum village.

Present condition: good

Description

This is a fragment from a panel, carved in relief with plaitwork and a plain border along one edge. There is no reason to associate it with the Jedburgh shrine panel, though it could have come from a shrine or chancel screen (Cramp 1983: 281).

Date: ninth century

References: Laidlaw 1905: no 10; RCAHMS 1956, 207-8; Cramp 1983: fig 120c.

Compiled by A Ritchie 2016

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 2 & 3.1 & 3.2, recumbent grave-cover

Measurements: no 2, L 1.42m, H 0.33m, W 0.14m; no 3.1, L 1.40m, H 0.26m, W 0.11m; no 3.2, L 1.40m, H 0.31m, W 0.13m.

Stone type: sandstone

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey, on a modern plinth in the south choir chapel (HES E3453).

Evidence for discovery: slabs 2 and 3.1 were found re-used and built into the bellcotes at the top of the tower of the Abbey, where Stuart saw them in the 1850s. They were probably removed during the Marquis of Lothian’s restoration of 1875-80, and were recorded as being available for study in the Abbey by 1888 (Anderson & Black 1888, 383). In the later 1950s, they were reconstructed as the sides of a recumbent monument with a central fragment 3.2, the exact provenance of which is unknown but it was presumably also part of the demolished bellcotes. The missing head end was reconstructed in cement.

Present condition: the individual components have broken edges and are very worn, and the original head of the monument is missing.

Description:

The two side-fragments, 2 and 3.1, have similarly bold and loosely woven interlace ornament carved in well-modelled relief and it is likely that each has sheared off, or been deliberately split from, a single monument, of which slab 3.2 is the central portion. One end of each of the three slabs is broken towards the head of the monument (now reconstructed), and thus the original face E is missing, but face F bears relief ornament, indicating that the monument was a recumbent grave-cover rather than a cross-shaft. There is a wide flat-band moulding along the base of the monument and a narrow roll moulding round the top and around the surviving end.

Fragment 2 has a six-cord plait on its broad face (B), and two cords twisted together on its upper narrow face (part of face A). The end of the slab bears a vertical triple two-cord twist to the right of part of a large knot (F). Fragment 3.1 displays knotwork in two registers on its broad face (D), in which long diagonals emanate from the upper register of inturned Stafford knots to link with the double twists of the lower register. Between the linked sets of knots there are breaks, the voids of which form five crosses with expanded terminals. The terminal loops of the overall pattern are pointed. On the surviving upper narrow face there are two cords twisted together, and the end of the slab bears part of a vertical two-cord twist alongside an arc (F). The slab has been broken into two, 0.65m from the foot, and repaired.

A third fragment 3.2, bearing in relief on face A the cusped shaft and stepped base of a cross, has been cemented in place between the two double-cord twists of face A of nos 2 and 3.1. The right-hand cusp is clear, but that on the left is badly worn. At the base, four original steps survive on the right, while on the left all five steps survive though badly weathered, and the base sits directly on the roll-moulding. The end of 3.2 provides one of the vertical elements of the knot on face F. Slab 3.2 appears to be broken into two at a distance of 0.72m from the foot of the monument.

Together the three slabs imply that the parent monument would have been some 1.70m long, about 0.38m in width and 0.33m high. The square carved end-panel F appears to be largely original, though broken into three, and bears a cruciform loop design of Allen’s type 777, flanked on either side by two-cord twist.

Date range: later ninth or tenth century.

Primary references: Stuart 1867, pl 118, 1; ECMS pt 3, 433-5, Jedburgh nos 2 and 3; Cramp 1983, 281, 283-4, fig 121.

Research by A Ritchie 2019.

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 9, cross-shaft fragment

Measurements: H 134mm, W 207mm, D max 160mm (face B) to 170mm (face D)

Stone type: reddish buff sandstone

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey (in store in the stones display building outside the west end of the Abbey) (JED/x/1)

Evidence for discovery: none, but it was in the collection by 1984.

Present condition: broken and worn.

Description

This fragment is a portion of the upper part of a slender Anglian cross-shaft, almost square in section, with simple plant-scroll on all four faces (our choice of orientation for this fragment is dictated by a preference to make all the leaves hang downwards). Each corner is edged with a cable moulding and an inner roll moulding on the adjacent faces. The cabling is widely spaced, almost fluted. Face A has a single scroll enclosing an upturned rounded berry bunch, and there is a pointed leaf in the angle between the scroll and the roll moulding. There is a larger pointed leaf on the left of the panel on face C, and beneath a straight stem divider is a trilobed berry bunch above the top arc of a scroll. Both narrow faces B and D show large pointed leaves in the same position, that on face D clearly falling from the sheath of the scroll above, as well as trilobed berry bunches beneath the dividing stem. The dimensions of the fragment suggest that it comes from the upper part of a cross-shaft.

Date range: late eighth century/early ninth century.

Primary references: Cramp 1983, 269-70, fig 114.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 12, architectural panel

Measurements: H 720mm, W 470mm, D 65mm at face B to 203mm.

Stone type: creamy white sandstone.

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey Visitor Centre (H.HXB.8).

Evidence for discovery: this slab was discovered during excavations in 1984, built into the Abbey complex in a secondary location ‘within a dry-stone wall between Rooms 8 and 11’ (Gallagher 1995, no 2).

Present condition: the edges of the slab are damaged, apart from the central portion of face B, and the ornament is somewhat worn.

Description

Only faces A and B are largely intact, and the extreme roughness of the other two faces, together with the wedge-shaped section of the slab, suggests that it was designed to be used in such a way that only faces A and B would be visible. Much of the carving has been carried out, not very expertly, using a deep grooved technique to give the illusion of relief, with more lightly incised details.

Face A has a roughly square panel containing eight lines radiating out from the centre to the edges of the panel, forming an equal-armed cross with wedge-shaped arms and V-shaped arm pits. A central frontal figure has arms outstretched and a halo or nimbus with radiating lines behind his head. In each corner of the panel in the spaces between the arms of the cross is an incised single or double concentric circle with a central pit: single circles top left and bottom right, and double circles top right and bottom left. A row of six single circles with central pits runs along the upper side of the square frame. These circles have been very precisely incised, probably using a divider with an engraver on one tip, and each has the same diameter of 48mm, as do the inner circles of those between the arms of the cross.

Below this panel are three human figures with upstretched arms, a detached head and at least three detached limbs, together with three, possibly four, cones with incised diagonal lines. The detached limbs comprise an arm with fingered hand and an upside-down head to the left of the left-hand figure, an arm with fingered hand below the two right-hand cones, and possibly another arm to the left of the right-hand figure. There is also a small boss in the left-hand corner of the scene.

Face B has lost part of its right-hand edge, particularly towards the foot. In the upper part is a frontal stocky figure with thick arms hanging downwards, and around the head a dished nimbus which is ornamented with incised radiating lines. Below and to the left is a second figure in profile facing right, with the right arm stretching up towards what may be traces of a harp. Both on face A and on face B, all the faces are frontal with incised circular eyes and rectangular noses. Where complete, all the figures have an incised V representing the top of the legs, rather than a loincloth, which indicates that they are naked, and fingers and toes are shown.

Date range: tenth century.

Primary references: Lewis & Ewart 1995, 106-8.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 5, carved fragments

Measurements: no 5.1: H 406mm, W 278mm, D 262mm; no 5.2: H 472mm, W 206mm, D 223mm; no 5.3: H 300mm, W 440mm, D 90mm; no 5.4 H 420mm, W 342mm, D 73mm

Stone type: sandstone

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey Visitor Centre (JED/o/10, JED/o/11, JED/o/12, JED/o/13)

Evidence for discovery: one of the fragments (5.4) was found in 1878 built into the old manse in Jedburgh (ECMS pt 3, 514-15, no 5; Canmore 57045). The manse had been built over the site of the west side of the monastic cloister, and the carved fragment may have been found while digging the foundations for the manse. Nos 5.1 and 5.3 were found ‘re-used as building stones in the primary S wall of the frater undercroft’ on the south side of the cloister (RCAHMS 1956, 208). The provenance of no 5.2 is unknown but presumably within the Abbey complex.

Present condition: broken and worn, with traces of lime which obscure the detail on face C. Only four fragments survive, all from edges, and none has more than three intact faces.

Description

This monument was very thoroughly destroyed rather than re-used for building purposes. Each fragment is bordered by a heavy cable moulding, within which is a plain roll moulding. The cable moulding on face D of fragment 5.2 is markedly narrower than that on face C and on the other fragments.

Face A of fragment 5.1 shows a female figure in profile facing left, with hair falling to the shoulder and possibly the length of her back, leaving bare a well-marked ear. What has been described as a naked breast is more likely to be a foreshortened left arm bent across her chest. Her face and body appear to be pressed up against something, perhaps foliate, to her left. Face B of fragment 5.1 contains at least one and probably two intertwined serpentine creatures: a dog-like head in profile faces left with a long, almost scrolled snout, large ‘goggle’ eye and pricked ear, and its narrow elongated body is entwined with its tail or most probably that of another creature, the fish-like terminal of which is grasped in its jaws. There appears to be a median interrupted line along its body. Face C depicts a slighter, perhaps feminine, figure with oval eye and shoulder-length hair facing right, again close to another figure or object, but the rest of this face of the stone is very damaged.

Fragment 5.2 has traces of cable moulding along the top edge, and below there is the top right part of a panel containing two figures, a clearly dominant frontal male figure on the left with his head turned to face over his left shoulder towards a slightly smaller figure shown in profile facing left. The left-hand figure has an elaborate hair style or headdress, a large straight nose and full lips, and may be wearing a cloak, while the right-hand figure has shoulder-length hair curling into the neck, a neatly trimmed beard and a muscular left arm.

Fragment 5.3 shows part of another figural panel, separated by part of a plain roll moulding from a panel above, now missing. The surface is very damaged but the outline of a figure in profile facing left is clear, just within the roll moulding of the right-hand edge of the shaft. The figure has shoulder-length hair and the left arm projects forward of the body, above a well-defined belt. It is hard to tell what the figure might be facing, but it may be a harp.

Face C on fragment 5.4 appears to bear a winged figure, and the adjacent face D has an uninhabited vine trail, with a fleshy stem springing from a broad base, which forms a simple scroll with downward hanging stems bearing upturned oval bunches of berries.

Date range: early ninth century.

Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 514-15, no 5; RCAHMS 1956, 208, no 7, fig 254; Cramp 1983, 276, 279-80, fig 119.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 6, recumbent grave-cover

Measurements: L more than 0.48m, W 0.37m

L more than 0.76m, W 0.39m, D 0.15m

Stone type: probably sandstone.

Present location: unknown.

Evidence for discovery: recorded in 1894 as forming ‘a lintel over the south chapel of the choir, and under the stair leading to the tower’ (Watson 1894, 128). The exact location is now difficult to determine, and examination of the stair and its recesses in 2017 showed that any such stone could by now be unrecognisably weathered.

Present condition: unknown.

Description

The portion of this rectangular slab which was visible in 1894 showed part of the shaft and the lower edges of the side-arms of a plain cusped cross, carved in low relief. The terminals almost touched the plain flat-band mouldings along each side of the slab. The border is slightly narrower than the shaft of the cross. The lower part of the slab appears to be broken, while the head end was hidden behind ‘the jamb of the opening’ (Watson 1894, 128).

Date range: tenth or eleventh century.

Primary references: Watson 1894, 128, fig opp 128.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 7, recumbent grave-cover

Measurements: L more than 0.76m, W 0.39m, D 0.15m

Stone type: probably sandstone.

Present location: unknown.

Evidence for discovery: recorded around 1900, ‘used as a covering-slab to the wall passage in the south transept’. Only a small portion of the wall passage survived the construction, perhaps in the late fifteenth century, of a stone barrel-vault over the south transept.

Present condition: unknown.

Description

Laidlaw’s drawing shows a cusped cross carved in low relief, with straight rather than curving terminals, which abut the flat-band border. The border is the same width as the shaft of the cross. The lower part was partially masked by walling, and it is not clear whether the foot of the slab was broken. Lintels over wall passages were normally set transversely.

Date range: tenth or eleventh century.

Primary references: Laidlaw 1905, 41, 42, fig 25.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 8/13, cross-shaft fragments

Measurements: Jedburgh 8: H 480mm, W 225mm, D 125mm; Jedburgh 13: H 253mm, W 215mm, D 94mm

Stone type: creamy sandstone

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey Visitor Centre (JED/o/3 and JED/o/4)

Evidence for discovery:

Jedburgh 8: the larger fragment was found sometime before 1965 when it was photographed built into the consolidated top of the stone ‘platform’ in the south-west corner of room 4 in the east range. The provenance of the smaller fragment is unknown, but the two were joined and placed in the stones display sometime before 1980. Jedburgh 13 was found during excavations in 1984, unstratified within the south cloister alley.

Present condition: Jedburgh 8 is damaged and worn, and narrow face D is missing; Jedburgh 13 is broken but the carving is little worn.

Description

Jedburgh 8

This stone has been repaired from two conjoining fragments and is carved on two broad faces and one narrow face, the other edge being broken. Each of the surviving faces is bordered by a narrow roll moulding. Strands are modelled but outlined with pecking. The interlace on face A has part of a four-cord interlaced pattern with long diagonal strands, while face C shows two interlinked ring knots (encircled pattern). The surviving narrow face B bears a simple two-strand twist. On the basis of the interlace patterns, the original width of the shaft at this point is likely to have been 275mm.

Jedburgh 13

This is a short length of slender cross-shaft, rectangular in section, broken at either end and carved in relief on all four faces, with a plain roll moulding at the edges. Face A has a spiral scroll, of which two scrolls survive, with single tendrils and upturned bunches of three berries, face B has a two-strand twist, face C has a turned pattern of interlace with breaks and diagonal strands, and face D again has a two-strand twist.

Date range: later ninth or early tenth century.

Primary references: Cramp 1983, 276, fig 118a-b; Lewis & Ewart 1995, 105-6, 109, illus 85.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 10, cross-head fragments

Measurements: arm L 204mm, D 130mm; boss 204mm diam, D c170mm.

Stone type: fine-grained creamy sandstone.

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey Visitor Centre (JED/o/6).

Evidence for discovery: none, but it was part of the collection by 1984.

Present condition: broken, damaged and worn, especially the central roundel. Only the arm is relatively intact.

Description

This fragment has been restored from two pieces and it forms one arm and the central boss of a cross-head, which originally had a span of some 0.60m. Both main faces are carved but the narrow edges are plain. The surviving arm could be a side-arm or the upper arm, and it has a squared terminal and very widely curved armpits, outlined on face A by a narrow flat-band moulding. On face A, the interior of the arm is filled with ornament arranged in two panels, which appear to be divided by a fine roll moulding but the moulding is in fact part of the ornamental pattern in the arm terminal rather than a formal dividing line. This is a rectangular panel of diagonal key pattern containing both single pellets and two clusters of four pellets, with a central vertical bar which gives the illusion that the panel is divided into two squares. The area between the two armpits contains an asymmetrical knot composed of a median-incised cord, the strands of which separate to pass over and under one another, forming pointed terminal loops to fit into each corner of the available space.

The centre of the cross-head on face A is an elaborately ornamented circular boss. It consists of a central boss encircled by a fine roll moulding. Outside the moulding is an encircling border containing four Carrick-bend knots, linked by two strands in such a way that the knots form a cruciform shape around the boss. The whole roundel is enclosed by a recessed band of ornament, which consists of a continuous ring of outward-facing Stafford knots, each linked by two glides.

On face C, the surface of the arm is intact but the centre of the cross-head has been chiselled away. The arm bears the arm of a spine-and-boss cross, carved in low relief against a plain background. It consists of a double roll moulding which expands to enclose at its terminal an incised six-petal rosette. The terminal or ‘boss’ is carved in slightly higher relief than the arm or ‘spine’, and the missing central boss was presumably in higher relief too.

The narrow faces of the arm are dressed but plain.

Date range: late eighth to early ninth century.

Primary references: Cramp 1983, 270, 272-3, fig 115; Cramp 2017.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 11, cross-head fragments

Measurements: arm L 180mm, W 370mm, D 120mm.

Stone type: fine-grained sandstone.

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey Visitor Centre (JED/o/5)

Evidence for discovery: none, part of the collection by 1984.

Present condition: broken and worn, and the back of one of the fragments is missing (the fragments have been joined).

Description

The terminal of one arm of a cross-head with expanded terminals, this fragment displays a shallow curving armpit and a widely splayed rectangular terminal to the arm. It has a fine cable moulding around a plain smoothly dressed face on faces A, B and C (D is missing), but the armpits have been left with their pecking marks unsmoothed.

Date range: ninth century.

Primary references: Cramp 1983, 276, fig 118c.

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 14, carved fragment

Measurements: H 150mm, W 175mm, D 145mm.

Stone type: creamy sandstone.

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey (in store; JED/x/1).

Evidence for discovery: found during excavations in 1984, unprovenanced, ‘at W end of the site’.

Present condition: one edge of face A is intact but the others are broken and the carving is very worn.

Description

This fragment is carved in relief on one face (A), which displays three levels of working. The intact edge has been cut back by some 40mm to create a rebated border 50mm wide, with a roll moulding along the outer edge and a panel of continuous outward-facing Stafford knots created by a single cord, the knots linked by glides. A plain flat-band moulding then rises above this panel and separates it from interlace work on the higher level of the stone. The narrow face B and reverse face C of the fragment are dressed but plain, and the dressing is not as fine as that on the carved face.

Date range: ninth or tenth century.

Primary references: Lewis & Ewart 1995, 108, 110.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Early Medieval Carved Stones Project

Jedburgh 1, panel fragments

Measurements: 1.1: H 0.84m, W 0.65m, D max 0.19m; 1.2: H 0.16m, W 0.19m, D 0.13m

Stone type: fine-grained creamy-white sandstone

Present location: Jedburgh Abbey Visitor Centre (JED/076.1; JED/o/9c)

Evidence for discovery:

1.1: the stone was first recorded in the first half of the nineteenth century in re-use ‘built into the south side of the chancel as the lintel of an opening’ in the Abbey church, evidently with its carved face visible (Stuart 1867, 67). At Stuart’s request in the 1860s, the stone was removed and placed in the north transept, and his was the first published illustration.

1.2: discovered during work on the Abbey church in 1913, exact provenance unknown (Baldwin Brown 1937, 183).

Present condition:

1.1: faces B and F are mostly intact, but the top and face D are broken, and the reverse side of the right-hand edge has been trimmed back. The carved ornament on face A is a little worn.

1.2: worn, with one intact edge and the others broken, and face C has flaked off.

Description

Jedburgh 1.1

Face A is carved in relief with two panels of ornament and a plain flat frame. The main panel contains a tree scroll with triple- and double-ridged nodes, spiral scrolls, long triangular and trilobed berry bunches, a leaf flower and seed pods. The scroll is inhabited by confronted pairs of grazing creatures: the lowest are quadrupeds, the middle pair are birds with frontal bodies but facing inwards, and the uppermost are winged bipeds with fins and long tails ending in bushy fronds. Each of the six creatures grazes on berries, except for the mouse-like creature in the lower left scroll, which is biting the diagonal stem.

The tree scroll springs from a cylindrical base, the top of which forms the first node with three ridges. From this base the main trunk rises through three more ridged nodes before it reaches the broken top of the fragment. The three surviving pairs of scrolls spring from the second, third and fourth nodes, and only the second pair is identical.

The first pair consists of single spirals ending on the right in a leafed trilobed berry bunch and on the left in an oval berry bunch. Two spandrels branch out from ridged nodes on the right-hand scroll, ending in seed pods, while a single spandrel from the left-hand scroll ends in a large oval seed pod. From the basal node rises a pair of long diagonal strands which cross the lower pair of scrolls, ending in long triangular upright berry bunches. In the centre of the right-hand scroll the diagonal strand sprouts a pair of spandrels, the upper ending in a trilobed berry bunch and the lower in a large leaf flower, while the diagonal strand on the left has two small ridged nodes from which hangs a lower spandrel ending in some sort of (damaged) berry bunch and an upper pair of spandrels ending in a trilobed berry bunch above the scroll and an oval seed pod below the scroll.

The second pair of scrolls consists of double spirals ending in leafed trilobed berry bunches, each with a single spandrel finishing outside the scroll with a long berry bunch. Each scroll has a diagonal strand running through it, emanating from the second main stem node and ending in a trilobed berry bunch nestling beside the next pair of scrolls.

The third pair of scrolls consists of single spirals ending on the right with a seed pod and on the left with a long triangular berry bunch. Short diagonal strands from the third main stem node end within the scrolls with seed pods. In the space above and to the right of the right-hand scroll is part of a long triangular berry bunch belonging to the scroll above, now broken away.

Each of the surviving scrolls is inhabited: felines in the first pair, birds in the second and winged bipeds in the third. The felines appear to be the same type of animal but they are depicted in very different poses. On the right the animal stands in profile facing right and clinging with its forepaws to the plant scroll, with its head turned to the left to nibble berries. On the left the lower part of the animal’s body is standing on the scroll in profile towards the right, but its upper body turns to face outwards, its forepaws on the diagonal strand and its head fully frontal between them, nibbling on the strand. The two birds inhabiting the second pair of scrolls are identical, with frontal bodies, feet on the lower part of the scroll, tail hanging down a short way below the scroll, and heads turned to face one another as they nibble on berries. Diagonal strands from the main vine stem cross in front of their bodies. The winged bipeds inhabiting the third pair of scrolls are seen in profile, facing towards one another, each hanging by the one claw that is gripping the top of the scroll. Their elongated bodies become long tails hanging outside the scrolls and looped round the short diagonal strands in such a way that their other claw is braced against a ‘scroll’ formed by their own tail. Each has a fin on the lower body and a bushy end to the tail. Their wings project on either side of and above the vine scrolls, but the wing tips and their heads have been broken away. Horizontal drilling has been used in two places to free limbs from their background: beneath the right forelegs of the bottom right feline and the top left biped.

To the right of the tree-scroll panel is a long narrow panel filled with fine two-strand interlace comprising pairs of out-turned Stafford knots in seven registers of four pattern units, carved in low relief. Face C is dressed flat roughly and has a damaged groove or rebate parallel to the left edge, in which a long side panel could have been housed. The intact narrow face B is plain. Face D has been trimmed and it is uncertain whether there was another narrow panel of interlace to the left of the vine-scroll panel.

Jedburgh 1.2

This fragment has a plain flat-band border on the right-hand side and part of an inhabited double scroll carved in relief. The lower part of a profiled bird is perched in the scroll, probably facing left, with its tail extending below the scroll, and a trilobed berry bunch fills the space between the scroll and the border, perhaps attached to a spandrel from the main scroll. The bird’s head and part of the scroll are missing. This fragment is likely to have formed part of the right-hand angled side of the gabled top of shrine panel Jedburgh 1, continuing the vertical spacing of the scrolls but narrowing the diameter of the scroll slightly in order to fit within the angle of the gable. Horizontal drilling has been used in three places to free vine tendrils from their background: two on the lower left and one on the upper right-hand side.

Date range: mid to late eighth century.

Primary references: Stuart 1867, 66-7, pl 118; ECMS pt 3, 433-4, no 1; Radford 1955; Cramp 1983, 281.

Research by A Ritchie 2019

Archaeology Notes

NT62SE 15.04 c. 650 204

Screen fragment of fine-grained sandstone; length 79cm, width c. 60cm, thickness 26cm. Anglo-Saxon, early 9th century. Historic Scotland, site museum at Jedburgh Abbey.

Sub-rectangular, roughly broken above and to the left and dressed flat below and to the right. The rear face is roughly dressed flat. The front face has a flat broad plain frame below, and partially cut away, to the left. To the right is a similar frame with a second frame paralleling it a short distance in from the edge and forming the left-hand side of a narrow vertical decorated field. A similar plain frame forms its upper edge and the field itself is filled with fine interlace. The rest of the the face is filled by a second large field with no upper frame and filled with a single tree scroll. The scroll has ridged nodes, long triangular berry bunches, and leaf flowers. The lowest pair of scroll is filled with quadrupeds, the second pair with birds and the third, upper, pair with winged bipeds. The animals are very naturalistic and in high relief.

The fragment probably formed part of a decorative panel, or perhaps part of a screen, or a shrine like that from St Andrews. The fine naturalistic vine scroll can be compared in quality with that of the Easby shaft, while in organisation there are clearly close comparisons with the decoration of the cross fragment. A similar date can be proposed for this piece.

L E Webster and J Backhouse 1991.

Activities

Measured Survey (2015)

A drawn survey of the Jedburgh shrine panel was carried out by Ian G Scott in 2015.

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions