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Some Welsh Early Christian Monuments1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012
Extract
The Early Christian monuments of Wales are of special interest as the principal material remains of the centuries that elapsed between the end of the Roman occupation and the coming of the Normans.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1939
References
page 147 note 2 References to the setting up of ‘crosses’ (? crossed stones) for such purposes occur in the Lives of the Celtic saints, where it is clear that the practice was already widespread among the Celtic Christians in the sixth century, especially in Ireland. In this connexion it is significant that the largest number of Welsh crossed stones, showing the widest variety of cross-forms, occurs in Pembrokeshire and the parts of Wales adjacent to Ireland. For a review of the literary evidence see AEE, v, 148 ff.
page 148 note 1 In a recent paper on a group of Irish pillar-stones (in JRSAI, lxvii (1937), 265 ffGoogle Scholar.) Mlle Henry comes to a similar conclusion: ‘… we seem to have in these pillars and cross-incised stones the first attempts at Christian monuments in Ireland, dating probably from the VIth and VIIth centuries.’ It may be added that some of the stones illustrated by Mile Henry (pls. xxix, 1; xxxii, 1 and 2; xxxiii, 1) show spiral-designs akin to that on the Athlone bronze Crucifixion-plaque (dated 8th century), with which therefore they are presumably more or less contemporary.
page 148 note 2 Cf. RCAM, Anglesey, p. xciv (C. A. Ralegh Radford).
page 148 note 3 For a full list of the monuments see BBCS, viii (1935–6), 62–84, 161–88.
page 149 note 1 The decorative motifs are referred to throughout by the type-numbers of Romilly Allen’s classification in ECMS, ii, 140 ff.
page 149 note 2 Cf. AA-DS, iii, 281.
page 149 note 3 LW, pl. 34.
page 149 note 4 Ibid., pl. 101, 5.
page 149 note 5 Ibid., pl. 1.
page 150 note 1 The form is characteristic of the Irish ‘high crosses’ (cf. LSI, ii, pls. 56, 96, et passim) and occurs in Scotland in areas colonized from Ireland (cf. ECMS, iii, fig. 416), as also in Man (MC, pl. xix, 55). The square cross-base is apparently a Scottish feature (ECMS, ii, 56).
page 150 note 2 For the hair so treated on Scottish and Irish monuments see ECMS, iii, fig. 235b, and CCI, fig. 233.
page 150 note 3 Cf. ECMS, iii, fig. 6 (Papil); MC, pl. xxvi, 67 (Maughold).
page 150 note 4 Antiquity, x (1936), 437Google Scholar. Kermode includes the Maughold slab in his pre-Scandinavian series.
page 151 note 1 For a Scottish cross-slab similarly decorated see ECMS, iii, fig. 235a.
page 151 note 2 The attitude is derived ultimately from the winged Nike representations of classical art (cf. BAA, p. 675).
page 151 note 3 Cf. ibid., fig. 362 (Coptic, 5th century A.D.); SFEEM, pl. LXXV (Lombardic, 8th century); Ant. J. xvii (1937), pl. xviii (Spanish, early 10th century); ERA, pl. 60 (Anglo-Saxon, 10th century). The birds' heads are an unusual feature. They may have been suggested by the bird-headed Evangelists' symbols found on some of the Scottish stones (e.g. ECMS, iii, fig. 264a).
page 152 note 1 Cf. ECMS, iii, figs. 233a, 236, 305a, etc.
page 152 note 2 Cf. MC, pls. xxx, XLIII, etc.
page 152 note 3 Shetelig, Manx Crosses relating to Great Britain and Norway, p. 2.
page 152 note 4 I am indebted to Sir Cyril Fox for bringing the stone to my notice.
page 152 note 5 AEE, v, 87.
page 152 note 6 HCA, p. 560.
page 153 note 1 For illustrations of actual tunics (from Coptic graves) showing these details see Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of Textiles from Burying-grounds in Egypt, i, 40; ii, 20 (note); and plates.
page 154 note 1 Cf. HCA, figs. 175–6.
page 154 note 2 DACL, s.v. ‘Crucifix’, cols. 3094–5. Fora Gaulish grave-slab of the 7th century A.D. decorated with an outline Latin cross on a globe and small ring-crosses see ICG, ii, pl. 92, no. 549.
page 155 note 1 The fully extended wheel appears to be a late feature. It occurs again at St. Davids on the Bishop Abraham cross-slab dated 1078–80 (see AC, 1938, p. 54).
page 155 note 2 Cf. BM, lxxxviii (1929), 59.
page 155 note 3 Ibid., pl. xvii, fig. 32 (MS. dated 1129).
page 155 note 4 Ibid., p. 65; Arch. lxxix (1929), 151Google Scholar (on a seal dated 1123).
page 155 note 5 OCC, p. 366.
page 155 note 6 The centre-points are visible in the case of some of the circles. So, too, in the case of the carved wheel-cross above, showing that it was set out purely mechanically.
page 156 note 1 HW, i, 222; ii, 453. The Abraham stone must be regarded as a product of the vigorous Celtic culture that seems to have flourished at St. Davids at the end of the eleventh century under the auspices of the scholarly Sulien, bishop of the see in 1072–8 and 1080–5. Ibid. ii, 451.