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Object type: Coped stone
Measurements: L. 223 cm (89.2 in); W. 50 > 45 cm (20 > 18 in); H. c. 40 cm (16 in)
Stone type: Heavily lichen encrusted and difficult to find a clean face. Medium-grained Bodmin Moor Granite, type 1c (A.V.B.)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 124-30, 375-9
Corpus volume reference: Vol 11 p. Ills. 163-4
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Grave-cover, type g. The stone is boat-shaped, that is, wider in the middle than at the ends, with hipped ends. The lower parts of both sides are sloped, that on face D being more steeply sloped than that on face B. The stone is half buried in the ground so that some of the decoration on faces B, C, D and E is covered over.
A (top): The ridge takes the form of a broad cable which terminates at either end in a sitting animal, illustrated by Langdon (Langdon, Arthur 1896, 413 and fig.; see Ills. 130, 377–8). The outlines illustrated by Langdon are visible but not the eyes. The sloping portions on both long sides are filled with a key pattern, the Welsh P2/W1, possibly Romilly Allen's no. 884a (see Fig. 19e, p. 72). The triangular sloping portions at both ends contain well-modelled triquetra knots, although that above face C is less clear than that above face E. Beneath this decoration is a wide flat band or moulding on both sides and both ends.
B (long): The lower sloping portion beneath the band contains a long rectangular panel enclosing a key pattern, the Welsh R2/W1 (Fig. 19f, p. 72).
C (end): Beneath the band is a knot comprising two crossing rings, modelled in deeply cut median-incised strands (Langdon, Arthur 1896, fig. on 413; see Ill. 375).
D (long): As B, although the decoration is even more buried and less clear (Langdon, Arthur 1896, 413–14).
E (end): Probably as C, although the decoration is half-buried and less clear.
This grave-cover has a number of attributes in common with the Viking-age hogbacks which are so prolific in Yorkshire and Cumbria and which occur sporadically in Scotland, Wales and Ireland (Bailey 1980, 85–100; Lang 1984). However it also has some characteristics of its own. At just over two metres, its length confirms interpretation as a grave-cover, but it is much longer than most hogbacks. In plan it bulges gently along its length, and its slightly tapering cross-section, with a well defined 'roof', is similar to some hogbacks. However the most diagnostic features linking it with the hogbacks are the two small inward-facing quadrupeds crouched on the ends — although these differ from the norm in being on the roof of the monument, rather than clasping its sides (Ills. 124–7, 130). The decoration of simple knots is found on hogbacks but the fret patterns are not. Thus, although its interpretation as a hogback is slightly debatable, it probably can be attributed, like the ring-chain on Cardinham 1 (Ill. 46), to Viking influence.
The end decoration of two crossing rings and triquetras is well modelled in rounded strands like the decoration on St Cleer 2 and St Neot 1 (Ills. 52–4, 151–3), so that although these patterns are not datable in themselves, the good execution perhaps suggests a relatively early date in the sequence of Cornish sculpture. The fret patterns are less three-dimensional, but nonetheless well executed (unlike those on Lanivet 2). Both patterns can be paralleled on monuments dated to the late ninth or first half of the tenth century at Penally, Pembrokeshire, in Wales (Edwards 2007, 80, 414–21). Perhaps by coincidence, Penally 2's shaft also has a cable-moulding. The 'Saint's Tomb' hogback at Gosforth (no. 5) also features a cable-moulded ridge (Bailey and Cramp 1988, ill. 328).
In north Yorkshire, hogbacks are dated quite tightly to the first half of the tenth century (Lang 2001, 23), but it is doubtful if the Lanivet 3 hogback-like monument can be dated quite so closely or so early. In Scotland they are considered to extend into the eleventh century (Bailey 1980, 92), and a wider date range seems more appropriate here.
For the context of this piece, see Lanivet 1 (p. 160).
