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Object type: Part of cross-head
Measurements: H. 11 cm (4.3 in); W. 31.8 cm (12.5 in); D. 7.4 (3.8 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained, micaceous yellow sandstone (Carboniferous)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 196, 198 - 201, 211
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 84-85
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The cross, arm type A9, is outlined on each broad face by a deep groove, and edged by a flat-band moulding.
A (broad): In the centre of the head is a six-petalled rosette in relief. Its petals are finely incised and the centre of the flower is deeply marked by a small point. On either side of the rosette is an inscription, (a), in Anglo-Saxon capitals:
(a)
S
B (narrow): A single pattern F knot with a bar terminal and U-bend terminal.
C (broad): The inscription, (b), which continues the text of the one from face A and is likewise in Anglo-Saxon capitals, is arranged around a central flattened boss with a fine point in its centre. It reads:
(b)
AEF II ITBE
[RH]
D (narrow): A single register of pattern F with two bar terminals.
E (upper side of horizontal arms): The shape of the cross is emphasized by horizontal panels.
F (under side of horizontal arms): The ornament appears to be incomplete. The panel at the end of the arm is complete and on the left, the picked outline is unfinished.
The inscription plausibly begins with the cross, and then must have read clockwise through the upper to the lower arm. If one suppose that the inscription read from left to right up and down the cross, this could have read:
SIG[–] SETTE DIS [–] AEFTER S[.]ITBERH[–]
(Translation: 'Sig[–] set this up in memory of [Su]itberh[t]'). The word used to describe the cross that is set up could have been becun ('sign'), which is also used to describe a cross at Urswick (no. 1), and possibly also at Bewcastle (no. 1), if one follows a widely accepted reading (cf. p. 65).
The lettering is good, confident display script which Okasha dates eighth to ninth century. Cross-heads which carry memorial inscriptions such as this (although not usually at such length) are known from the monastic site at Whitby (Peers and Radford 1943, figs. 6–7; Okasha 1971, 123–32) and also from Dewsbury and York, all in Yorkshire (Okasha 1971, 148, 308). The shape of the head, like the rosette centre, can be paralleled at Hexham, Northumberland (Cramp 1984, pls. 172, 910; 178, 944), and the rosette at Hoddom and Thornhill, Dumfriesshire (Collingwood 1927a, figs. 51, 68), and at York. The miniature form of the cross-head recalls one from Lastingham, Yorkshire (Collingwood 1927a, fig. 133a). All of these parallels cited are from monastic sites, and it is possible that the area round St Cuthbert's church in Carlisle was the location of a monastery.
The rest of the ornamental detail is sparse: the plain panels on E and F also occur at Northallerton, Yorkshire, on a cross which bears some resemblance to Carlisle. The rosette centre and the flat boss with a central hole may have been painted or covered with thin metal, since the colour and surface appearance of the stone there are markedly different from the rest of the cross-head. Bosses which are similarly pierced also occur in the north-west at Lancaster (Collingwood 1927a, fig. 137).
