The Corpus: Winchester (Old Minster) 05

Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 05, Hampshire

Overview

Object type: Fragment of grave-marker

Measurements: H. 16 > 10 cm (6.3 > 3.9 in); W. 31 > 18 cm (12.2 > 7.1 in); D. 19 > 13.8 cm (7.5 > 5.4 in)

Stone type: Greyish-yellow, medium- to coarse-grained, oolitic limestone, consisting of ooliths of 0.2 mm diameter in a calcite matrix, among which larger ooliths and pellets of 0.5–0.8 mm diameter are unevenly scattered, with some bivalves preserved in crystalline calcite{RM}a much less evenly-graded texture than is typical of Combe Down Oolite; probably Great Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic; provenance uncertain

Plate numbers in printed volume: Fig. 39; Ill. 501

Corpus volume reference: Vol 4 p. 277-278

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Present Location

Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 93

Evidence for Discovery

Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1965 in rubble deriving from tenth-century east apse of Old Minster; Final Phase 58 (Provisional Phase 643), c. 1093-4

Church Dedication

Old Minster

Present Condition

The carved surface is battered, and all original edges have been cut away.

Description

Only one face is decorated.

A (broad): A linear pattern is marked by deep V-shaped grooves. The outer line of the pattern is present only at the top where its outer edge is broken away. Parts of two inner lines are preserved, one curling back on itself to form a pointed circle. The surviving lines seem to define one arm of a cross, a simplified type E9, as suggested in the reconstruction (Fig. 39).

Discussion

There is no close parallel in stone to this decoration, but the way the end of the arm curls back recalls the terminals of the most elaborate iron coffin-fittings from Old Minster (e.g. G.821, probably of the mid ninth century), and the overall effect is like that achieved by combining two such fittings to form a cross, as was done on the lid of G.68 in the tenth century. A design like this could be achieved on wood, either carved or painted. Since the outer edge of the stone nowhere survives, its shape is unknown, although it was probably round-headed, like Winchester (Old Minster) no. 94.

Date

Late tenth or early eleventh century

References

Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle 1973, 19, no. 59; Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 157, no. 101

M.B.; B.K.-B.

Endnotes