Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 40, Hampshire Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 3019
Evidence for Discovery
Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1963 in rubble deriving from baptistery of Old Minster; Final Phase 58 (Provisional Phase 863), c. 1093-4
Church Dedication
Old Minster
Present Condition
Only one bed face survives; the carved surfaces are battered.
Description

A corner element, part of a frame, with decorative strips running as raised bands along the adjacent face, one band, 8 cm, the other 9.4 cm in width. A pattern of almost square boxes, separated by narrow ridges, runs along each face, set back 2 to 2.4 cm from the dressed face. The boxes are c. 2.5 cm square and 1.2 to 1.4 cm deep, and on the wider band retain patches of thick whitewash.

Discussion
This fragment was probably part of the frame of an opening or simply the decoration of an angle. An impost from Bywell, Northumberland, dated to the late seventh or early eighth century, may provide a parallel (Cramp 1984, i, 168, ii, pl. 161 (847–8)). The present piece may have come from the elaborate internal decoration of the baptistery.
Date
Seventh century or later
References
Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 145, no. 40
M.B.; B.K.-B.
Endnotes

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