Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 50, Hampshire Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 9
Evidence for Discovery
Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1964. Although found on spoil heap, date of discovery suggests derivation from demolition rubble of Old Minster; unstratified
Church Dedication
Old Minster
Present Condition
One bed face and an adjacent dressed face survive; the carved face is slightly battered, and pale pink render survives in a few places.
Description
The moulding is very precise, with a concentric pattern around a point outside the preserved corner. The moulding is composed, from the corner inwards, of a background area, 1.5cm wide and 1.5cm deep, a rounded, flat-topped moulding a pointed V-shaped cut, and a rounded, flat-topped moulding which, at its outer edge continues deeper than the V-cuts, to the same depth as the background area first mentioned.
Discussion
This piece is confidently carved and unusual in its symmetry. It may not fit very well with the liveliness of the Winchester style.
Date
Seventh to ninth century?
References
Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 147, no. 50
M.B.; B.K.-B.
Endnotes

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