Volume 4: South-East England
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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 57, Hampshire 
Overview
Object type: Fragment with part of human figure(?)
Measurements: H. 8.6 > 2.5 cm (3.4 > 1 in); W. 8.8 > 3.5 cm (3.5 > 1.4 in); D. 4.8 > 3.3 cm (1.9 > 1.3 in)
Stone type: Pale yellow, medium-grained, oolitic limestone; Combe Down Oolite, Great Oolite Formation of the Bath area, Great Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 591
Corpus volume reference: Vol 4 p. 301
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Present Location
Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 205
Evidence for Discovery
See no. 56.
Church Dedication
Old Minster
Present Condition
No dressed or bed face survives; the carved surface is bruised.
Description
There are two elements: to the left a steep Z-twisted cable, in almost half relief, the strands 1.1 cm in width, a little less than half the diameter of the cable. To the right there is an irregular element, 4.5 cm wide at the top and 3.8 cm at the bottom, with an almost bevelled edge towards the cable. At the top, just below the break, there is a clear line, indicating that some other, projecting, element started here.
Discussion
This is not simply a plain panel with a cable twist, but part of an elaborate scene with perhaps a figure (a leg?) or plants, framed or divided by the cable. Winchester (Old Minster) no. 54 may have been from the same decorative scheme; no. 56 is from the same layer as the present carving.
Date
Seventh to ninth century or later
References
Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 147, no. 58
M.B.; B.K.-B.
Endnotes
