Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 75, Hampshire Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 480
Evidence for Discovery
Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1967 in fill of Anglo-Saxon Grave 225; Final Phase 40 (Provisional Phase 1388), mid ninth-century
Church Dedication
Old Minster
Present Condition
One possible dressed face survives; the carved surface is well preserved, and there is evidence of burning on one side.
Description
What survives is the left eye and part of the nose area of part of a human face. The pupil is deep and round and the brow strongly marked. The scale is twice life-size.
Discussion
The nose area is not as one would expect: a clear edge runs between the nose and the eye and the whole nose area is raised. The eyebrow is also more marked than might be expected. It seems possible that the nose area represents the nasal guard of a helmet, such as that from Coppergate, York (Tweddle 1984, 13–15), and this may also explain the moulding of the eyebrow.
Date
Mid ninth century or earlier; perhaps eighth
References
Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 151, no. 76
M.B.; B.K.-B.
Endnotes

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