Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 81, Hampshire Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 19
Evidence for Discovery
Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1965 in medieval burial earth above tenth-century east apse of Old Minster; Final Phase 81-2 (Provisional Phase 682), mid fifteenth- to early sixteenth-century
Church Dedication
Old Minster
Present Condition
No dressed faces survive; the carved surface is somewhat battered and there are traces of whitewash.
Description
This is the inside of a clenched right hand; the scale is approximately life size. The distal end of the little finger and parts of the next two fingers can be seen. The fingernails of the two lower fingers are indicated, which makes it clear that this is a hand in spite of the angular impression. The swelling form of some object appears immediately below the lower finger.
Discussion
Possibly a hand grasping a vertical object, for example a staff, and if so, similar to Winchester (Old Minster) no. 80. It probably derives from the east end of Old Minster.
Date
Late tenth to early eleventh century
References
Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 151, no. 82
M.B.; B.K.-B.
Endnotes

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