Volume 4: South-East England

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Current Display: Winchester (Old Minster) 87, Hampshire Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
Winchester City Museum, Historic Resources Centre, Hyde House, Winchester, accessions no. 2943 WS 252
Evidence for Discovery
Found in archaeological excavation north of Winchester cathedral in 1964 in Norman rubble deriving from nave or baptistery of Old Minster; Final Phase 58 (Provisional Phase 990), c. 1093-4
Church Dedication
Old Minster
Present Condition
No dressed faces survive; the carved surface is burnt pink and somewhat battered.
Description
The carved surface is flat, the background (if this was a raised relief) nowhere surviving. The pattern is formed by cutting out triangles which compose the lower halves of a series of equilateral parallelograms formed by a 60-degree grid of parallel lines at 14 mm intervals. The pattern achieved is horizontal or diagonal rows of small triangles.
Discussion
If this pattern is not simply decorative, it might be intended to represent tegulation, or could indicate a flat, mailed surface, as on Winchester (Old Minster) no. 88 (Ill. 646).
Date
Late tenth or early eleventh century
References
Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle forthcoming a, fig. 152, no. 89
M.B.; B.K.-B.
Endnotes

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