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Object type: Grave-marker or -cover fragment [1]
Measurements: L. 33.3 cm (13.1 in) W. 22 cm (8.7 in) D. Built in
Stone type: As Stainton 3 (St Peter and St Paul)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ill. 775
Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 205-206
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At the top is a damaged double plain moulding, from which descends a vertical moulding that joins the broad moulding at the base in split strands working at right angles. To the right of the vertical moulding are the edges of two registers of rough zig-zag fret pattern, echoing Maltese crosses. To the left is the front half of a naturalistic stag, moving to the right. The forelegs are stretched in motion and the antlers are branched. There is a well-defined hoof.
The stag is a frequent motif of Viking-age sculpture in northern England; in Ryedale it is found in a very similar context on the grave-slab, Stonegrave 7 (Lang 1991, 219–20, ill. 861), and on shafts at Ellerburn 5 (ibid., 128, ill. 432) and Gosforth 1, Cumberland (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 100–4, ill. 300). This stag may have been part of a hunt or 'hart and hound' scene, which remains a source of much debate in terms of the interpretation of its iconography (Bailey 1977, 168–71; see under Kirklevington 11, pp. 146–7, Ill. 431). Whilst the motif does occur in a Nordic context, such as the Oseberg plank (Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1966, 28, fig. 2), it is very common in Ireland, for example on the socket of the Castledermot South Cross, Co. Kildare (Harbison 1992, II, fig. 111), and may well indicate an Irish Sea Province milieu. In the case of Stanwick 9 there is a close parallel in the Manx cross-slab, Bride 97A (Kermode 1907, 180–1, pl. XLVII), where an antlered stag is flanked by a rough saltire fret exactly in the manner of this monument. Such frets were reintroduced into Northumbria in the early tenth century by Norse-Irish settlers, and there can be little doubt that Stanwick 10 (Ill. 774) is also part of this grave-slab (see below).
Another indication of the sculptor's awareness of carvings to the west lies in the split strands of the moulding. This was a common Manx device in the Viking period, to form link-twists (Kermode 1907, 42, fig. 27), but the usage seen here on joined horizontal and vertical elements is more accurately paralleled on the cross-head of Thorstein's Cross at Braddan, Isle of Man (ibid., 163, pl. XXXVIII). The trick is also found in the linked rings of the Cumbrian hogback, Gosforth 4 (Bailey and Cramp 1988, 105, ill. 321).
