Select a site alphabetically from the choices shown in the box below. Alternatively, browse sculptural examples using the Forward/Back buttons.
Chapters for this volume, along with copies of original in-text images, are available here.
Object type: Shaft element
Measurements:
H. 50.8 cm (20 in) W. 30.5 > 27.5 cm (12 > 10.8 in) D. 20.3 > 16.6 cm (8 > 6.5 in)
Mortise: c. 16 x 8 x 7 cm (c. 6.3 x 3.2 x 2.8 in) Tenon: 27 x 14 x 5 cm (10.5 x 5.5 x 2 in)
Stone type: Coarse-grained feldspathic Millstone Grit; rock body colour pale brown to very pale brown (10YR 6/3–7/3) with yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) limonitic flecks. Stone provenance as West Tanfield 1 (Magdalen Field)
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 887–8, 893–6
Corpus volume reference: Vol 6 p. 228-229
(There may be more views or larger images available for this item. Click on the thumbnail image to view.)
This tapering shaft element has a mortise in its upper end, hacked out with a punch, and its base has a tenon with a central drilled hole.
A (broad) : A plain edge moulding contains rope-like interlace which is logical but not gridded, cut with a punch, in three registers of complete pattern A with a cross-joined terminal below.
B (narrow) : The flat edge moulding is irregular and frames the base of a panel. Within the panel is a vertical axial moulding flanked by herringbone pattern.
C (broad) : The plain edge moulding contains rope-like interlace in modelled strand, cut with a punch. There are two registers of complete pattern A with joined diagonals below, and outside strands that terminate in a loop laced with a free single twist element. The interlace is not gridded, and the elements vary in size and proportion.
D (narrow) : As face B; some mortar adheres.
There was a will to be orderly in this shaft's decoration: the patterns are orthodox and logical, but carved free-hand so that they occasionally go adrift. The herringbone device is rare: it occurs at York Coppergate 1, on the sides of a stumpy tapering stone like this one (Lang 1991, 103, ill. 333–6). The real importance of this piece lies in its structure. Its mortise and tenon demonstrate that carpentry techniques were employed in stone, just as they were on Iona, Argyll (R.C.A.H.M.S. 1982, 197–201). Judging from the taper and the shallowness of both mortise and tenon, it is more likely to have been a composite shaft made up of separate elements rather than a short shaft with cross-head and -base at each end of the surviving stone. It was an adventurous structure. The unit of measurement was the imperial inch and the intact full dimensions of the piece (e.g. 20 x 12 x 8 inches at its base) suggest planning of proportions.
