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Object type: Part of shaft [1]
Measurements: H. 78 cm (30.75 in); W. 58 > 37 cm (22.75 > 14.5 in); D. 16 cm (6.25 in)
Stone type: Pale red (5R 6/2), medium- to coarse-grained (0.3 to 0.6 mm, but mostly medium-grained between 0.4 and 0.5 mm), sub-angular to sub-rounded, clast-supported, quartz sandstone. A few scattered pebbles up to 1.3 cm; the larger pebbles are sub-angular and composed of fine-grained sandstone. Chester Pebble Beds Formation?, Sherwood Sandstone Group, Triassic
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 206-10
Corpus volume reference: Vol 9 p. 87-9
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A (broad): Above an undecorated lower section (27 cm in height) is an incomplete figural scene (or undivided scenes) flanked laterally by cable mouldings. At the bottom of the panel is a horned stag facing right, with tail, lightly drilled eye and open mouth; he confronts a hound-like creature with ears and curled tail whose jaws are at the stag's throat. Above the stag's back is a human figure, clad in a kirtle, facing right; he holds, with outstretched arm, a spear in front of him which plunges into the stag, its leaf-like head re-appearing below the beast's belly. Above this are the lower parts of two figures whose feet face each other, the right-hand figure lower than the left; the arm of the left-hand figure reaches across the body of the right-hand man. To the right the figure is dressed in a short kirtle; the figure to the left has a long pleated dress, and seemingly a hanging knotted pigtail behind her. Between this pigtail and the border is a run of two-strand plait.
B (narrow): The lower 28 cm are undecorated. Above this is a panel containing ring-encircled twist with long glides, set within lateral cable mouldings.
C (broad): The lower 29 cm of this face are undecorated. Above are one complete and one incomplete panel, flanked laterally by cable mouldings and separated by a horizontal moulding; the latter may also be cabled. The lower scene shows two confronted horsemen, carrying leaf-headed spears which cross above the heads of their mounts. The necks of the beasts are strongly arched and the left-hand animal has a short tail. Both horsemen wear long garments, the rider's body to the left carrying ribbing which may represent armour. The belted figure on the right possibly holds reins in his left hand. In the fragmentary scene above are two quadrupeds moving to the right. The beast to the left has an ear and curled tail; that to the right has a backward-turned head on arched neck.
D (narrow): Step pattern, type 1
As discussed under Neston 2, White has now withdrawn his suggestion that this shaft came from the same monument as Neston 2 (White, R. 1986, 51). Both patterns employed on the narrow faces are typical motifs from the Viking-age repertoire in England, and the seeming vertical assembly of figural and animal scenes on face A, in which there appears to be no panel division, is another common ornamental organisation of Viking-age carvings.
The hunt scene on face A represents a version of a theme which is highly popular in Insular sculpture. English, Manx and Welsh examples all date to the Viking period and ultimately derive from Irish or, more likely, Pictish models, though Harbison has argued that the motif can be traced back even further to Italian sources (Harbison 1992, i, 317–18, iii, figs. 968, 978; Trench-Jellicoe 1999a, 193–4). A frequent element in such scenes is that of the 'hart and hound' whose usual form shows a hound leaping onto the back of the quarry (see discussions of Lancaster St Mary 4 and Heysham 5, pp. 203, 222–3). The type seen at Neston, in which the hound tears at the throat from below, is rather less frequent, as is the spearing of the beast through its back. But the throat-tearing can be found on Man and, earlier, at sites like Burghead in Scotland (Trench-Jellicoe 1999a, 192–3; Henderson and Henderson 2004, ill. 300). Similarly the spearing from above, in combination with the more usual 'hart and hound' motif, is depicted on the shaft of the Market cross at Kells (Harbison 1992, iii, fig. 970). I have argued elsewhere, on the basis of images accompanying Psalms XLIV, 2 and XC, 3 in the Utrecht Psalter and its derivatives, that these hunting scenes could potentially carry a Christian significance of Christ or the Christian soul pursued by devils (Bailey 1977, 68–9; de Walde 1933, pls. XXXIX, LXXIV). Equally, however, hunting is par excellence an aristocratic sport of the secular elite, and here, as elsewhere in Viking-age England, may well be a marker appropriate to the class of the deceased — in a similar manner to the secular imperial significance attributed to the lion hunt on the St Andrews sarcophagus (Henderson, I. 1998, 108–18).
Little can be said about the figures above the hunt except to note that females with knotted pigtails are a characteristic element in female portraiture in Viking art, occurring among other Insular sculptures at Gosforth and in the Isle of Man (Bailey and Cramp 1988, ills. 304, 692-3; Kermode 1907, nos. 99, 105; Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1966, pl. XXIV).
The cavalry encounter on face C has no analogues in sculpture in England. Like the hunt motif it may have an Irish or Scottish source for it is best paralleled in the battle scene at Aberlemno and, in a somewhat less aggressive confrontation, on the west cross at Kilkieran (Henderson and Henderson 2004, ill. 82; Harbison 1992, ii, fig. 389).
The two animals, one glancing backwards ahead of the other, are elements which can be found as part of larger hunting or animal processional scenes elsewhere; the Kells Market cross and slabs from Inchbrayock and Inchinnan in Scotland provide good examples (Harbison 1992, ii, fig. 342; Allen and Anderson 1903, iii, figs. 235B, 478). Perhaps here they function as a zoomorphic encounter to balance the cavalry clash below them.
Most of the surviving scenes on Neston 2 and 3 are ones which would be entirely familiar in early medieval psalter illustrations or commentaries. We have seen that David and Goliath frequently figure in contexts which bring out the Christological implications of their encounter: 'this war of David [with Goliath] was a prophecy of the Lord's struggle', in the words of Cassiodorus commenting on Psalm CXLIII (Adriaen 1958, ii, 1281; Walsh 1990–1, iii, 413). Equally the hunter's pursuit of the hart in psalm illustration and commentary involves evil forces: an eleventh-century commentary on Psalm XC, which was falsely attributed to Bede, makes the symbolism clear: venantes vel venatores sunt diaboli (Migne 1862, col. 971; Bailey 1977, 68–9). And the early twelfth-century St Albans Psalter has a cavalry encounter with a lengthy explanatory gloss explaining that the image is a metaphor for the bellum spirituale (spiritual battle). Openshaw (1993) sees this as the culmination of a psalter tradition of depicting armed encounters as an image of the struggle with evil, ultimately depending on Ephesians VI, 11: 'Put on the whole armour of God'.
As discussed under Neston 2, White has now withdrawn his suggestion that this shaft came from the same monument as Neston 2 (White, R. 1986, 51). Both patterns employed on the narrow faces are typical motifs from the Viking-age repertoire in England, and the seeming vertical assembly of figural and animal scenes on face A, in which there appears to be no panel division, is another common ornamental organisation of Viking-age carvings.
The hunt scene on face A represents a version of a theme which is highly popular in Insular sculpture. English, Manx and Welsh examples all date to the Viking period and ultimately derive from Irish or, more likely, Pictish models, though Harbison has argued that the motif can be traced back even further to Italian sources (Harbison 1992, i, 317–18, iii, figs. 968, 978; Trench-Jellicoe 1999a, 193–4). A frequent element in such scenes is that of the 'hart and hound' whose usual form shows a hound leaping onto the back of the quarry (see discussions of Lancaster St Mary 4 and Heysham 5, pp. 203, 222–3). The type seen at Neston, in which the hound tears at the throat from below, is rather less frequent, as is the spearing of the beast through its back. But the throat-tearing can be found on Man and, earlier, at sites like Burghead in Scotland (Trench-Jellicoe 1999a, 192–3; Henderson and Henderson 2004, ill. 300). Similarly the spearing from above, in combination with the more usual 'hart and hound' motif, is depicted on the shaft of the Market cross at Kells (Harbison 1992, iii, fig. 970). I have argued elsewhere, on the basis of images accompanying Psalms XLIV, 2 and XC, 3 in the Utrecht Psalter and its derivatives, that these hunting scenes could potentially carry a Christian significance of Christ or the Christian soul pursued by devils (Bailey 1977, 68–9; de Walde 1933, pls. XXXIX, LXXIV). Equally, however, hunting is par excellence an aristocratic sport of the secular elite, and here, as elsewhere in Viking-age England, may well be a marker appropriate to the class of the deceased — in a similar manner to the secular imperial significance attributed to the lion hunt on the St Andrews sarcophagus (Henderson, I. 1998, 108–18).
Little can be said about the figures above the hunt except to note that females with knotted pigtails are a characteristic element in female portraiture in Viking art, occurring among other Insular sculptures at Gosforth and in the Isle of Man (Bailey and Cramp 1988, ills. 304, 692-3; Kermode 1907, nos. 99, 105; Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1966, pl. XXIV).
The cavalry encounter on face C has no analogues in sculpture in England. Like the hunt motif it may have an Irish or Scottish source for it is best paralleled in the battle scene at Aberlemno and, in a somewhat less aggressive confrontation, on the west cross at Kilkieran (Henderson and Henderson 2004, ill. 82; Harbison 1992, ii, fig. 389).
The two animals, one glancing backwards ahead of the other, are elements which can be found as part of larger hunting or animal processional scenes elsewhere; the Kells Market cross and slabs from Inchbrayock and Inchinnan in Scotland provide good examples (Harbison 1992, ii, fig. 342; Allen and Anderson 1903, iii, figs. 235B, 478). Perhaps here they function as a zoomorphic encounter to balance the cavalry clash below them.
Most of the surviving scenes on Neston 2 and 3 are ones which would be entirely familiar in early medieval psalter illustrations or commentaries. We have seen that David and Goliath frequently figure in contexts which bring out the Christological implications of their encounter: 'this war of David [with Goliath] was a prophecy of the Lord's struggle', in the words of Cassiodorus commenting on Psalm CXLIII (Adriaen 1958, ii, 1281; Walsh 1990–1, iii, 413). Equally the hunter's pursuit of the hart in psalm illustration and commentary involves evil forces: an eleventh-century commentary on Psalm XC, which was falsely attributed to Bede, makes the symbolism clear: venantes vel venatores sunt diaboli (Migne 1862, col. 971; Bailey 1977, 68–9). And the early twelfth-century St Albans Psalter has a cavalry encounter with a lengthy explanatory gloss explaining that the image is a metaphor for the bellum spirituale (spiritual battle). Openshaw (1993) sees this as the culmination of a psalter tradition of depicting armed encounters as an image of the struggle with evil, ultimately depending on Ephesians VI, 11: 'Put on the whole armour of God'.
