Browse Items (29 total)

2009CA7155_jpg_l. Pectoral crosses were worn on a chain or cord around the neck, and acted as charms to protect the wearer. The pectoral cross was commonly worn by bishops and abbots in the medieval period. The figure style and the particular…

2006AM6059_jpg_l. This panel representing the Crucifixion was probably made in the late 10th century or early 11th century in England. The representation of the Crucifixion with Longinus and Stephaton alone, without the Virgin and St. John, as on…

2008BV1261_jpg_l. The monumental free standing cross was a phenomenon unique to the British Isles and Ireland, and this is one of the finest surviving examples. Carved with great skill, the decoration unites interlace patterns of the British Isles…

2006AD1299_jpg_l. This is a head of an Anglo-Saxon tau cross in walrus ivory. The tau cross is a form of crozier head, named for its shape after the Greek letter T. The winged seraph is a reference to the vision of Isaiah in which singed seraphim…

The delicately carved archer on the lid of this cross probably represents a figure from the Old Testament: Ishmael, son of Abraham. The reverse shows the Lamb of God surrounded by the four symbols of the evangelists. The cross originally formed a…

2006BC6621_jpg_l and 2006BC6622_jpg_l. The cross is one of the rare surviving pieces which give substance to descriptions in contemporary documentary sources of the sumptuous church furnishings of pre-Conquest England. The enamels are unique in…

Introduction
The Ruthwell Cross stands in a small church in the town of Ruthwell, just south of Dumfries, in south-west Scotland. The Cross is seventeen feet four inches tall and must sit in a well four feet deep to serve as the high cross for the…

The granite shaft is decorated with simple interlaced patterns, broadly datable to the 10th or 11th centuries. It would formerly have been surmounted by a head in the form of a cross. Six such cross-shafts survive in Devon, the others being at…

National Museums of Scotland, inventory no. FC 179.
Sheet metal fragments -- Gilded copper embossed strip, embossed sheet with arcaded vine pattern, embossed and chased sheet and gilded copper fragments from 5 bosses. Possibly fragments of a shrine…

The Staffordshire Hoard is an unparalleled treasure find dating from Anglo-Saxon times. Both the quality and quantity of this unique treasure are remarkable. The story of how it came to be left in the Staffordshire soil is likely to be more…