What is recorded here

Breakage split the slab into two fragments, but Petrie saw it whole in 1822: a double outline cross whose ends swell into circles and triangles, knotted at the sides and fretted beneath. It still belongs to Clonmacnoise, small enough to lift yet heavy with the name Mael Finnia half-hidden in its letters. What the stone kept is not only a dead person but a workshop decision: to give one man a cross decorated like a living thing.

Clonmacnoise grave-slab inventory (1992) number: CLN00375 Dimensions: Up 0.312 x 0.325 x 0.03 Low 0.55 x 0.45 x 0.38 Double outline cross with a circular central and triangular terminal expansions. The left terminal had an interlace knot, the stem terminal an unusual fret pattern and the centre has an interlace pattern. Inscription: 'OR D[O MAE]L FIN[NI]A'. Evidence of discovery: Petrie 1822. Condition: Two fragments; complete in 1822. National Monuments Service, Photo number: 81-953, 973 Stokes, M. (1878) Christian Inscriptions in the Irish language, Vol 1, p LIII, no. 130 Lionard, Early Irish Grave-slabs, PRIA 60(1959-60), p 134, Fig 25, no. 3. The Clonmacnoise inventory was compiled by the Office of Public Works. A copy of the record for this slab is available for inspection in the relevant Archaeological Survey of Ireland (SMR) file. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Date to the early medieval period, likely 8th to 10th century AD, associated with Christian monastic activity in Clonmacnoise. The cross-slab may have marked a grave or served as a memorial, reflecting the area's historical role as a religious and cultural centre.

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