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Cross-slab in High Island

Cross-slab

What is recorded here

Half a metre of broken schist from High Island still carries two carved crosses, one ringed twice and one three times, as if the maker refused to choose a single boundary for the sacred. The slab may have marked a doorway, a grave or a warning, but its forked arms and tight circles suggest someone wanted the divine made visible, repeated and impossible to miss.
Recorded by Fisher (2014, 213, no. 28, Fig. 7.5), this broken cross-slab (H 0.25m; Wth 0.11m; T 0.15m) of garnet mica-schist was recovered during excavations around the church (GA021-026014-) on High Island. Most edges of the slab are broken but one surviving arm indicates it was of cruciform in shape. Both faces are decorated. One face bears an equal-armed cross with forked terminals within a double roundel. The other face bears a similar cross within a triple roundel. (White Marshall and Rourke 2000, 156, no. 28) Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 20 November 2015
Dated to the early medieval period, likely between the 8th and 11th centuries, the cross-slab may have originally marked a Christian burial or served as a memorial. Its discovery near a church site suggests a liturgical or commemorative function within a local Christian community.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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