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Cross-slab in Inis Gé Thuaidh

Cross-slab

What is recorded here

Francoise Henry uncovered the cross-slab outside a house entrance on Bailey Mor mound, suggesting it once served as a doorway lintel rather than a buried marker. A bold cross with Y-shaped terminals fills half the stone, turning an ordinary threshold into a sacred boundary. People may have brushed past that carved gate daily, carrying butter, children or grief through a mark designed to watch them leave.
Within a house (MA023-014007-) on top of Bailey Mór mound (MA023-014003-). Françoise Henry (1945, 137) found this cross-slab during the excavation of the house. It was lying just outside the entrance passage of the house and Henri postulated that the slab had served as the lintel of the doorway. Engraved on the slab, and filling approximately half of its length, is a cross with Y-shaped terminals to its long arms. Attached image: MA023-014016-_01.JPG Image published by F. Henry (1945, Pl. XXIII, Fig. 2) Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 12 July 2023
This cross-slab likely dates to the early Christian period, associated with monastic or domestic religious practice. Its placement near the entrance may indicate a protective or ritual function.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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