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Cross-slab in Clonmacnoise

Cross-slab

What is recorded here

Half a metre of green stone, broken at the right edge, holds a cross drawn twice: once outlined, once cut sharp with a diamond heart and arrowhead tips. Below the frame the name FINA[A] survives, the rest lost to the same force that took the missing side. Whoever laid it down gave a woman or man a shape the eye could follow and a name the chisel could keep. The loss does not empty the slab; it sharpens the part that remained.
Clonmacnoise grave-slab inventory (1992) number: CLN00037 Dimensions: H 0.468, W 0.38, T 0.025 An outline cross inside a single line rectilinear frame. Inside the cross is a linear cross with lozenge shaped centre and triangular terminals. Inscription: 'FINA[A]'. This inscription is beneath the frame and is incomplete. Evidence of discovery: Macalister 1898-1905 Condition: Right side of slab missing. National Monuments Service, Photo number: 81-155, 445 Lionard, Early Irish Grave-slabs, PRIA 60(1959-60), p 106, Fig 6, no. 7. 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 likely to the early medieval period, possibly 8th to 10th century AD, based on the cross design. The lozenge-shaped centre may indicate a fusion of Christian and pre-Christian symbolic traditions, common in early Irish Christian art.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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