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Monuments: D

1. Durham

Image
RecordAuthor Máirín Mac Carron
ISODate 2002-07-30
Date 30 July 2002
PictureCredit Jane Hawkes
County Durham
Townland Durham
OSMapRef NZ 275425
Area England
GeneralContext Cross head (complete).
Location Durham Cathedral.
Dimensions 61.5cm (24.5'') high, 67cm (26.25'') wide, and 15.2cm (6'') thick.
GeneralContext Stone type: coarse-grained, massive yellow sandstone.
GeneralDescription Complete Cross head, dated to eleventh century.
GeneralDescription In the centre of the head enclosed in an irregular circular roll moulding is a quadruped. Its front leg is raised. Behind it there is a shafted cross set in a rectangular base with grooved mouldings. Above the animal's back there is a circular feature with a small central depression. It is suggested that the animal is the 'agnus dei', the Lamb of God.
GeneralDescription On the horizontal arms there are two registers of interlaced pattern.
GeneralDescription In the upper arm there is a composition of two canines. Their tails are joined in a knot; their ear extensions interlink with their pointed front legs, and their back legs coil up and over their bodies.
GeneralDescription In what remains of the lower arm there is the upper half of a composition that has an animal with a canine head struggling in the coils of a snake. The snake's jaws grip the animal's ear.

  1. Cramp, Rosemary, County Durham and Northumberland. Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Series1st, Oxford University Press, Oxford. (1984) Stones, Sculpture, Churches, Anglo-Saxons, England..