Volume 10: The West Midlands

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Current Display: Bitton 4, Gloucestershire Forward button Back button
Overview
Present Location
Above chancel arch at very high level
Evidence for Discovery
In situ
Church Dedication
St Mary
Present Condition
Good
Description

This stone is wedge-shaped, wider at the top than the bottom. The top part of the stone has been cut down to allow for the roof timbers of the present roof. The lower part of the stone carries what seems to be a cut-back torso with a sloping right shoulder. Above the torso there is a curving element which may be a halo. A series of vertical or slightly radiating lines is clear immediately above the 'shoulder' line, beside the 'neck'. On the right edge of the lower part of the stone, there are traces of three curving lines.

Discussion

This may be the bust of a figure, perhaps a supporting figure beside the cross (in which case it is not in situ). Alternatively the 'halo' might suggest that this is a personification of the Sun or Moon (Sol or Luna), frequently part of the iconography of the crucifixion (Hawkes 2001, 241; id. 2002, 40, 45). If this suggestion is correct, and the stone is still in situ, then the figure would presumably be Luna. Taylor and Taylor identified this stone as possibly being part of the rood, and further suggested that a later corbel on the north side of the church might have removed a similar stone (Taylor and Taylor 1965, i, 75–6, figs. 33, 391).

Date
Late tenth to mid eleventh century
References
Ellacombe 1878, 15, figs.; Ellacombe 1881–3, 1, figs.; Brown 1925, 444; Quirk 1961, 29–30; Taylor and Taylor 1965, I, 75, fig. 33, II, fig. 391; Taylor and Taylor 1966, fig. 2; Scanlan-Teller 2005, 506–7, 517
Endnotes

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