The Corpus: Wareham 04

Volume 7: South West England

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Current Display: Wareham 04, Dorset

Overview

Object type: Block with incised ornament, probably a grave-marker [1]

Measurements: L. 23 cm (9 in); W. 20.5 cm (8 in); D. 15 cm (6 in)

Stone type: Yellowish grey (5Y 7/2), medium-grained, clast-supported limestone. The majority of the clasts are sub-rounded to rounded, with the well-rounded clasts resembling ooliths; clasts range in size mostly from 0.4 to 0.6 mm, with a few up to 1.0 mm. Doulting stone, Upper Inferior Oolite Formation, Inferior Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic

Plate numbers in printed volume: Pls. 126-7

Corpus volume reference: Vol 7 p. 117-8

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Present Location

As Wareham 1.

Evidence for Discovery

As Wareham 3.

Church Dedication

Lady St Mary

Present Condition

Broken but chiselled ornament crisp

Description

A (broad): The surface is smoothly finished and deeply incised with a vertical line flanked by two curved branching lines.

B (narrow): Broken

C (broad): Roughly pecked

D (narrow): Smoothly finished and decorated with an incised diamond pattern

E (top): Broken and rounded

F (bottom): Flat

Discussion

See Wareham 3. The branching linear ornament and the crossed lines forming diamonds can also be found on the stelae and coffins in the same regions as Wareham 3 (Sirat et al. 1984, pl. XXIII, 123, and pl. XXXI, 175). Another interesting parallel for simple stones incised with branching or crossed lines occurs in the British west, in a cemetery context at Cannington, Somerset. Here a roughly triangular stone (no. ST 360), with incised branching and crossed lines as well as a small circular motif, was found with a slab-marked grave-mound in the cemetery (p. 147, Ill. 199), and it is suggested that it could have been a headstone or grave-marker in the general tradition of early Christian memorial stones in western Britain (Rahtz et al. 2000, 263–6, figs. 186, 187). A similar fragment from the site (ibid., no. ST 99, fig. 188) also has branching and crossed lines, and could likewise be a similar monument to Wareham 3 and 4.

In the light of the pecked surface of face C it is possible that this was a recumbent monument.

Date

Fifth to eighth century

References

Unpublished

Endnotes

[1] The unique collection of sculpture from this site includes some possible Roman stones, as well as five Brittonic inscriptions which have generally been dated between the seventh and ninth century, and thus seem to have been produced within the period of the Anglo-Saxon hegemony. Although these have been included in recent catalogues and discussions of the inscriptions by Celtic specialists (see the Celtic Inscribed Stones Project on-line database: ,and Sims-Williams 2003), they were excluded from Okasha's south-western corpus (Okasha 1993, appendix D). They have therefore been considered in some detail here (see nos. 5–9 below), and are discussed in John Higgitt's chapter of the introduction, p. 65.