Pictish stone - cross socket detail

Pink sandstone, decorated one side only with incised, double outlined shafted cross having widely curved hollows at the arms and a complex stepped base. Surviving transverse cross-arm ends with an inward curve, but the top arm is straight. An area around the armpits has been cut away to give emphasis to the centre of the cross. Cruciform stepped base within which a recessed panel follows its contours. Back is uncarved, bottom edge has original tooling. Probably functioned as a recumbent funerary slab, although the unusually elaborate base may suggest it was used as a lid for stone coffin rather than being laid directly on the ground. Close parallel for this slab in Durham cathedral: full-length cross with stepped base incised in the planking of St Cuthbert's coffin of AD 698. Fragment (lowest and largest section).

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