| Corpus Refs: | Nash-Williams/1950:383 RCAHMW/1925:1004(iv) |
| Site: | SDAV3 |
| Discovery: | first mentioned, 1925 Royal Commission |
| History: | The first record of the stone is RCAHMW/1925, 349, which states it was found in restoration of St. David's Cathedral. Nash-Williams/1950, 211, states that the stone is `Inside Cathedral, built into altar-front in the Chapel of the Blessed Trinity'. |
| Geology: | |
| Dimensions: | 0.6 x 0.25 x 0.0 (converted from Nash-Williams/1950) |
| Setting: | in display |
| Location: | on site Nash-Williams/1950, 211: `Inside Cathedral, built into altar-front in the Chapel of the Blessed Trinity'. |
| Form: | cross-marked Nash-Williams/1950, 211: `Roughly shaped round-headed pillar-stone or slab...23 1/2" h. x 10" w. x?" t.'. |
| Condition: | incomplete , some Nash-Williams/1950, 211: `upper right-hand edge fractured away'. |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | 1: equal-armed; outline; straight; expanded; circular; none; outer curv; none; decorated |
| Decorations: | Nash-Williams/1950, 211: `The upper part of the face is filled with a carved wheel-cross in flat relief in a sunk circular panel. The upper edge of the panel is decorated with a rough criss-cross pattern lightly incised; the lower is bordered with an incised straight fret (cf. R.A. 887, a common Viking Age motif). The wheel-cross is of debased geometrical form, with flat disk-centre, sharply splayed terminals, and flat fully extended wheel (cf. No. 382). The disk-centre bears a clumsily placed incised cruciform ornament framed in a circle of ring-twist (R.A. 574) of Scandinavian type. The arms of the cross are filled with crude attempts at knotwork and plaitwork combined with criss-cross pattern, roughly incised. Two arcs of the wheel are plain; the others are filled with criss-cross pattern (bottom l.) and knotwork (?) (top r.) respectively...Below the wheel-cross is an irregular pattern of intersecting incised circles drawn with the compasses. The stone is similar in design (though not in style) to No. 382, of which it appears to be a clumsy parody, executed, as the epigraphy and other features show, in the early Romanesque period'. |
| Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950): | SVEHTAM || MARCVS || LVC[AS] || [I]OHANES Expansion: MATHEVS MARCVS LVCAS IOHANNES Translation: Matthew (PN), Mark (PN), Luke (PN), John (PN). Nash-Williams/1950 211, Fig. 239 reading only |
| Orientation: | circular |
| Position: | ind ; broad ; within quadrants ; quadrant Nash-Williams/1950, 211: `The four interspaces of the cross are inscribed with the names MATHEVS MARCVS LVC[AS] [I]OHAN(n)ES, i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, starting bottom l. and following in order around the inner edge of the wheel. The lettering of all the words is disposed concentrically, except the first, which is clumsily inverted and reversed (Fig. 239)'. |
| Incision: | inc |
| Date: | 1140 - 1140 (Nash-Williams/1950) Nash-Williams dating based on palaeography and cross design and is c. 1140 (Nash-Williams/1950, 211). |
| Language: | name only (rcaps) |
| Ling. Notes: | none |
| Palaeography: | Nash-Williams/1950, 211: `The letters are plain capitals (with uncial H) in the Romanesque style that must have reached St. Davids with the Norman Conquest. The forms of the letters suggest a date shortly before the middle of the 12th century'. |
| Legibility: | good |
| Lines: | 1 |
| Carving errors: | 0 |
| Doubtful: | no |