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Description: | Description: Gold Latin cross made with long arm uppermost. The cross is hollow and its structure complex. It is made up with one cruciform sheet, which extends into the suspension loop, acting as a base-plate. A single strip of gold, set on edge, is neatly soldered to this forming a cruciform cell. This is then covered by second sheet of gold whose edges are partially enfolded by the top of the cell wall. The sheet forming the base-plate is pierced at the centre by an equal armed cruciform opening which is partially filled by a thin gold sheet, itself pierced with a smaller equal armed cross. In the interior of the cross, immediately beneath the smaller opening is what appears to be a circular element resembling a stud, but no trace of this can be seen on the front plate. The arms are irregular, with the upper and left ends being cut square, while the right and lower ends are rounded. The swaged suspension loop curls over to rest against its upper edge and is threaded by a length of gold wire made into a slip knot ring and shows little sign of wear.Discussion: Cross pendants, which are rare and more commonly made with equal arms, are considered to be a direct reference to Christianity, for example the gold and garnet crosses from Wilton, Norfolk and Ixworth, Suffolk (Leslie Webster and Janet Backhouse, The Making of England, Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture, AD 600-900, 26-7, cat. nos. 11 and 12, London 1991). The Wilton and Ixworth crosses are however exceptional examples of seventh century metalwork whereas the Newball cross is a product of a very different style of workshop. Although unusual, it can be compared to the equal armed cross on the Desborough, Northamptonshire, necklace found in a grave in 1876 (ibid. 28, cat. no. 13). This is made of two tubes of heavy gold sheet and set with a cell containing a small cabochon garnet and is placed at the centre of an alternating sequence of irregular gold and cabochon garnet pendants, gold 'bullae' and biconical gold wire spacer beads. It can also be compared to a stray find from Holderness, East Yorkshire (Treasure Annual Report 1998-1999, 37-8, no. 63). This, like the Newball cross, is noticeably irregular in shape. It is made of gold and inlaid with poor cloisonné garnet cell-work with a central setting containing a re-used drilled cabochon garnet.The Newball cross is unlike other early Anglo-Saxon examples, which are usually equal armed and, although this is not entirely clear from its manufacture, it may have been worn with the base-plate facing outwards so that the cruciform piercing was visible. It is structurally unusual and its cruciform piercing is unparalleled and although it seems unlikely that it is a reliquary cross in the strictest sense, it is possible that the ?stud, which is barely visible in the interior, may originally have had some function that is now irretrievable.Note: The cross is gold (see separate report) and is Early Anglo-Saxon in date. It thus fulfils the criteria of the Treasure Act.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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