A Fragmented Masterpiece: Recovering the Biography of the Hilton of Cadboll Pictish Cross-Slab

Authors

Heather F James (Author)
Isabel Henderson (Author)
Sally M Foster (Author)
Siân Jones (Author)
Keyword(s):

Pictish; Art history; Cross-slab; Archaeology; Fragments; Heritage; Insular art; Sculpture; Biography; Ethnography; Replicas; Excavation; Class; Identity; Nation; Social values

Location(s):

Hilton of Cadboll, Highlands, Scotland, UK

Period(s):

Early Middle Ages; Late eighth century; Twelfth century; Seventeenth century; Nineteenth century; Twentieth century; Twenty-first century

Synopsis

Around AD 800, a superbly carved cross-slab was erected at Hilton of Cadboll in north-east Scotland. The major part of the stone now stands in the National Museum of Scotland, and the story of what happened to it in the intervening centuries is told here. Excavations at Hilton of Cadboll in 1998 and 2001 revealed not only fragments of the missing original carved face but also the lower portion of the stone still set into the ground, and this has allowed the art history of this magnificent Pictish monument to be assessed more fully than ever before.

***

The ‘Pictish’ cross-slab from Hilton of Cadboll is one of the glories of the early Middle Ages. This comprehensive – art historical, theological, archaeological, historical and scientific – monumental biography locates its birth in the ecclesiastical structures and religious beliefs of late 8th-century Scotland.

– John Moreland, Medieval Archaeology (volume 54)

There could perhaps also have been more extensive coverage of the context in terms of the Early Historic political geography […] but none of this detracts from the epic nature of the volume and its important contribution to our understanding of this most complex and important fragmented masterpiece.

– Alice Blackwell, Scottish Archaeological Journal (volume 31.2)

***

Canmore ID 15261

DOI: https://doi.org/10.9750/9781908332226

Chapters

  • Front matter
    Heather F James, Isabel Henderson, Sally M Foster, Siân Jones
    PDF
    File Size: 286KB

  • 1 | The project
    David V Clarke, Sally M Foster
    PDF
    File Size: 2MB

  • 2 | ‘the work of a genuine artist’
    a review of the art-historical literature on the slab from Hilton of Cadboll up to 1998
    Isabel Henderson
    PDF
    File Size: 481KB

  • 3 | The archaeological investigations
    Heather F James
    PDF
    File Size: 2MB

  • 4 | The cataloguing of the Hilton of Cadboll cross-slab
    Isabel Henderson, Ian G Scott
    PDF
    File Size: 2MB

  • 5 | The art-historical context of the Hilton of Cadboll cross-slab
    Isabel Henderson
    PDF
    File Size: 5MB

  • 6 | Recovering the biography of the Hilton of Cadboll Pictish cross-slab
    Sally M Foster, Siân Jones
    PDF
    File Size: 2MB

  • 7 | Artefact and environmental studies
    Amanda Brend, Meggen Gondek, Allan Hall, Isabel Henderson, Heather F James, Stuart Jeffrey, Douglas Morton, Ian G Scott, Suzanne Miller, Peter Hill, George Thomson, Jo McKenzie, David Sanderson, Iona Murray, Jennifer Miller, Susan Ramsay, Catherine Smith, Julie Roberts, Richard Fawcett, Maria Kostoglou, Derek Hall, Adrian Cox, Eland Stuart, Robin Murdoch, Siân Jones
    PDF
    File Size: 4MB

  • 8 | Conclusions
    Heather F James
    PDF
    File Size: 614KB

  • Appendix 1 | Hilton of Cadboll
    assessment and project design 1998
    Martin Carver
    PDF
    File Size: 280KB

  • Appendix 2 | An incised horse’s head at Jessie Port, Hilton of Cadboll, Ross and Cromarty
    Isabel Henderson, George Thomson
    PDF
    File Size: 346KB

  • Glossary
    PDF
    File Size: 221KB

  • Bibliography
    PDF
    File Size: 338KB

  • Index
    PDF
    File Size: 278KB

Author Biographies

Heather F James

Dr Heather James runs Calluna Archaeology. She was a manager at Northlight Heritage specialising in Community Archaeology and has been working in Scotland since 1984. She has experience in archaeological fieldwork throughout the UK, and in Italy, France, Jordan and Peru.

Isabel Henderson

Dr Isabel Henderson is a former Fellow and Director of Studies of History of Art at Newnham College, Cambridge. She has published widely on Pictish art, notably on the St Andrews Sarcophagus and the Hilton of Cadboll, Cross-slab.

Sally M Foster

Dr Sally M Foster is a Scottish archaeologist and senior lecturer at the University of Stirling. She specialises in the archaeology of Scotland, particularly the Picts and their neighbours in the early medieval period.

Siân Jones

Professor Siân Jones is a Professor of Heritage in History at the University of Stirling. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with expertise in cultural heritage, as well as on the role of the past in the production of power, identity, and sense of place.

Cover for A Fragmented Masterpiece: Recovering the Biography of the Hilton of Cadboll Pictish Cross-Slab
PDF
File Size: 18MB

Published
November 5, 2021
Categories
Copyright (c) 2021 Heather F James, Isabel Henderson, Sally M Foster, Siân Jones
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Details about this monograph

ISBN-13 (15)
9781908332226
Date of first publication (11)
2008

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