Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- 1 Cloud-Cuckoo Land? Some Christian Symbols from Post-Roman Britain
- 2 Columbanus's Monasticism and the Sources of his Inspiration: From Basil to the Master?
- 3 Early Irish Priests within their Own Localities
- 4 Political Organisation in Dál Riata
- 5 Irish Boundary Ferta, their Physical Manifestation and Historical Context
- 6 Asser's Parochia of Exeter
- 7 Viking-Age Sculpture in North-West Wales: Wealth, Power, Patronage and the Christian Landscape
- 8 Iona v. Kells: Succession, Jurisdiction and Politics in the Columban Familia in the Later Tenth Century
- 9 A Twelfth-Century Indulgence Granted by an Irish Bishop at Bath Priory
- 10 Gerald of Wales, Gildas, and the Descriptio Kambriae
- 11 Patrick's Reasons for Leaving Britain
- 12 Learning Law in Medieval Ireland
- 13 Holding Court: Judicial Presidency in Brittany, Wales and Northern Iberia in the Early Middle Ages
- 14 The Iorwerth Triads
- 15 The Recovery of Stolen Property: Notes on Legal Procedure in Gaelic Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man
- 16 Contentious Kinship: The Penumbra of Established Kinship in Medieval Irish Law
- 17 Marriage by Purchase in Early Irish Law
- 18 Kingship Made Real? Power and the Public World in Longes Mac nUislenn
- 19 Mongán's Metamorphosis: Compert Mongáin ocus Serc Duibe Lacha do Mongán, a Later Mongán Tale
- Bibliography of the Writings of Thomas Charles-Edwards Maredudd ap Huw
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
1 - Cloud-Cuckoo Land? Some Christian Symbols from Post-Roman Britain
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- 1 Cloud-Cuckoo Land? Some Christian Symbols from Post-Roman Britain
- 2 Columbanus's Monasticism and the Sources of his Inspiration: From Basil to the Master?
- 3 Early Irish Priests within their Own Localities
- 4 Political Organisation in Dál Riata
- 5 Irish Boundary Ferta, their Physical Manifestation and Historical Context
- 6 Asser's Parochia of Exeter
- 7 Viking-Age Sculpture in North-West Wales: Wealth, Power, Patronage and the Christian Landscape
- 8 Iona v. Kells: Succession, Jurisdiction and Politics in the Columban Familia in the Later Tenth Century
- 9 A Twelfth-Century Indulgence Granted by an Irish Bishop at Bath Priory
- 10 Gerald of Wales, Gildas, and the Descriptio Kambriae
- 11 Patrick's Reasons for Leaving Britain
- 12 Learning Law in Medieval Ireland
- 13 Holding Court: Judicial Presidency in Brittany, Wales and Northern Iberia in the Early Middle Ages
- 14 The Iorwerth Triads
- 15 The Recovery of Stolen Property: Notes on Legal Procedure in Gaelic Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man
- 16 Contentious Kinship: The Penumbra of Established Kinship in Medieval Irish Law
- 17 Marriage by Purchase in Early Irish Law
- 18 Kingship Made Real? Power and the Public World in Longes Mac nUislenn
- 19 Mongán's Metamorphosis: Compert Mongáin ocus Serc Duibe Lacha do Mongán, a Later Mongán Tale
- Bibliography of the Writings of Thomas Charles-Edwards Maredudd ap Huw
- Index
- Tabula Gratulatoria
Summary
Christian iconography is not so plentiful in the post-Roman states of Britain that we can afford to ignore a varied and interesting range of crosses and other motifs from a period when we are otherwise heavily dependent on epigraphic evidence, a tradition that was largely peculiar to the far west and north. The problem is the source: like Dean Swift's island of Laputa, a substantial body of hanging-bowls floats above the cultural landscape of seventh-century Britain. Often labelled ‘Anglo-Saxon’ from their usual find-places in furnished burials in eastern England, considerable ingenuity has been expended in the past in arguing for a Germanic context for the manufacture of these distinctive vessels, despite their late Celtic decoration. Most hanging-bowls are demonstrably not made for or by Germanic owners and in their ornament they bear unique witness to the pretensions, changing tastes and religion of the Celtic patrons for whom most of these luxury items were originally manufactured. The tally of early bowls is now well over 150 and steadily rising through metal-detecting and controlled excavations, but is certainly an underestimate because the parts that survive best are the applied mounts, comprising suspension hooks with a decorated plate, separate appliqués or basal plates attached to the inside or outside of the vessel. Otherwise unrecorded bowl-mounts pass through coin fairs and appear on Internet sale sites.
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011