Anglo-Saxon Sculpture

Gloucester's City Museum has a rich collection of sculpture from this period. Only some of the highlights are presented here. They demonstrate what a wealthy and important place Gloucester was then.

The Stone Crosses (An unsolved puzzle)

Five of these are known from Gloucester, but unfortunately only parts of the shafts on which the actual crosses stood survive today. Originally standing up to 3 metres tall they were richly carved on every surface. The intricate designs coloured with paint made them look magnificent, but their purpose remains a mystery.

Three were excavated by archaeologists in the grounds of St. Oswald's Priory, and another found nearby. In Ireland crosses often marked monasteries, but these pre-dated the first known Anglo-Saxon building on the site by almost a century. Maybe there was an early church here that has not yet been discovered. Or they could have marked important graves. Some crosses in Northumbria did just that. The St. Oswald's site had been a Late Roman cemetery and the archaeologists did find one, but only one, human burial that was later than Roman. In 1889 a much later cross fragment had been found on London Road, not far from other Roman cemeteries. Elsewhere in England, crosses were erected to preach from or show land boundaries. These were often by roads.

What do you think these crosses were for?