Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon grave slab of Hereberict (priest)

HER Number:
92

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon grave slab of Hereberict (priest)

Place:
Monkwearmouth

Map Sheet:
NZ45NW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Grave Marker

Site Type: Specific:
Grave Slab

General Period:
Early Medieval

Specific Period:
C8

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
A grave-marker, or grave-cover, 104 cm high/long x 53 cm wide x 18 cm deep, in medium-grained, massive yellow sandstone. Broken top, side and base, but unworn. Decoration includes a centrally placed standing cross in high relief with, at the top, the remains of two wing-like features. In the quadrants of the cross is a Latin inscription in Anglo-Saxon capitals: HIC IN SEPULCRO REQUIESCIT CORPORE HEREBERICHT PR(ES)B(YTER) - "Here in the tomb rests Herebericht the priest in the body". The stone has been dated to the first quarter of the 8th century. It was found in a reused context during excavations in September 1866, face downwards above a medieval coffin in the west porch.

Easting:
402

Northing:
578

Grid Reference:
NZ402578

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 92 >> Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 1862, St. Peter's Monkwearmouth, I, fig. 6 R.J. Johnson, 1866, St. Peter's, Monkwearmouth, Ecclesiologist, XXVII, 364 W. Greenwell & J.O. Westwood, 1869, Proceedings 5th March 1869, Archaeological Journal, XXVI, 282-3 M.H. Bloxam, 1877, On an ancient inscribed sepulchral slab, found at Monkwearmouth... Archaeological Journal, XXXIV, 298-300 J.R. Boyle, 1886, On the monastery and church of St. Peter, Monkwearmouth, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XI, 51 pl. 6 G.F. Browne, 1886, On inscriptions at Jarrow and Monkwearmouth 2, Archaeologia Aeliana, XI, 30-2 G.F. Browne, 1886, Notes on...St. Peter, Monkwearmouth, and...the Sculptured Stones... J.R. Boyle, 1892, The County of Durham, 544 C.C. Hodges, 1893, The pre-Conquest churches of Northumbria, Reliquary new series, VII, 147, fig. on 148 J. Patterson, 1901, Some Saxon remains at Monkwearmouth church, Antiquities of Sunderland II, 79-80, fig. 5, C.C. Hodges in W. Page, ed. 1905, Anglo-Saxon Remains, Victoria County History, Durham, 234 J.E. Hodgkin, 1913, Durham, 200 W.G. Collingwood, 1927, Northumbrian Crosses of the Pre-Norman Age, 15, fig. 19 W. Levison, 1943, The inscription on the Jarrow cross, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XXI, 121, pl. 3A.1 B. Colgrave, 1948, St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, X (for 1944-53), 192 N. Pevsner, 1953, The Buildings of England, County Durham, 187, 280 Radford, 1954, St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, C.A.R. Archarological Journal, CXI, 211 R. Hyslop, 1960, St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, 32 and fig. B. Colgrave & R.J. Cramp, 1969, St. Peter's Church, Wearmouth Reprint, 23 and fig. R.J. Cramp, 1965, Early Northumbrian Sculpture, Jarrow Lecture, 4 H.M. and J. Taylor, 1965, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, I, 444 E. Okasha, 1971, Hand-list of Anglo-Saxo Non-runic Inscriptions, 101, pl. 92 J. Higgitt, 1979, The dedication inscription at Jarrow and its context, Antiquaries Journal, LIX, 360-1, 363-5, pls. 62B, 63 R.J. Cramp, 1984, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, Vol. I Part 1, p. 124, pl. 110 604 (Monkwearmouth 5)