Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon animal-head terminal

HER Number:
99

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Monkwearmouth, Anglo-Saxon animal-head terminal

Place:
Monkwearmouth

Map Sheet:
NZ45NW

Class:
Architecture

Site Type: Broad:
Architectural Element

Site Type: Specific:
Architectural Fragment

General Period:
Early Medieval

Specific Period:
C8

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
Animal-head terminal, 30 cm high x 31 cm wide x 18 cm deep, in medium-grained massive yellow sandstone. Unworn and well dressed; broken off at the neck. The animal head is three-dimensional, of mammal/reptile type, with short square snout, long slit mouth, lentoid eyes, and with a deeply carved collar round its neck. It was probably meant to be seen in an upright position, perhaps the tip of a column-like feature. Dated to the 8th century it was found in 1969 in the founds of a modern wall grounded on a medieval and Saxon wall-line.

Easting:
402

Northing:
578

Grid Reference:
NZ402578

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 99 >> E.A. Fisher, 1962, The Greater Anglo-Saxon Churches, 87