60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, 1939-40. VI. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS OF SCOTLAND. BY CECIL L. CURLE, F.S.A.ScoT. (C. L. MOWBBAY). Thi st a completintende papeno e b s i ro t de stud ye earlth of y Christian monuments of Scotland. It is an endeavour to establish a classification and a tentative chronology, and to review the comparative material. Althoug e wholth h e collectio f earlo n y sculptured stone Scotlann i s d forms a very varied series, there is a main group of Christian monuments of a distinctive type of which there are more £han a hundred still in existence. These are distributed over an area extending northwards fro e Shetlane Riveth mth s a r r dFort fa Islandss ha westwardd an , o t s Hebridese th majoritye th , , however ,eas e beinth t n coasgo e tTh (fig . .1) uniformly Celtic characte theif o r r decoration make t scleai r tha origin i t n thee perio Celtie baco th th yg o f kt dco Church, thad an t they form part e greaoth f t grou f earlo p y Christian monuments -which extend over Ireland Isle Manf th ,eo , Wales partd an ,Englandf so wels a , Scotlands a l . But, although belongin thio t g s series e Scottisth , h 1 sculptures showa definite originality. The slab with a cross, as opposed to the free-standing cros f Irelano s d Northumbriaan d , developed e Isl f Manth e o n i ,s inta , o nationae th l typ monumentf eo erectn a s i , t rectangulaI . r sla stonef bo , sculpture reliefw lo ,n di wit hdecorativa botr o ee h cros e sideon th n f so s o monument e remaininth d an , g space filled with ornamenta r symbolio l c motives, animal carving figurd an , et isar scenes characterisee Th . y b d e extraordinarth y intricac e decorativth f o y e e motivevigouth f d o r an s animae th l carvings. Since Romilly Alie d Josepan n h Anderson published n 1903i e , Th , Early Christian Monuments f Scotland,o ther s bee ha edetaileo nn d study of these monuments. This boo s stilki e standar th l d wor f referencko e photographe ar e subjecto t nth i n I .monumente r drawingo sth l al f so s then known, and a detailed analysis of the decorative motives. It was followed, in 1904, by Romilly Alien's Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian e pioneeth s i Times. rs e subjecworth Hi n whicn ko o t h muc f thiho s pape baseds ri vero N y. precise t datinthaa s t gtimwa e possiblet no d an , much work had been done on the comparative material in the rest of the British Isles. Since then a considerable number of books and papers have been published on the art of the Celtic Church in Ireland and on 1 Throughout this pape wore th r d "Scottish mediaevals uses "i it dn i imoderns t nit no , d sensean , . 62 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , 1939-40. the pre-Conquest crosses and carvings in England. With this increased comparative evidence available it should be more1 possible to assign a e Scottisdatth o et h monuments, though thi s stili s a difficull t problem. Fe f thewo m bea inscription a r d nonnan eexactle whicb n hca y dated, anhistore dth Scotlanf yo d befor elevente eth h centur vers yi y fragmentary. onls i reviewin y t yb I earle th l y gal carve d stone f Scotlanso d thas i t i t possible to arrive at any conclusion 2 . The earliest possible date for the first Christian examples may be accepted as some time in the fifth century, the e periot latesMnianS th f d o dt an probabl, e elevent th dat s a e h century, when, wit e comin ht th Margaret S f go , Romanesqu t begaar e n to reach Scotland from the south. Owing to the stylistic development that took place monumente th , s limitea can o t , d extent placee b ,a n di chronological sequence. Many of the motives can be traced to a foreign source, arriving in Scotland in an already developed form, and it is chiefly by collating these different motives with dated examples in other countries tha conclusione tth s give thin i s paper have been reached. The Scottish type of cross-slab is fundamentally a manifestation of two arts, whichevolven a t a , d stage, blend: Pictish art, e nativth o et country, and Irish art, brought in by the Columban monks. PICTISH ART. The whole Pictish problem is too complicated to enter into in this paper. Whethe e Pictth r s were pre-Celtic inhabitant f Britaino s a r o , first wav3 e of Celtic invaders who mixed with the earlier population, is still a matter of controversy, but Watson considers them to be Celts, and, though he is nowhere explicit, implies that they are Brythonic.4 During the Roman occupation the name seems to have been applied to all the people e Romanortth f o hn frontie n Britain.i r 5 They wer a ewarlik e peopl d weran e e never Romanised e earlth yn I Christia. n perion i d Scotland with which this paper is concerned they occupied all the north lisf abbreviation1A o t se footnote useth n di s wil principae . foun116e p b l Th n . o d l bookf o s referenc Britise th r efo h Isles use thin di sfollowing:e papeth e ar r — Scotland.—3. Eomilly Alien Earlye Th , Christian Monuments of Scotland. Ireland.—F. Henry Sculpturea L , irlandaise d Irishan Art; . MacalisterS . RA . , Archaeologyf o Ireland and Irish Epigraphy; Father J. Ryan, S.J., Irish Monasticism; Dom Louis Gougaud, Christianity Celticn i Lands; Mahr. A , Christian Ancientn i t Ar Ireland. England.—G. Baldwin Brown, Arts in Early England and The Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses; J. Brandsted, Early English Ornament; . CollingwoodG . W , Northumbrian Crosses Pre- e oth f Norman Age; A. W. Olapham, English Romanesque Architecture before the Conquest; T. D. Kendrick, Anglo-Saxon Art. 2 I have not included in this paper monuments south of the Forth and Clyde (with the exception of Candide th n i w a fe Cas a a distric Galloway)n ti ther fo , y were either Britis Northumbrianr ho . 3 For various view Pictn so Watsone sse , Celtic Place Names, . 11p ; Pokorny, History of Ireland, p. 16; Macalister, Ireland Pre-Celticn i Times, . 255p ; Hubert Celts,e Th , . 203-8 volpp . i . , etc. 4 Watson, Celtic Place Names, . 68-71pp . Eoie Se n5 MacNeill Pretanie , "Th c Background in Britai Ireland,d nan " J.R.S.A.I., Ixxxi 1-28. .pp . E EARLTH Y CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS OF SCOTLAND3 6 . and east of the country. In St Columba's time they were being gradually pushed back fro e wesmth te Scot th coas y s b tfro m d Irelandha o wh , established the kingdom of Dalriada in Kintyre about the end of the fifth century.1 When Bede complete s historthei9 hi d71 r n yi souther n e Forth.frontieth s 2wa r Their ethnic and national existence merged with that of the Scots when the two peoples were united unde a Scottisr h kinn gi e middle nintth th f ho e century. e Pictth f so Tht ar e is as enigmatic as their origi - obscures ni in e Th . dubitable examples that they have th e e lefar t so-called "symbols," of which ther e fourteear e n different types (fig. 2), used oveoved an r r again in different combinations. Eleven of these "sym- bols" are apparently ab- stract designs. Thesy ema possibly represent parti- cular objects, but, if this is so, they are produced sucn i hstylisea d fors ma longeo n e b r o recognist - able. Of the remaining three "symbols," one is a n fantastic animal with a Fig. 2. Principal Pictish symbols. long snoud lappetan t , always shown in the same attitude with hanging tail and drooping, fin- like legs (fig. 2, a); the other two are simple objective representations, a mirror and comb (fig. 2, c), a hammer and anvil (fig. 2, 6). No one has as yet succeeded in either dating them or explaining their origin or meaning. They are found over most of Pictish Scotland, unvaried in essential form, although differing slightly in decorative treatment. They are engraved on rough stone pillarse wallth f cavesn o s o , n smalo , l object f stoneo s , 1 See Eoin MacNeill, Phases of Irish History, p. 133 sqq. 2 Bede, Hist.. Eccles.,26 . c . iv 64 PROCEEDING E SOCIETYTH F O S , 1939-40. bone, and metal, and carved or incised on the majority of the main group of cross-slabs. By far the greatest number of representations of these designs occur e rougonth h stone pillars generally know s "symbona l stones," varying heighn i feett6 froo t ; m3 occasionall naturaa n yo l bouldeprea n -o r o r existing "standing stone" (PI. XIII, a). There are more than a hundred d fiftan y stil existencen i l thesn o e reproduce d ear an , d variationl al f o s fourteen type f symbolso s . Their distribution extends from Shetlann di the north to Perthshire in the south.1 One example has been found outside this are Galloway.n ai greatee Th 2eas e r th numbe t n coasto e ar r, there being nearly fift n Aberdeenshiri y e alone.