A Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales

Volume 2: South-West Wales

Nancy Edwards

with contributions by Heather Jackson, Helen McKee and Patrick Sims-Williams

Inscribed stones and stone sculpture form the most prolific body of material evidence which survives for Wales in the period c. AD 400–1100. Stones inscribed in Latin or Old Irish ogam (or both), which date to the fifth to seventh centuries, commemorate the elite of Welsh society. They are crucial to understanding the degree of Roman continuity, the impact of Irish settlement and the development of both the early kingdoms and Christianity in Wales. The inscriptions on these and the later sculpture are a major source for the Latin, Welsh and Irish languages and early medieval literacy.

The cross-carved stones, which probably begin in the seventh century, and the larger, more ambitious, freestanding crosses and other monuments, which are mostly of ninth- to eleventh-century date, allow us to identify a range of early medieval ecclesiastical sites within a wider landscape and trace the patronage of the church by the secular elite. The form, ornament, iconography and inscriptions allow a study of the impact and interchange of cultural contacts with the Irish Sea zone, Anglo-Saxon England, the Vikings and the Continent.

This new analytical corpus, illustrated with many photographs, line-drawings and maps specially commissioned for the volume, provides fresh insights on these aspects and new interpretations of the monuments, including many not included in earlier surveys. Volume 2 provides a detailed study of Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.

Nancy Edwards is Reader in Archaeology, Department of History and Welsh History, University of Wales, Bangor.