This is a fragment of the upper part of the cross-shaft and lower arm of the cross-head of an 8th century Anglo-Saxon cross.
Its significance lies in the fact that it represents a form of dialect and carving which links it to the Northumbrian tradition and therefore makes it an important remnant of the history of this region and a major survival from the time of the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The fragment bears a partially legible inscription which has been translated as a Northumbrian dialect of Anglo-Saxon. It reads:
BA(DA) (-T-)(A)EFTE(R) BEREHTVINI; BE(C)VN (A)EFTER
The sense of this is probably- Bada (erected?) a monument in memory of Berehtuini. The fragment has an interlaced knot at the top, the only surviving ornament on it.
The cross-shaft was purchased by The Bowes Museum with the aid of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, in 1986.
On display at The Bowes Museum
www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk
