Editing High cross (section)

==Ireland and Britain==
[[File:VA23Oct10 101-crop-horz.jpg|thumb|left|Three views of the [[Northumbria]]n [[Easby Cross]] of 800–820]]
[[File:King-donierts-stone.jpg|thumb|left|[[King Doniert's Stone]] in East [[Cornwall]], Ninth century]]
High crosses are the primary surviving monumental works of [[Insular art]], and the largest number in Britain survive from areas that remained under [[Celtic Christianity]] until relatively late.  No examples, or traces, of the putative earlier forms in wood or with metal attachments have survived; the decorative repertoire of early crosses certainly borrows from that of metalwork, but the same is true of Insular illuminated manuscripts.  Saint [[Adomnán]], [[Abbot of Iona]] who died in 704, mentions similar free standing ringed wooden crosses, later replaced by stone versions.<ref>''The Archaeology of late Celtic Britain and Ireland, c. 400–1200 AD'', Lloyd Robert Laing, p. 169</ref> Perhaps the earliest surviving free-standing stone crosses are the [[Carndonagh stones]] in [[Carndonagh]], [[Donegal (town)|Donegal]], which appear to be erected by missionaries from [[Iona]].<ref>Henry, Françoise. ''Irish art in the early Christian period'', 1940</ref> fleeing the Viking raiders, "giving Iona a critical role in the formation of ringed crosses".<ref>Catherine E. Karkov, Michael Ryan, Robert T. Farrell, ''The insular tradition'', p.138, SUNY Press, 1997, also citing ''The Chronology and Relationship of some Irish and Scottish Crosses'', J.R.S.A.I 86 [1956], pp. 85–89 by R.B.K Stevenson</ref> The round bosses seen on early crosses probably derive from Pictish stones. High crosses may exist from the 7th century in [[Northumbria]], which then included much of south-east Scotland, and Ireland, though Irish dates are being moved later. However the dates assigned to most of the early crosses surviving in good condition, whether at Ruthwell and Bewcastle, the Western [[Kingdom of Ossory|Ossory]] group<ref>(Nancy Edwards, 1982.) ''A reassessment of the early medieval stone crosses and related stone sculpture of Offaly, Kilkenny and Tipperary.''   http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7418/1/7418_4483-vol1.PDF</ref> in Ireland, [[Iona]] or the [[Kildalton Cross]] on [[Islay]], have all shown a tendency to converge on the period around or slightly before 800, despite the differences between the Northumbrian and Celtic types. The high cross later spread to the rest of the British Isles, including the Celtic areas of [[Wales]], Devon, Brittany and [[Cornwall]], where [[ogham]] inscriptions also indicate an Irish presence, and some examples can be found on Continental Europe, particularly where the style was taken by Insular missionaries.

Most Irish High crosses have the distinctive shape of the ringed [[Celtic cross]], and they are generally larger and more massive, and feature more figural decoration than those elsewhere. They have probably more often survived as well; most recorded crosses in Britain were destroyed or damaged by [[iconoclasm]] after the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]], and typically only sections of the shaft remain. The ring initially served to strengthen the head and the arms of the high cross, but it soon became a decorative feature as well.

The high crosses were status symbols, either for a [[monastery]] or for a sponsor or patron, and possibly [[preaching cross]]es, and may have had other functions. Some have inscriptions recording the donor who commissioned them, like [[Muiredach's High Cross]] and the [[Bewcastle Cross]].  The earliest 8th- or 9th-century Irish crosses had only ornament, including interlace and round bosses, but from the 9th and 10th century, figurative images appear, sometimes just a figure of Christ crucified in the centre, but in the largest 10th century examples large numbers of figures over much of the surface. A fine example from this time period can be found on the shores of [[Lough Neagh]] in the Irish province of [[Ulster]] at [[Ardboe]], [[County Tyrone]]. This cross stands around 18 feet tall and consists of 22 panels of biblical events.<ref name="GI">{{cite web | title=Ardboe High Cross | work=Geography in Action | url=http://www.geographyinaction.co.uk/Assets/Photo_albums/Seven/pages/Ardboe.html | access-date=2025-02-15 | archive-date=11 August 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811073834/http://www.geographyinaction.co.uk/Assets/Photo_albums/Seven/pages/Ardboe.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> Some late Irish examples have fewer figures (often Christ accompanied by a local bishop or abbot),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Skurdenis|first=Julie|date=1987|title=Passport: Silent Sentinels: The High Crosses of Ireland|journal=Archaeology|volume=40| issue = 1|pages=64–65, 83}}</ref> approaching life-size, and carved in very high relief.  The Irish tradition largely died out after the 12th century, until the 19th-century [[Celtic Revival]], when the Celtic cross form saw a lasting revival for gravestones and memorials, usually just using ornamental decoration and inscriptions.  These are now found across the world, often in contexts without any specific link to the Insular Celts or Britain.
[[File:Gosforth cross.jpg|thumb|[[Gosforth, Cumbria]]]]

[[Anglo-Saxon cross]]es were typically more slender, and often nearly square in section, though when, as with the [[Ruthwell Cross]] and [[Bewcastle Cross]], they were geographically close to areas of the Celtic Church, they seem to have been larger, perhaps to meet local expectations, and the two 9th century [[Mercia]]n [[Sandbach Crosses]] are the largest up to that period from anywhere.  The heads tend to be smaller and usually not Celtic crosses, although the majority of cross-heads have not survived at all.  Carved figures in these large examples are much larger and carved in deeper relief than the Irish equivalents with similar dates – only some very late Irish crosses show equally large figures.  Anglo-Saxon decoration often combines panels of vine-leaf scrolls with others of interlace, although the placement and effect from a distance is similar to Celtic examples.  Smaller examples may have only had such decoration, and inscriptions, which are much more common on Anglo-Saxon than Irish crosses.

After the [[Viking]] invasions, the settled [[Norse language|Norse]] population of the [[Danelaw]] adopted the form, and a number of crosses combine Christian imagery with pagan [[Sagas|Norse myths]], which the Church seems to have tolerated, and adopted at least as metaphors for the period when conversion was bedding down.  The [[Gosforth Cross]], a very rare almost-complete cross in England, is an example.  By the 10th century such Anglo-Norse crosses were the bulk of the production in England, as the high cross seems to have been abandoned further south, although the simple and practical [[Dartmoor crosses]], no doubt an essential aid to navigating [[Dartmoor]], appear to have continued to be made for centuries after.  Given the tough [[granite]] used, decoration is mostly slight and they are hard to date confidently. [[Market cross]]es, many once dating to the early medieval period, have continued to be erected and replaced until modern times.

In [[Pict]]ish Scotland the cross-slab, a flat stone with a cross in relief or incised on an essentially rectangular stone, developed as a hybrid form of the [[Pictish stone]] and the high cross.  The cross is normally only on one side of the stone and the remaining areas of the stone may be covered with interlace or other decoration.  These are usually distinguished from true high crosses.