Manx crosses: a handbook of stone sculpture 500-1040 in the Isle of Man

Citation

Foster S (2019) Manx crosses: a handbook of stone sculpture 500-1040 in the Isle of Man. Review of: Manx crosses: a handbook of stone sculpture 500-1040 in the Isle of Man, by David M. Wilson, Oxford, Archaeopress Archaeology 388, 2018, iv and 182 pp., Illus. 63, ISBN: 978 1 78491 757 9. Archaeological Journal, 176 (2), pp. 395-396. https://doi.org/10.1080/00665983.2019.1590955

Abstract
First paragraph: We have needed this book: an authoritative and holistic introduction to the Isle of Man‟s early medieval sculpture. From the book‟s Preface we get a good sense of just how hard-won its contents have been for the „retired‟, eminent Viking scholar Sir David Wilson, who long ago made the Isle of Man his home. The Island lacks a modern corpus of these carved stones – and the number of stones has doubled since P. M. C. Kermode published Manx Crosses in 1904. Such an absence makes this book all-the-more of an achievement, yet we must also wonder what it would have looked like if its author had been able to draw on a modern corpus that met current scholarly ideals and standards. (Scotland lamentably also finds itself in the same position, unlike England and Wales.)

Keywords
Carved stones; sculpture; Isle of Man; early medieval; Viking

Notes
Output Type: Book Review

Journal
Archaeological Journal: Volume 176, Issue 2

• Accepted manuscript