Dupplin Cross
Encyclopedia
800
Year 800 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. It was around this time that the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years, so from this time on, the years began being known as 800 and onwards.- Europe :* December 25 - Pope Leo III...
A.D. It was first recorded by Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant was a Welsh naturalist and antiquary.The Pennants were a Welsh gentry family from the parish of Whitford, Flintshire, who had built up a modest estate at Bychton by the seventeenth century...
in 1769, on a hillside in Strathearn
Strathearn
Strathearn or Strath Earn is the strath of the River Earn, in Scotland. It extends from Loch Earn in Perth and Kinross to the River Tay....
, a little to the north (and on the opposite bank of the river Earn
EARN
EARN or Earn may refer to:EARN* European Academic Research Network, a defunct computer networking organisation* Earned Assets Resource Network, a non-profit investment organisation based in San Francisco...
from) Forteviot
Forteviot
Forteviot is a village in Strathearn, Scotland on the south bank of the River Earn between Dunning and Perth. It lies in the council area of Perth and Kinross...
and Dunning
Dunning
Dunning is a small village in Perth and Kinross in Scotland with a population of about 1,000. The village is built around the 12th-13th century former parish church of St. Serf, where the Dupplin Cross is displayed . The building was used in the filming of the Scottish film Complicity...
. In 2002 it was placed in the care of Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...
, and was placed for preservation under the 12th century tower of St Serf's church in Dunning (also in the care of Historic Scotland). Open to the public April-September.
The Dupplin Cross is a high cross
High cross
A high cross or standing cross is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone crosses, usually outdoors...
, that is a free-standing stone cross. While relatively common in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
and in Dál Riata
Dál Riata
Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...
, such crosses are rare survivals in the lands of the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
, though fragments of shattered crosses (probably cast down during the 16th century Reformation
Reformation
- Movements :* Protestant Reformation, an attempt by Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in a schism, and grew into a wider movement...
) show that a number once existed. Early records report that a second cross, 'Cross of Dronachy', stood on the lands of Invermay, south of Forteviot and also overlooking Forteviot, but this is now lost. The cross base survives in situ, but the records do not provide details of its exact form.
The cross is carved from Old Red Sandstone
Old Red Sandstone
The Old Red Sandstone is a British rock formation of considerable importance to early paleontology. For convenience the short version of the term, 'ORS' is often used in literature on the subject.-Sedimentology:...
, the cross stands about 2.5 metres tall, 1 metre broad over the arms of the cross. It is carved with various scenes, religious, martial and traditional Pictish animal carvings. The cross contains a partially legible inscription, of which only the name CUSTANTIN FILIUS FIRCUS can be read. This name is taken as the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
form of the early 9th century Pictish king's Gaelic name Caustantín
Caustantín of the Picts
Causantín or Constantín mac Fergusa was king of the Picts , in modern Scotland, from 789 until 820. He was until the Victorian era sometimes counted as Constantine I of Scotland; the title is now generally given to Causantín mac Cináeda...
son of Fergus (fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
793–820).
Since the inscriptio implies that the Cross was carved either during, or shortly after, the reign of Caustantín, it is particularly important as giving a fixed point in the chronology of Pictish sculpture. It also indicates that Gaelic was spoken at the time as it uses the Gaelic personal name of his father in Latin.