
Mid-Argyll -
19
Dunadd cross-marked quern
Site/Artefact Type Site
Number National Grid
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Excavation Details
Not Available
Description
Around 20 quern-stones have been found
at Dunadd. All of them except for this and one
other were made of local stone.
The cross incised into the stone is of a style similar to crosses found on Iona - the biggest monastic church in Dál Riata at the time - and in other parts of Argyll.
One may speculate about the significance of a cross on such a quern. It may be simply a devout Christian's gesture of prayer, sanctifying the ordinary activities of the day, such as grinding corn.
However, the fact that flour is used in the production of bread, and that for Christians this bread will become the Body of Christ during the Mass, lends itself to speculation that this quern may have had a particularly ecclesiastical use.
Contemporary sources also describe millstones being used as bases for wooden crosses. Perhaps this is a reflex of that same association of stones and the cross.
Access/Ownership
Now at the National Museum of Scotland
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