Portmahomack sculpture fragments

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The Portmahomack sculpture fragments are the slabs and stone fragments which have been discovered at the Easter Ross settlement of Portmahomack (Tarbat), Scotland.

There are around 200 of these fragments, each the size of a handspan or larger, making Portmahomack one of the major centres of rediscovered Pictish art. Nineteen pieces were found in and around the churchyard before 1994, and the remainder were found during formal archaeological investigations by the University of York between 1994 and 2007 Tarbat Discovery Programme. The excavation director, Martin Carver has proposed that the majority of the carved pieces originated in four monumental crosses or cross-slabs of exceptional size and elaboration, placed around the site of St Colman's Church. One of these (TR1) carried four Pictish symbols, a second (TR2) had snake-headed interlace. A third (TR10, 20), features images of a complex beast and a row of apostles carrying books. This same stone originally carried along one edge a Latin inscription, IN NOMINE IHU XRI CRUX XRI IN COMMEMORATIONE REO... LII... DIE HAC... commemorating an unknown person. The fourth cross was covered in spiral and interlace ornament. Another large...