This thesis analyses and defines the forms and ornament of the Welsh
sculptured crosses and cross-slabs of the pre-Norman period and attempts
to use the data thus assembled as historical evidence for the period in
which they were made.
The sculptural evidence confirms the historical evidence that there
was very little artistic, exchange between Wales and England and virtually
no direct contact between Wales and the continent c. 750-1100, but testifies
to the existence of contacts between Wales and Ireland, Scotland
(particularly Strathclyde) and the Isle of Man. Sixteen Welsh monuments
are found to exhibit evidence of Scandinavian influence and these help to
corroborate the literary place-name evidence for Scandinavian settlement
on the coasts of Dyfed, South Glamorgan and Gwynedd in the pre-Norman
period; the latter apparently associated with the trade route between the
Scandinavian settlements of Dublin, the Isle of Man and Chester.
The material reflects the existence of a settled society and economy
in Wales in the early Medieval period in which craftsmen, some of whom
were itinerant, others apparently associated with religious establishments,
were patronised by kings and affluent laymen and churchmen whose wealth
was in land. The distribution of the monuments demonstrates areas of contemporary
settlement and the lines of communication between them and certain
groups of monuments imply the existence of otherwise undocumented
religious establishments. Although generally associated with religious
sites, groups of monuments were not confined to the monastic aggregations
but they were confined to the bounds of the known historic kingdoms.
The Welsh sculptured crosses and cross-slabs were intimately associated
with both the royal/aristocratic and ecclesiastical elements in society.
Their production ceased when patronage was not continued by the new Norman
landowners and churchmen