The twenty-five papers, taken from a Cardiff conference in 1998, are concerned with Insular art in its broadest sense, encompassing studies of metalwork, manuscripts, sculpture and textiles, both recent discoveries and new investigations of well-known objects. They include material associated with Anglo-Saxon England as well as early Medieval Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and discoveries of Insular metalwork in Scandinavia. They are divided into five themes which reflect the many recent advances in the study of Insular art.
Part I. Politics and Patrons
1. Patrons and politics: Art, artefact and methodology (Raghnall O Floinn)
2. The cultural and political milieu of the deposition and manufacture of the hoard discovered at Reerasta Rath, Ardagh, Co. Limerick (Edel Bhreathnach)
Part II. National and regional identities
3. National and regional identities: the 'glittering prizes' (James Graham-Campbell)
4. Strap-ends and the identification of regional patterns in the production and circulation of ornamental metalwork in Late Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age Britain (Gabor Thomas)
5. Irish monumental sculpture : the dating evidence provided by linguistic forms (Catherine Swift)
6. Neo-Pelagianism, early Insular religious art, and the image of Christ (Shirley Ann Brown and Michael W. Herren)
Part III: Art and Archaeology
7. The Mote of Mark: the archaeological context of the decorated metalwork (David Longley)
8. A fine quality Insular embroidery from Llan-gors Crannog, near Brecon (Hero Granger-Taylor and Frances Pritchard)
9. Galls bangles as a regional development in Early Medieval Ireland (Judith Carroll)
10. The rapid qualitative analysis of groups of metalwork: making a dream come true (Paul T. Craddock, Jonathan M. Wallis and John F. Merkel)
11. Insular belt-fittings from the Pagan Norse graves of Scotland: a reappraisal in the light of scientific and stylistic analysis (Caroline Paterson)
12. An aspect of seventh-century Anglo-Saxon goldsmithing (Michael Pindar)
13. The earliest filigree from Ireland (Niamh Whitfield)
Part V. Style: Analysis, Methodology and Meaning
14. The Barberini Gospels (Rome, Vatican, Biblioteca Aposolica Barberini Lat. 570) as a paradigm of Insular art (George Henderson)
15. Style: a history of uses and abuses in the study of Insular art (Nancy Netzer)
16. The St Petersburg Gospels and the sources of Southumbrian art (Victoria A. Bruno)
17. Bible text and illumination in St Gall Stiftsbibliothek Codex 51, with special reference to Longinus in the Crucifixion Scene (Martin McNamara)
18. Hidden order, order revealed: New light on carpet pages (Emmanuelle Pirotte)
19. Apocalyptic elements in Irish High Cross iconography? (Kees Veelenturf)
20. High Cross design (Robert D. Stevick)
21. Two shrine fragments from Kineddar, Moray (Penny Dransart)
22. The date of the Aberlemno churchyard stoen (Lloyd Laing)
23. Biblical narrative and local imagery on the Kilnaruane cross-shaft, Co. Cork (Jonathan M. Wooding)
24. The Hillquarter, Co. Westmeath Mounts: an Early Medieval Saddle from Ireland (Eamonn P. Kelly)
25. Survival and revival of the Insular stle in Later Medieval Scottish art (Virginia Glenn)
Mark Redknap was appointed Curator of Medieval and Later Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales (now Amgueddfa Cymru) in 1988, later becoming Head of Research in the Department of History and Archaeology until October 2023. An archaeologist and finds specialist, he has been lead curator for numerous exhibitions based at the National Museum Cardiff. His recent research focus has been on early medieval and medieval Wales and he published Llangorse Crannog with Oxbow Books in 2019. Specialisms include ceramics (AD 400–1550), medieval boats and maritime archaeology, and medieval and post-medieval artefacts.
Dr Alan Lane, FSA, is a Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval Archaeology at Cardiff University. He specialises in the archaeology of the Celtic West and North and has carried out excavations and research in Wales and Scotland on high status settlement sites. He has worked on the Iron Age, post-Roman and Viking ceramic sequences of the Hebrides and their use as site identification markers.
