(BAR 152, 1986)

This volume contains the proceedings of the second International Conference on Insular Art held in the National Museums of Scotland in 1991. It covers the latest research by over 30 of Europe and America's leading scholars on the sculpture, metalwork and manuscripts of early-medieval northern Britain and Ireland. The book provides a detailed investigation into styles and influences, with keynote papers from Ernst Kitzinger, George Henderson, R.K.B. Stevenson and Isobel Henderson.

New insights into inscribed and stone monuments from across Europe in the early middle ages.

Inscribed stones and stone sculpture form the most prolific body of material evidence from early medieval Wales, c. AD 400 1100. Crucial to our understanding of the region s degree of continuity with the preceding Roman culture, Irish settlement, and the development of the early Welsh kingdoms, these Latin or Old Irish inscribed memorial stones instruct us on the language, literacy, and development of the church, among other areas. These two volumes allow us to identify a range of early medieval ecclesiastical sites within a wider landscape and the trace the church s patronage by the secular elite. Accompanied by more than 170 line drawings and elaborate illustrations, this corpus provides fresh new studies of these aspects, revised interpretations of the stones, and many previously unpublished and newly discovered examples."

Earliest Christian art - Saints and holy places - Holy images - Artistic production for the wealthy - Icons & iconography.

In the first major work on the subject for over 30 years, Nancy Edwards provides a critical survey of the archaeological evidence in Ireland (c. 400-1200), introducing material from many recently discovered sites as well as reassessing the importance of earlier excavations. Beginning with an assessment of Roman influence, Dr Edwards then discusses the themse of settlement, food and farming, craft and technology, the church and art, concluding with an appraisal of the Viking impact. The archaeological evidence for the period is also particularly rich and wide-ranging and our knowledge is expanding repidly in the light of modern techniques of survey and excavation.

This book, first published in 2006, surveys the archaeology of the Celtic-speaking areas of Britain and Ireland, AD 400 to 1200.