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The Corpus

Eleventh century Crosshead at Churchyard of St Berian, Cornwall

The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Project

The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture identifies, records and publishes in a consistent format, English sculpture dating from the 7th to the 11th centuries. Much of this material was previously unpublished, and is of crucial importance in helping identify the earliest settlements and artistic achievements of the early medieval and Pre-Norman English. The Corpus documents the earliest Christian field monuments from free-standing carved crosses and innovative decorative elements to grave-markers.

From Books to Online

The project has published fifteen volumes so far, providing detailed coverage of all fragments of early medieval carved stone from across 37 historic counties. Just one volume remains before national coverage is complete. These richly illustrated volumes, include illustrated catalogues as well as chapters that set material within historical, topographical and art historical contexts, alongside a specialist chapter analysing the geological provenance of sculptures.

In recent years, with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy and the Aurelius Trust, the project has sought to release the data from all volumes online, as a searchable catalogue, accompanied by digital images. We have been working with the Archaeology Data Service to develop a new searchable platform, and we be migrating to this new site in 2026.

IMPORTANT: Please note that as a result of this migration, this site and the online searchable corpus may be unavailable for short periods while the datasets and searchable catalogues are moved over to the Archaeology Data Service.

Contacting the Project

The project is based in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University, where it was first developed. This landing page is the new primary point of contact for the project. It currently facilitates access to the original online catalogues but later this year will provide links through to searchable catalogues hosted by the Archaeology Data Service.