- Early Christianity and its Monuments -
of literacy - in some areas such as Wales a continuation of Romano-British practice,
in Ireland a new introduction (see below on ogam).5 Monastic centres, endowed
with royal patronage and protection, formed foci in manpower, skills, and resources
for local improvements, and (as at royal sites) bases for craftsmen in stone, metal and
other materials: centres such as Armagh, Clonmacnois, Clonard and Glendalough in
Ireland, lona and St Andrews in Scotland, Llancarfan, Llanilltud Fawr, Llanbadarn
Fawr in Wales, and St Petroc's monastery, Bodmin, in Cornwall. It was in the
monastic scriptoria that manuscripts were adorned with characteristic decoration
and lettering in half-uncial, a development of the older uncial script. Pilgrimage,
described by a Carolingian writer as second nature to the Irish, resulted in the preser-
vation of many valuable manuscripts and books written in 'Insular' script (libri
Scottici scripti) in continental libraries. The role of the church as an important
repository for secular goods, as well as place of pilgrimage and recipient or donor of
gifts, resulted in a new powerful Christian authority whose support the ruling aris-
tocracies needed: the monasteries.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
While later religious foundations may be indicated by historical evidence from
charters and Saints' Lives, archaeological evidence has provided a more detailed
picture of earlier foundations through survey and excavation.
Early ecclesiastical sites may be identified by concentrations of early inscribed
stones, types of burial and field monuments such as cemetery enclosures. Unmarked
sites in Wales may be indicated by place-name elements: llan (enclosure), or merthyr
(Latin martyrium), denoting a site where a saint was buried. Aerial photography has
assisted the recognition of curvilinear graveyard enclosures which may represent
early ecclesiastical boundaries. In contrast to the cremation of earlier periods,
Christian burial involved inhumation, usually without grave goods, and orientated
with the head to the west. Early burials may have been isolated or in open groups;
circular banks and ditches forming the enclosure (llan) may be a secondary develop-
ment of a Christian burial area. Graves may take several forms: long cist graves made
up of stone slabs are characteristic of British rather than English areas, though
unlined graves are known, as is clustering of graves around a specially marked bur-
ial. Burial near to that of a saint or martyr was thought to give more assurance of
participation in the Resurrection, and on some sites the tomb shrine of the founder
saint became a focus for ritual. It could take several forms, being marked in the
open by cross-decorated pillars or cross slabs, A-roofed tombs or box shrines of
decorated stones (the latter from the end of the seventh century) or even tomb-
shrines set apart from the principal church on the site (Herity 1993: 194). Some
specially marked graves, such as those recently excavated in Wales, may be aristo-
cratic: at Tandderwen, Clwyd, a small proportion of graves had been enclosed
by square-plan ditches (the cemetery is associated with radiocarbon dates of ad 510
and ad 860: Brassil, Owen and Britnell 1990: 46f.), and prominent graves have been
identified at Llandegai and Cae Capel Eithin, Gwynedd.743