- Chapter Thirty-Seven -
beneath and around 'St Columba's Shrine', a small stone building with antae similar to
the very smallest Irish churches (Redknap 1976), though no coherent pattern could be
identified. It has not been possible to recover complete building plans or establish the
function of any of these timber structures. The grouping of the large freestanding
crosses, which appear to be in situ, suggests that by the eighth century a church
was situated close to or beneath the site of the present medieval abbey church and
'St Columba's Shrine', and support a tradition that the 'Shrine' was the founder's
burial-place. As at other monastic centres, evidence for craftworking has been found,
including metalworking and the working of glass (the production of decorative glass
studs). Excavations at Iona also have shed light on the economy and environment of
an early monastery. Animal bones recovered from pre-Viking levels suggest a pre-
ponderance of cattle, with some red deer, sheep, pig, seal and various fish, suggesting
that not all visitors or members followed austere diets. Cereals appear to have been
grown close to the enclosure ditch by the Reilig Odhrain with a break about the mid-
seventh century, perhaps at a time of reorganization to the layout of the monastery.
Holly may have been grown in hedges, and may have been used for the manufacture
of ink (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
1982: 14). Grave slabs lie in the area around St Columba's Shrine and in the Reilig
Odhrain, but it is unclear whether any are in situ.
EARLY CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS
The inscribed stones or early Christian monuments of various kinds are the most
numerous visible relics of the Christian Celts. The term 'Celtic' in this context is
interpreted in the loose sense of 'belonging to the (non-Germanic) early medieval
British Isles', and the term 'Insular' is generally applied to material belonging stylisti-
cally to this period and area. The different regional studies of stone monuments have
produced differences in terminology, though the main groupings are similar.8 These
can be grouped into (I) commemorative stones inscribed in Latin or ogam (fifth-to
seventh/eighth century); (2) cross-marked grave markers without inscriptions;
(3) recumbent grave slabs with crosses and inscriptions; (4) cross-marked stones
which served other functions such as boundary markers; (5) freestanding crosses/
freestanding Pictish slabs; (6) architectural stonework. The collection at Iona is one
of the largest in Britain, with over 100 stones described in the Royal Commission
inventory (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of
Scotland 1982), eclipsed only by Clonmacnois, Co. Offaly, and in Scotland
approached only by the series of monuments at St Andrews, Fife.Figure 37.4 Top left: Nineteenth-century view of the Latin and ogam-inscribed stone in use
as a gatepost at Little Trefgarne, St Dogwells, Dyfed. (Photo: National Museum of Wales.) Top
right: Fragment of eighth-century slab discovered in a later grave fill during excavations on the
south side of 'St Columba's Shrine', lana. Part of a long-shafted cross, it is inscribed [ORO IT]
DO ERGUS ('A prayer for Fergus'). (Photo: author.) Bottom: Base stone of St John's Cross,
lana, marked out with circular groove apparently for a millstone (millstones were also reused
as recumbent slabs and cross bases at Clonmacnois). (Photo: author.)750