Manx Crosses: A Handbook of Stone Sculpture 500-1040 in the Isle of Man

David M. Wilson, Director of the British Museum from 1977-1992, is a leading authority on the Viking Age and has written a number of studies of the art and archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon period and the Viking Age in their Northern European context. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and lives in the Island.

• CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to the Island; CHAPTER 2 Early stones and sacred sites; CHAPTER 3 The Monastery at Maughold and pre-Scandinavian monuments in the Island; CHAPTER 4 The cusp of the Scandinavian settlement of the Isle of Man; CHAPTER 5 The stone sculpture of the Scandinavian settlement; Chapter 6 The Scandinavian runic inscriptions; Bibliography & Suggested Reading; Appendix: A hand-list of the Manx Crosses

‘In his book, David Wilson discusses the emergence,zenith, and decline of Manx crosses in six stimulating chapters, supported by acomprehensive list of sites and that all-important index. He clearly shows thatmajor influences were brought to bear over the 600-year period, initially byearly Christian missionaries, followed by Picts, and finally Vikings. His bookis the first comprehensive survey to be undertaken for over a century, andprovides invaluable context to their origins and use at a time when,politically, the Irish Sea (province) was experiencing great upheaval. This isa must-read for scholars interested in the religious iconography of the earlymedieval period.’ – George Nash (2019): CurrentArchaeology #339‘We have needed this book: an authoritative and holisticintroduction to the Isle of Man’s early medieval sculpture. From the book’sPreface we get a good sense of just how hard-won its contents have been for the‘retired’, eminent Viking scholar Sir David Wilson, who long ago made the Isleof Man his home… Throughout, Wilson draws effectively on his extensiveknowledge of the early medieval, particularly Scandinavian world, to situate theManx story, as revealed through its sculpture, in its Irish Sea and widerEuropean context.’ – Sally Foster (2019): Archaeological Journal,DOI: 10.1080/00665983.2019.1590955