A "holy cross" of the early Northumberland Church" with Professor John Hines of Cardiff University. Non-members £2.00

We are delighted to announce that the April BAS lecture is devoted to the East Ord Cross.  The title of the lecture is “A ‘holy cross’ of the early Northumbrian Church: signs and mysteries”

The talk will be delivered by John Hines. Professor Hines has recently retired as Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University. His academic background lies equally in the discipline of English Studies, being Reader in English at Cardiff before transferring to the School of Archaeology in the late 1990s. His scholarly interests are primarily multi disciplinary cultural history and especially the ways in which disparate forms of evidence (material, literary and linguistics) can productively be combined. His range of study covers much of northern Europe in the two millennia of the Christian/Common era.

For the uninitiated, the East Ord cross was found in 2019 in Ord Parish which lies within the Chapelry of Tweedmouth. It is a small 12ct gold Latin cross pendant with a runic inscription, which may be a personal name and has been dated to the early medieval period (c. AD 700 – 900). The runic inscription can be quite clearly seen on the attached poster.

Professor Hines’ talk will be to present in detail what the challenges are a) in interpreting the runic inscription and b) in trying to determine what its date and context are when there are no other known archaeological remains in the vicinity of the find spot

The talk will take place on Monday 3 April commencing at 7.30pm.It will take place in the Guildhall, Berwick. For BAS members, entrance is free , for non BAS  members there is a charge of £2.

Please tell your friends, family and colleagues about this talk on a local object which is of national importance.

The cross will be on display in Berwick Museum and Art Gallery from 1st April.