ABSTRACT
When considering the figural carvings of Early Christian Scotland, it is notable that scholarly interest in their iconographic significance, which has enjoyed a steady increase during the last 30 years in pre-Viking Anglo-Saxon sculptural studies, 1 has not been as evident in studies of the sculpture surviving elsewhere in the Insular world. Thus, the extensive literature on the major figural monuments that were erected in and around Iona during the mid to late 8th century (namely the crosses of St Martin and St Oran on Iona, and the Kildalton Cross on Islay) 2 pays little attention to the iconographic significance of either the figural carvings themselves, or the iconographic programmes underlying their selection.
