![]() ![]() Suggests fashions in the Celtic sphere of influence may have been different To short or medium length, though figures with longer hair in the book of Kells Middle Anglo-Saxon period the norm appears to have been for hair to be cropped Although these depictions do not provide a great deal of clarity, they do at least provide strong evidence for the hair of males (presumably of relatively high status given the context) long enough to be worn variously tied back, or cascading around the face.įaces from the Sutton Hoo Whetstone/Sceptre (British Museum) stag-end faces top row, base end bottom row (inverted). On some (including some of the bearded depictions) hair is drawn straight back from the forehead in a manner as if tied back, while in others (including one of the bearded faces, and one with exposed chin) it falls in curtains around the face. All figures have a sharply defined hairline at the top of the forehead with hair drawn, to various extents, backward. The eight distinct faces carefully carved into the hard stone are, in fact, all confined within a sharp teardrop-shaped frame which constrains possibilities for depiction of hairstyle or headwear, but nevertheless, three have pointed beards (continuous with short moustache in some cases, but without moustache in one case) and the remaining five are beardless or bearded but with exposed chin (neckbeard) those with exposed chin but “beard” texture beneath may actually be a clumsy attempt at depicting clothing on the neck, or shoulder-length hair falling around the face, and the possibility that these figures are female should also not be ruled out. ![]() The most abundant single source from early Anglo-Saxon lowland Britain of facial depictions is arguably the famous whetstone sceptre from Sutton Hoo Mound 1 (SHM1).
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