Hogback (sculpture)

Hogbacks are stone carved Anglo-Scandinavian sculptures from 10th- to 12th-century England and Scotland. Hogbacks fell out of fashion by the beginning of the 11th century. Their function is generally accepted as grave markers.

Hogbacks take the form of recumbent monuments, generally with a curved ('hogbacked') ridge, often also with outwardly curved sides. This shape, and the fact that they are frequently decorated with 'shingles' on either side of the central ridge, show that they are stylised 'houses' for the dead. The 'house' is of a Scandinavian type. One theory is that hogbacks originated among the Danish settlers who occupied northern England in the 870s after the fall of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. However, there is not sufficient research to prove or disprove this.

It has been suggested that the monument-type was invented about 920. There are particular concentrations of hogbacks in Yorkshire and Cumbria, the former being their likely area of origin. Individual examples are found over a much wider area, however, from Derbyshire to Central Scotland. The presence of hogbacks in Scotland is likely due to the Forth-Clyde route, which connected York, England to Dublin. Most hogback sites in Scotland are along maritime routes.

English hogback sites do not follow this same trajectory. There are stray examples as far afield as the Northern Isles, Orkney and Cornwall.Ireland has a single example at Castledermot, County Kildare. Wales also has a single example at Llanddewi Aberarth Church.

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