the projecting band which occurs almost exactly two-thirds of the way up. On the northern side, however, there are two quite different designs carved above and below the projecting band aforementioned. The upper design consists of simple interlace, while the lower is a ring pattern formed by interlinked circles. These interlinked circles again point to a Manx-Viking source, and may represent a wheel in motion, upwardly ascending towards the cross. The wheel was considered a sacred object by the Norse peoples, it being a means whereby the soul could be conveyed to the afterlife, and this is attested to by the fact that wheeled wagons have been excavated from Viking burial mounds in Scandinavia. It should be noted that the designs upon both narrow sides of the shaft continue onto the cross-head, signifying that the carver’s intention was to integrate the cross-head with the shaft. Lastly, it should be pointed out that the image of Crucifixion was by no means a new, or unfamiliar symbol to the Norse peoples. In the epic poem the Volüspa, Odin, his side pierced by the spear Gungnir, is crucified for nine days and nights upon Yggdrasil in the hope that the secrets of Ragnarök, the inevitable Doom of the Gods, might be revealed to him in the form of Magic Runes. The second half of the 10th century is the period when the Norse peoples were converting to Christianity, and many Anglo- Scandinavian crosses from this period at first sight appear to show both Christian and pagan images juxtaposed, but the images are more likely to have been carefully chosen to be dualistic in meaning and symbolism so as to facilitate the transition from pagan to Christian belief. It is unlikely that the carvings upon the Sproxton Cross are a random assemblage of disparate images, but that instead they form a unified, and sophisticated composition, whose principal theme is the Promise of Life Eternal through Communion in Christ. It is unlikely that the Sproxton Cross was ever intended as a memorial to a warrior, as has been sometimes supposed. It is far more likely to have been erected as a ‘preaching cross’, whose purpose would have been evangelical, at which the villagers would asssemble to hear the Gospel proclaimed, probably by an itinerant priest from the nearby mission church of Buckminster. The carvings upon the cross would have served as powerful visual aids in completing the conversion of a populace who at best would have been only semi-christianised. The accepted late 10th century dating of the Sproxton Cross is important in this context. Acceptance of the Dionysian system of dating B.C./A.D. had become relatively