Provenance
Discovery: The stone was discovered on Tuesday 29th of January 1895 by the sexton of the Abernethy church while opening a grave. The stone which was supposedly buried ‘about 4 and a half feet (1.37m) under the soil’ was dug out ‘a little north of the foundation wall of the ancient Celtic church’ (Southesk 1895, 244). The stone was sent for inspection to the Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh where ‘doubts arose as to the character of its inscription’ and it was returned to Abernethy by April 1985 (Southesk 1895, 244).
Findspot: Abernethy, Perthshire, Scotland (National Grid Reference: NO 190 164)
Last recorded location(s): The present location of this stone is not known.
Support
Trove 27998
Object type: Cross-slab
Material: Grit
Dimensions: H 0.48 × W 0.33 × D 0.10 m
Decoration: One face of the stone is decorated with an incised crown, a bird, the letter N.
Condition: A small stone incised with designs, a letter, and an ogham inscription. The stone appears to have ‘been tampered with in modern times’ (Southesk 1895, 244). Southesk (1895, 247) maintained that the ‘lines have unquestionably been more or less lately retouched with hard instruments’. Consequently, ‘doubt is cast upon the whole’ as the fresh whiteness of the lines could indicate that the marks are modern and that the inscription is perhaps fabricated (Southesk 1895, 247). Additionally, the right edge of the stone is ‘overgrown with short green moss’ which may hint that that part of the stone ‘must have been not long ago exposed to the air’. As Southesk (1895, 247) reasoned, ‘such vegetation could not exist on a stone that had been buried for centuries’.
Inscription
Text field: The ogham inscription is underneath the symbol carvings, ‘drawn horizontally, manuscript fashion, instead of vertically’ (Southesk 1895, 250). The stem-line is as straight as the run of a ruler and is exactly 0.30m (1 foot) in length.
Letters: The strokes have been described by Southesk (1895, 246) as scratches though some parts appear to be deeper and ‘rather square at the top’ as if chiselled. The ogham characters are ‘ill-cut’ and are of a ‘crowded character’ (Southesk 1895, 250).
Date: 1890s
Edition
Transcription: [..]MUṂ[.]EBDG →
Critical apparatus:
- The inscription contains marks which are difficult to interpret. At the beginning of the inscription a mark consisting of a semi-circle containing three dots is present below the stem and the same mark appears as well above the stem, slightly overlapping with the first letter (Forsyth 1996, 504). 2. A similar mark, a semi-circle containing a single dot, also occurs above the stem at the seventh character (Forsyth 1996, 505). Underneath this character, is a short horizontal line with three angled strokes which is incised ‘to the right of and parallel with the stem’ and meets the first stroke of the eighth letter to the right of the stem (Forsyth 1996, 505). 3. According to Forsyth (1996, 505), the angled E could possibly be alternatively read as the letter sequence letter sequence AHBHA. The orientation of the strokes is as follows: ‘four short strokes to the left of the stem sloping slightly forward, above three short strokes to the right of the stem sloping slightly forward. The first and last strokes of each group meet at the stem to form a vowel stroke. The third of the right hand strokes meets the stem equidistant between the middle pair of the left hand strokes’. As Forsyth (1996, 505) stated, if ‘a fourth stroke to the right has not been omitted, these could be read as AHBHA, otherwise E’. This sequence of strokes is followed by a ‘single dot to the left of the stem’ (Forsyth 1996, 505).
Translation
The inscription seems ‘to yield no definite meaning’ (Southesk 1895, 246).
Commentary
The authenticity of the inscription is doubtful with subsequent writers condeming it as a fabrication. Forsyth (1996, 505) observed that the ‘text seems highly improbable’ and that it is ‘almost certainly a creation of the 1890s’.
References
- Southesk 1895, 24-251
- Forsyth 1996, 504-506