Provenance
Discovery: This stone was dug up on farmland in the townland before 1875 (Barry 1896, 129). The stone may be associated with Kilbarrymeaden early ecclesiastical site in the neighbouring townland, consisting of a church (in ruins) within a small rectangular graveyard and a double bullaun and well nearby (Moore 1999, 177).
Findspot: Kilbeg (An Chill Bheag, Kilbarrymeaden/Cill Bhairméidín, Co. Waterford, Ireland (Approximate location only)
Current repository: Ireland National Museum of Ireland (inv. no. RSAI 331.1)
Last recorded location(s): National Museum of Ireland (examined and 3D scanned in May 2011 as part of the Ogham in 3D project).
Support
National Monuments Service SMR/NISMR ID: WA025-078----
Object type: Fragment
Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: H 1.17 × W 0.27 × D 0.14 m
Condition: A stone, or fragment of a stone (greywacke sandstone), pointed at one end and with what appears to be a section broken off at the other end. Macalister’s (1945, 280) dimensions, e.g. 1.17m (3ft. 10in. in length, differ quite considerably to Barry’s (1896, 129) 1.4m (4ft. 7.5in.) in length. Perhaps the stone was further damaged and broken by the time Macalister saw it. It is also noteworthy that Barry’s reading (see below) is very different to Macalister’s (1945, 280), agreeing with Brash (1879, 278) who doesn’t supply dimensions or a description. Barry (1896, 129) also says that the inscription is on three angles rather than two but unfortunately doesn’t supply an illustration.
Inscription
Text field: The ogham inscription runs along two angles of the stone (up-up). There is no sign of ogham strokes along a third angle as suggested by Barry (1896, 129). It is quite damaged towards the end of the inscription at the pointed top.
Letters: The inscription is pocked with large strokes relative to the size of the stone (10cm long x 1.5cm wide), taking up most of the width of the narrow side.
Date: late 6th or even early 7th century AD (linguistic)
Edition
Ogham text: ᚁᚔᚃᚑᚇᚑᚅ ᚋᚒᚉᚑᚔ ᚐ̣ᚈᚐ̣ᚏ
Transcription: BIVODON MUCOI ẠTẠR
Translation
of Béoáed from the sept of *Aithir
Commentary
This inscription records an individual name followed by a gentilic phrase with the formula word MUCOI.
Linguistic Analysis: BIVODON is a compound of the o-stem adjective *biu̯o- ‘alive, living’ (OIr. béo) and the common n-stem second element *ai̯don- ‘having fire’, a derivative of *ai̯du- ‘fire’ (cf. OIr. áed; see Uhlich 1993, 145; Ziegler 1994, 98). The compound *biu̯-ai̯donos ‘having living fire’ is also attested in the more conservative form BIVAI[DO]NAS on an ogham stone from Ballaqueeney on the Isle of Man (M-IOM-002). The ending *-as has already been lost here and the middle vowel of BIVODON appears to have undergone reduction, perhaps to a schwa that was rounded by contact with the preceding *u̯. McManus (1991, 121) wonders if the middle O represents just a graphic, not a phonetic reduction of the fully preserved diphthong *oi̯, which arose from inherited *ai̯ by rounding after the *u̯. The vowel of the third syllable is still written with its inherited value *o and may not yet have been reduced, but perhaps this spelling is just chance.
Since no kin group that corresponds to MUCOI ATAR, such as OIr. *Moccu Athar, is known from later historical sources, the morphological analysis of ATAR is ambiguous. It could simply be the genitive of the r-stem word for ‘father’ (Ziegler 1994, 130), i.e. corresponding to OIr. athar. It would be remarkable that a kin group should be called ‘sept of the father’. Alternatively, the name could continue the genitive of a name derived by suffixation with the thematic vowel *-o- from ‘father’. In the attested form, the final *-ī would already be lost, namely either of PrimIr. *atrī, or PrimIr. *atarī, corresponding respectively to OIr. *aithir or *athair, the hypothetical genitives of an unattested name *athar (earlier *atros or *ataros).
Apocope in both names and reduction of the internal vowel place the inscription well in the 6th century or maybe even in the early 7th.
References
- Barry 1896, 122-135
- Eska 2010-2012, 139-156
- Macalister 1945, 280
- McManus 1991, 95, 97, 103, 105, 112, 118
- Moore 1999, 177, 198
- Uhlich 1993, 145, 176
- Ziegler 1994, 98, 130, 137–138