Provenance
Discovery: Found in Kiltera/Cill Tíre burial ground (WA029-042002-) by E. Fitzgerald in 1861 (Macalister 1945, 261-262). The burial ground is part of a possible early ecclesiastical site although there is no visible evidence of a church. Marked as a D-shaped graveyard (dims. c. 35m N-S; c. 40m E-W) with the straight edge at the west on the 1840 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. Two further ogham stones (I-WAT-006 and I-WAT-007) were later discovered at the same site. A fragment of an ogham stone (I-WAT-L01) with one letter (possibly D or L) was also found (Macalister 1935, 8), but its whereabouts is now unknown.
Findspot: Kiltera/Kilteera (Cill Tíre), Dromore (An Drom Mór), Co. Waterford, Ireland (ITM Coordinates (approximate): 610460, 591390)
Last recorded location(s): Remains in situ. Examined and recorded in 3D by Discovery Programme in 2014 as part of the Ogham in 3D project.
Support
National Monuments Service SMR ID: WA029-042003-
Object type: Slab
Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: H 1.32 × W 0.51 × D 0.15 m
Condition: The top of the stone is broken and the inscription is quite weathered and worn. As noted by Macalister (1945, 262), this stone also has ‘conspicuous quartz veins running vertically’.
Inscription
Text field: Inscribed upwards on two angles. ‘The final NA of the second angle is carried across the face of the stone, upon a natural ridge’ (Macalister 1945, 262-263.
Letters: The inscription is pocked and possibly rubbed. The strokes are relatively large and well spaced. The vowel strokes, where they survive, are relatively long and look like shorter versions of the consonant strokes rather than being distinctively notched or wedge-shaped. This is probably due to the nature of the stone. There appears to be extra space (1 stroke) left after the end of the first name, which is occassionally found elsewhere in the corpus (e.g. I-COR-055).
Date: mid sixth century A.D. (linguistic)
Edition
Ogham text: ᚉᚑᚂᚂᚐᚁᚑᚈ vac.
Transcription: COLLABOT vac. MUC[O]I LỤG[A(?)] MAQ[I] LOBACCONẠ
Critical apparatus:
- There is no room at the top of the left edge for the final A of Macalister’s (1945, 263) LUGA. However, the stone is very weathered and possibly damaged here. 2. Macalister (1945, 262-3) noted that the position of the N in the last name, on a ridge rather than on the arris, makes it look more like a Q and that ‘the lapidary has not improved matters by putting the following A in the wrong relative position’. Again, as the stone is very uneven and weathered, especially at the top, it is very difficult to make out the final A. What appears to be the O (-ONA), is to the right of the first N-stroke.
Translation
of Cóelub/Cóelboth, of the sept/litter of Lug, son of Lubchú
Commentary
The kin-group name MUCOI LUGA, which also seems to occur on Dromore 2 (I-WAT-006) is unidentified (McManus 1991, 112). The formula (typically X MAQI Y MUCOI Z) deviates from the norm here with X MUCOI Y MAQI Z.
The presence of the effect of apocope (COLLABOT without ending -AS), but absence of syncope (COLLABOT) places the form appoximately in the middle of the 6th century.
References
- Macalister 1935, 1-16
- Macalister 1945, 261-262, 261-263
- McManus 1991, 94, 102, 112, 120, 125, 171 (n.15)
- Moore 1999, 172, 197