Provenance
Discovery: Found in Kiltera/Cill Tíre burial ground (WA029-042002-) during investigation by Macalister (1935, 1-16) in 1934. 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. There are two previously discovered ogham stones (I-WAT-005 and I-WAT-006) still on site, which form part of the bank of stone and trees at the western end of the enclosure. 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)
Current repository: Ireland National Museum of Ireland (inv. no. )
Last recorded location(s): In the National Museum of Ireland collection. Examined and recorded in 3D by Discovery Programme in January 2013 as part of the Ogham in 3D project.
Support
National Monuments Service SMR ID: WA029-042010-
Object type: Pillar
Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: H 1.42 × W 0.30 × D 0.28 m
Condition: Broken into four pieces and badly repaired with cement, currently in two fragments. A single I notch has been lost at the break.
Inscription
Text field: Despite much damage to the stone, the inscription, centrally positioned along one angle, appears to be complete. It takes up roughly half of the angle, with uninscribed space before and after the ogham. Due to the fragility of the stone it has not been possible to examine the second angle. However, Macalister (1945, 265) recorded that it was too broken to tell whether it ever held any text.
Letters: The strokes are pocked and evenly spaced (approx. 6cm long x 1cm wide consonant strokes) and appear to be similar to those found on the other ogham stones from Cill Tíre.
Date: mid sixth century A.D. (linguistic)
Edition
Ogham text: ᚉᚐᚈᚈᚒᚃᚔ̣ᚏ
Transcription: CATTUVỊR
Translation
of Caither
Commentary
Initially read by Macalister (1935, 12) retroversely as RITUVVAS, later (1945, 265) corrected to CATTUVIR.
The personal name *katu-u̯iro- ‘battle man, warrior’ is a determinative compound of *katu- ‘battle, war’ (PIE *k̑at-u- or *k̑ₔt-u-) and *u̯iro- ‘man’ (PIE *u̯ih₁ro- ‘young man’), with exact cognates in the INN OW Catgur, MW Kadwr, OB Catuur, NB Cadour, and the generic nouns W cadwr, OC cadwur, B kadour ‘warrior’. The lenited medial *t is indicated by the digraph TT. In contrast to the parallels CATTUVVIRR (I-KER-122 / CIIC 250, Corkaboy, Co. Kerry) and CATVVIRR (I-KER-92 / CIIC 221, Dromlusk, Co. Kerry) and perhaps CATUV[…] (I-KER-52 / CIIC 184, Gortnagullenagh, Co. Kerry), the V and R are not doubled in Dromore. The ending of the o-stem genitive *-ī has already been apocopated, but the medial *u has not yet been lost by syncope.
The presence of the effect of apocope (no final -AS), but absence of syncope (CATTUVIR) places the form appoximately in the middle of the 6th century.
References
- Macalister 1935, 1-16
- Macalister 1945, 261-262, 264-265
- McManus 1991, 65, 95-97, 102-103, 114-115, 122, 124
- Moore 1999, 172, 197
- Uhlich 1993, 188-189
- Ziegler 1994, 147-148