Provenance
Discovery: discovered in 1940 during removal of a field fence into which it had been incorporated. It was subsequently removed to UCC where Macalister (1945, 139-40) inspected it (Cuppage 1986, no. 789).
Findspot: Ardrinane (Ard Draighneáin), Co. Kerry, Ireland (very approximate)
Last recorded location(s): Its precise whereabouts is not now known (Cuppage 1986, no. 789).
Support
National Monuments Service SMR ID: KE044-126----
Object type: Fragment
Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: H 0.25 × W 0.18 × D 0.09 m
Condition: A fragment of an ogham stone broken up for use as building material. Macalister (1945, 139) noted that ‘the beginning of the extent lettering has been dressed away by the masons’. Macalister also noted ‘a deep groove running above the I notches on the H-surface’ but concluded that it ‘must be a natural cleavage-plane, which has been enlarged by weathering’.
Inscription
Text field: All that can be said, based on Macalister’s (1945, 139-140) description and drawing, is that the inscription was along the arris of this fragment.
Letters: Macalister (1945, 139-140) did not include details on the appearance of the letters or the execution type.
Edition
Transcription: [---]ḌITAṾ[---]
Critical apparatus:
- ‘The dressing has removed the dexter half of D1 (this might have been any other letter of the H-group up to Q) ; at the other end the fracture has taken off the proximal ends of the V, which might, in like manner, have been an S or an N’ (Macalister 1945, 139). 2. The inscription could also be read in the opposite direction, giving […]TAVIL[…].
Commentary
Although very fragmentary, it is possibly (especially reading in the opposite direction to Macalister, giving TAVIL) that we have here the remains of one of the more common formula words, AVI (OIr. úa), meaning ‘grandson’ or ‘descendant’.
References
- Cuppage 1986, no. 789
- Macalister 1945, 139-140