Provenance
Discovery: Discovered at the western side of the enclosure at Cillín Chormaic by Rev. John F. Shearman in 1860 and reported to members of the Royal Irish Academy in 1865 (Shearman 1864-1866, 257, fig. 3 sketch of stone and inscription). In Samuel Ferguson’s sketch ‘the stone is shown lying prostrate on the flat ring surrounding the mound, a little to the north of stone no. 12 (I-KID-003): but he notes that when he saw it first it lay on the slope of the mound’ (Macalister and Praeger 1928-9, 256). Thankfully, Ferguson also made a paper squeeze of the stone, sometime before 1884, as in the next recorded mention the stone has been broken into several fragments. As reported by Rev. William FitzGerald (1895, 380-2), twelve fragments of this stone (three with traces of ogham) were found on the site in 1893. Despite being ‘carefully pieced together’ and hidden on site, FitzGerald (1895, 380-381) later found that the fragments had disappeared. In the low wall around the killeen, which had been ‘recently repaired, mortared and pointed’, they recognised one of the ogham fragments ‘firmly embedded in the mortar’. One of the three inscribed fragments (I-KID-002) was recovered during excavation of the site by Macalister and Praeger (1928-9, 256) and brought to the Museum. It was discovered lying on one of the revetment stones at the west end of the mound. In total, seven ogham stones (or fragments) were found at this site. This is the largest collection of ogham stones found at a single site in Leinster. Four complete ogham stones and two fragments survive today. A geophysical survey carried out in the surrounding fields in 2012 revealed traces of a trivallate enclosure (max. diam. 205m) surrounding the burial ground, which occupies the centre of a much more extensive early medieval ecclesiastical site (Greene 2013, 37-40). In addition to the ogham stones, a number of other notable monuments (some of granite) have also been discovered at the site, including numerous (uninscribed) pillar stones and three probable cross slabs (Greene 2013, 33-36; Macalister and Praeger 1928-9, 253-61). One of the pillar stones (KD032-044016-), a slender earthfast stone (H 1.3m; L 0.35m N-S; Wth 0.25m), has a lightly carved bust on the upper N face: a head, with a very pointed chin, is shown with a possible hooded-cloak and the figure carries a cross over its left shoulder.
Findspot: Killeencormack (Cillín Chormaic), Colbinstown (Baile Choilbín) , Co. Kildare, Ireland (ITM Coordinates: 683115, 698259)
Current repository: Ireland National Museum of Ireland (inv. no. 1929:1213)
Last recorded location(s): In the collection of the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, where it was examined and recorded by the Ogham in 3D project in 2010, with assistance from the Irish Inscribed Stones Project (Moore Institute, Galway).
Support
Object type: Fragment
Material: Greywacke
Dimensions: H 0.24 × W 0.24 × D 0.09 m
Condition: This fragment (micaceous greywacke) is all that survives of the stone described by Shearman (1864-1866, 257) as ‘an irregular-shaped flag… of coarse greenstone, very rough and hard, and much weather-worn’. In a later publication, Shearman (1873, 546) gives the dimensions of the stone as ‘seven feet (H 2.13m) in length on one side, and on the other five feet, and two feet (W 0.60m) wide; its general thickness is between twelve (D 0.30m) and six inches’.
Inscription
Text field: Based on Shearman’s illustration (1864-1866, 257, fig.3) and Macalister’s sketch (1945, 25) from Ferguson’s paper cast, the inscription commenced almost half-way up the left arris of one of the broad faces, continued across the top and down the right arris, to a little over half-way down, roughly even with the starting point on the other side.
Letters: Although quite weathered, it is clear from the surviving fragment that the inscription was pocked in quite broad strokes. The few remaining strokes appear to be evenly spaced with typically shorter vowel strokes, although the full length of the consonant strokes is unclear.
Date: Late 5th or early 6th century A.D. (linguistic)
Edition
Ogham text: ᚋᚐᚊᚔᚇᚇᚓᚉ[ᚉᚓᚇᚐ] ᚋᚐᚊᚔ ᚋᚐᚏᚔᚅ
Transcription: MAQIDDEC[CEDA] MAQI MARIN
Critical apparatus:
- The surviving fragment may correspond to the first of Macalister’s (1945, 24-25) ‘three sketches of these fragments, drawn by Fitzgerald (1897, 206-8) in 1893, which show what can be identified as Q45ID [from (ma)Ql-D(dec-)], I345MAR123 [from (maq)I MAR(in)], and IN123 from the end of the last word’. 2. The fragmentary second word of the personal name is almost certainly to be amended to DDEC[CEDA]; there is not sufficient space for the earlier form of this name with the ending AS.
Translation
of Mac-Deichet son of Marīnus
Commentary
The inscription consists of a binomial individual name, the formula word ‘son’, and a Latin patronym. This is one of the few inscriptions in Ireland with a Latin name.
The binomial name MAQI-DDECCEDA is very common in pre-OIr. epigraphy. It occurs five times in ogham inscriptions from Ireland and three times in Latin script on stones in Wales and Devon: MAQI-DECCEDDAS (I-COR-014 = CIIC 66; Faunkill and the Woods, Co. Cork), MAQI-DECCEDA (I-KER-026 = CIIC 159; Ballintaggart, Co. Kerry), MAQQI-DECEDDA (I-KER-052 = CIIC 184; Gortnagullenagh, Co. Kerry), MAQI-DECEDA (I-KER-072 = CIIC 203; Coolmagort, Co. Kerry); and MACCVDECCETI (CIIC 326; Penrhos Lligwy, Anglesey), MACVDECETI (CIIC 440; Llanychaer, Pembrokeshire), MACCODECHETI (CIIC 492; Tavistock, Devon). In all instances except CIIC 492 it is the name of the commemorated individual, not of the father. In the inscriptions from South Britain, the first word is written as if it were disyllabic; perhaps the -V and -O reflect some sort of reduced, rounded vowel from earlier *maku̯ku̯ī. After the ogham period, the name went out of fashion. Pace Ziegler (1994: 165), the corresponding OIr. name *Mac-Deichet does not appear to be attested. The Book of Leinster (LL 22206–22219) only mentions the simplex name Deichet in the dindṡenchus tale for Loch nDechet/Loch Techet, now Loch Uí Gadhra (Lough Gara) in counties Sligo and Roscommon. Deichet is otherwise only found in the genealogies of the saints (CGSH 709.105, Ó Riain, 157). Deichet is a genitive of the nt-stem noun *dekant- ‘tenth part, tithe (?)’, an abstract derivative of PIE *dek̑m̥ ‘10’. It probably has an exact cognate in the Gaulish accusative δεκαντεν/μ (dekanten/m) ‘tenth part’, and it is the basis of Δεκάνται (Decantae), an ethnic name in Scotland, mentioned in Ptolemy’s Geographia 2, 38. Its nominative would have been *Deiche in OIr. The nominative Deichet in the dindṡenchus tale is manifestly secondary and extrapolated from the genitive Deichet. The spelling with initial double DD- in the present inscription is mildly remarkable (cf. Harvey 1987). Since it is a phrasal name, the scribe may have treated the beginning of the second element as if it were word-internal (cf. McManus 1991, 125).
MARIN appears to be the Latin name Marinus. It is conceivable that the father was a Briton and that the endingless form of his name MARIN reflects the contemporary British or British-Latin pronunciation and inflection, like the similar case of VITALIN in I-KER-034 (Ballinvoher; Co. Kerry).
If MARIN is ignored because of the possibility that it reflects the morpho-phonological development of another language, the loss of the final -S in the indirectly inferred form DDECEDA points to the late 5th or early 6th century at the earliest.
References
- Greene 2013, 26-47
- Macalister and Praeger 1928, 247-261
- Macalister 1945, 23-24
- McManus 1991, 125
- Ó Riain 1985, 157
- Shearman 1864, 253-260
- Shearman 1873, 544-560
- Ziegler 1994, 164–165