Provenance
Discovery: Found during excavation in 1980, re-used as a paving stone in a context dated by radiocarbon analysis.
Findspot: Birsay and Harray, Orkney, Scotland (National Grid Reference: HY 2398 2850)
Current repository: Scotland National Museums of Scotland (inv. no. X.2020.46)
Last recorded location(s): Now in the National Museums of Scotland (X.2020.46).
Support
Trove: 1797
Object type: Building block
Material: Siltstone
Dimensions: H 0.31 × W 0.35 × D 0.065 m
Condition: The ogham inscription is incomplete. Only the middle section of the inscription survives, some individual strokes are badly worn and the top of the third letter is lost.
Inscription
Text field: The short ogham inscription is on the narrow flat face. The stemline runs roughly parallel with the long edge, wavering slightly.
Letters: The ogham inscription was chiselled. Forsyth (1996, 86) describes the letters as having been sharply and fairly deeply incised with a blade. The extant inscription displays some significant features, the bind-strokes on the consonants and angled vowels.
Date: Mid-seventh century
Edition
Transcription: [---] ṂẠQQ HOḄ[---]
Critical apparatus:
- The direction of reading is not in doubt, since the slope of all letters but the first is diagnostic. However, the fragmentary state of the text renders interpretation difficult. Forsyth (1996, 88) reasons that the most plausible reading of the text is: [---] MAQQ HOB[---]
Translation
The inscription likely consists of a solitary compound personal name of the common Irish type Mac-N.
Commentary
MAQQ can be taken as a form of Irish MAQQI, later Old Irish macc meaning ‘son’. MAQQ is attested elsewhere in Scotland at Latheron (S-SUT-002).
The main significance of the Birsay 3 inscription is its evidence for bind-strokes and angled vowels already being in use by the mid-seventh century.
References
- Forsyth 1996, 85-91