Provenance
Discovery: The stone was first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Journal by Lord Southesk (Southesk 1884, 186). The stone was found lying in the kirkyard at Formaston some time before 1874 and moved to the grounds of Aboyne Castle by 1883 (Forsyth 1996, 261). It was taken to Inverurie Museum in 1974 and thence to the Victory Hall, Aboyne (Forsyth 1996, 261).
Findspot: Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (National Grid Reference: NJ 5412 0014)
Last recorded location(s): Recorded in Aboyne Victory hall on August 8th 2023.
Support
Trove 17507
Object type: Cross-slab
Material: Granite
Dimensions: H 1.124 × W 0.443-0.335 × D 0.12 m
Decoration: The fragment of the Class II symbol-inscribed cross-slab is decorated on one face with ‘the remains of an interlace cross and the mirror symbol’ (Forsyth 1996, 262).
Condition: The surviving cross-slab is only a fragment of the original. ‘The extant portion represents the bottom right-hand quadrant of a cross-slab which has fractured horizontally immediately under the arm’ (Forsyth 1996, 262). The carving is well-preserved and the inscription is very clear (Forsyth 1996, 262).
Inscription
Text field: The cross-slab fragment has ‘two vertical lines of incised ogham, one on the moulding at the outer margin of the slab, the other, parallel to it, up the face of the slab’ (Forsyth 1996, 262). The ogham is carved on the flat surface, not on the angle, and the outer inscription ‘occupies the whole of the flat band at the margin of the slab’ (Forsyth 1996, 267). The ogham texts both read bottom up.
Letters: Both inscriptions are deeply v-cut. The carvings are ‘neatly and competently’ executed (Forsyth 1996, 267). The stem of the outer inscription is 55cm long and the stem of the inner inscription is c.56cm long (Forsyth 1996, 267). No word division is indicated (Forsyth 1996, 279). The strokes of the outer inscription are c.3.5cm for the long strokes and c.2cm for the short strokes. The strokes of the inner inscription are c.5cm for the long strokes and c.4cm for the short strokes (Forsyth 1996, 267).
Date: Late eighth to early ninth century
Edition
Ogham text: ᚋᚐᚊᚊᚖ
Transcription: MAQQO TALLUORRH NEHHT VROBBAC̣ CENNEVV
Critical apparatus:
- Forsyth (1996, 263) notes that both ogham inscriptions appear identical in form and carving technique, and can therefore be assumed to be contemporaries. Considering the layout of the slab, relating the positioning of the ogham inscription and the other symbols, the ogham is most likely a secondary addition (Forsyth 1996, 263). This is supported by the fact that both oghams are a complete and intact text as they are (Forsyth 1996, 268). 2. The 5th character of the inner inscription is a ‘circle intersected at its mid-point by the stem’ which is ‘known from Irish manuscript tradition in both smooth circular form, as here, and in angular, “diamond-shaped” form’ (Forsyth 1996, 268). The second of the five supplementary ogham letters, this character goes by the name Ór (later Óir) in both smooth and angled forms (Forsyth 1996, 273). 3. The 2nd and 14th character of the outer inscription is comprised of ‘two opposed angled strokes with their mid-points on the stem but a very clear gap between them’ (Forsyth 1996, 270). This character is known as Ébad, the first of the five supplementary ogham letter which ‘subsequently represented some kind of E’ (Forsyth 1996, 275). 4. The 8th character of the outer inscription is an angled-vowel O consisting of two long ‘herring-bone’ strokes across the stem, angled at the mid-point to point forwards (Forsyth 1996, 271). According to Forsyth (1996, 275), this character is employed in five Scottish ogham inscriptions but not in any other epigraphic context. 5. The 11th character of the outer inscription is a ‘hammer-head’ A consisting of ‘a single long stroke perpendicularly across the stem with a horizontal bar at its right tip’ (Forsyth 1996, 271). According to Forsyth (1996, 277) it appears in five Scottish ogham inscriptions.
Translation
While a certain form of two personal names of Pictish origin, Nehht and Talorc, as well as the lemmatized word for son in Irish can be identified, an exact and complete translation of the inscription is not readily available (Forsyth 1996, 278-285).
Commentary
As Forsyth (1996, 272) notes ‘the over-all impression given by the Formaston inscription is of a piece of manuscript ogham writing committed to stone’.
The form of the cross and its decoration suggest that the slab dates between the late eighth and early ninth century, with the ogham inscription likely post-dating the breaking of the monument (Forsyth 1996, 278). Though the dating to the first two decades of the ninth century is most likely, according to Forsyth (1996, 278), she also commemorates that a date in the tenth century or later cannot be completely ruled out.
References
- Forsyth 1996, 261-287
- Southesk 1884-11-30, 186-188