Provenance
Discovery: Cuppage et al (1986, 223) wrote that the stone was first noted by Windele in 1848. According to Hitchcock’s notes, the stone was found in a souterrain on the townland of Emlagh West in the barony of Corkaguiney, and it acted as a jamb-stone for the entrance (Macalister 1945, 174). Before the stone was moved to Musáem Chorca Dhuibhne, it stood in the same field in which it was found ‘against the W side of a N-S field wall … on the W side of the main Dingle to Lispole road, near the old Dingle railway station’ (Cuppage et al 1986, 223).
Findspot: Emlagh West (Imleach an Daingin), Co. Kerry, Ireland (ITM coordinates: (approximate))
Current repository: Ireland Músaem Chorca Dhuibhne (inv. no. )
Last recorded location(s): Músaem Chorca Dhuibhne (52.166593, -10.405998)
Support
National Monuments Service SMR ID: KE053-016002-
Object type: Pillar
Dimensions: H 1.08 × W 0.36 × D 0.24 m
Inscription
Text field: Inscription appears to be up on the right (sinister) side of one of the broad faces.
Letters: Pocked in fairly neat, evenly-spaced (though not not quite even in length) strokes, as far as it survives.
Edition
Transcription: TALAGNI MAQ̣[I … ]
Critical apparatus:
- Macalister (1945, 174) states ‘The stone is broken after the Q; and the last score of this letter is chipped way, all but its dexter side’. 2. Macalister (1945, 174) also suggested that the battered looking sinister edge of the inscribed face had once contained the formula word MUCOI, followed by the name of an eponymous ancestor, which was deliberately destroyed. However, there is no evidense to support this theory.
Translation
of Tálán son of …
Commentary
This is one of the inscriptions listed by McManus (1991, 93-94) which appears to be among the earliest in the corpus showing no trace of vowel affection or ‘any of the developments postdating it. It may be dated to the first half, or the early second half, of the fifth century’.
Tál ‘adze’ and diminutive suffix -agni (>-an(n)) (McManus 1991, 107).
References
- Bennett, Uí Shíthigh, Holden, and Ó Bric 1995, 6
- Cuppage 1986, 223
- Macalister 1945, 174
- McManus 1991, 65, 94, 107