Provenance
Discovery: One of three ogham inscribed slate slabs (S-BUT-003, S-BUT-004) discovered between 2001 and 2004 after a series of excavations conducted since the late nineteenth century on Inchmarnock, the small island off the west coast of Bute named after St Ernán using the affectionate form Marnock (Lowe 2008, 114-175). A rich collection of slate slabs and fragments incised with parts of Latin and Gaelic inscriptions, drawings of people and boats, gaming boards as well as several carved stones were found during the excavations.
Findspot: North Bute, Bute, Scotland (National Grid Reference: NS 02372 59635)
Current repository: Scotland Bute Museum (inv. no. X.HRE 265)
Last recorded location(s): Currently on loan to the Bute Museum from the National Museum of Scotland (X.2012.27.265).
Support
Trove 40268 Inchmarnock find number: IS.36 SF717
Object type: Fragment of slate
Material: Slate
Dimensions: H 120 × W 70 mm
Decoration: Face B features a cruciform, curvilinear design with two intersecting lines terminating in spirals.
Condition: A small piece of slate, roughly rectangular in shape with some fractures and wear, inscribed in both ogham and Latin. The upper portion has a very straight break and appears to have been trimmed. The ogham inscription is incomplete, consisting of only the first ten letters of the alphabet. The Latin inscription is accompanied by some minor scratches which appear to be accidental.
Inscription
Text field: Face B contains an ogham inscription comprised of the first ten letters of the alphabet as well as decorative features. The ogham inscription runs horizontally across the middle of the slate slab. The drawn-in stem begins about 10mm from the left edge with the end lost in the fractured top right corner. There are two lines of Latin writing carved on face A.
Letters: Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 139) observed that the two inscriptions, ogham and Latin, appear to have possibly been chiselled by the same hand. However there is not sufficient evidence to argue that the ogham inscription has not been added at a later date. The carver has managed to write the ogham in neatly parallel and equidistant individual strokes with the exception of the final stroke not reaching the stem. The care with which it was carved is consistent with it being a type of exercise. The letters of the H-group, as Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 139) comment ‘exhibit a consistent forward slope, ie. their distal tips (furthest from the stem) are further forward (to the right) of their approximal tips’ with letters of the B-group slope on this same axis. Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 137) described the Latin inscription as Insular minuscule. The same text is repeated on two lines, ‘albeit with different orthographic errors each time’ (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 137). The general inaccuracy of the writing and ‘the copying of the sentence on a second line’, indicates that this inscription was also a writing exercise (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 138). Despite the difficulty of controlling the writing tool or the hardness and small size of the writing surface, the writer was able to ‘respect the Insular cursive minuscule model coherently’ (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 138).
Date: Seventh to ninth century (paleography)
Edition
Ogham text: ᚁᚂᚃᚄᚅᚆᚇᚈᚉᚊ̣
Transcription: BLFSNHDTCQ̣ → BLFSNHDTCQ̣ →
Critical apparatus:
- The sloping of consonant strokes, such as is found on the Inchmarnock ogham, is rarer in Ireland, in both epigraphic and manuscript ogham (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008). 2. The script of Inchmarnock 1 and Inchmarnock 3 (S-BUT-006) is very similar with strokes rather than notches for vowels, and with H-strokes that slope backwards, both of which are, as Forsyth and Tedeschi note, ‘typical of the Scottish ogham corpus’ (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 149). 3. The form of script on the Inchmarnock ogham inscriptions is ‘simple and devoid of baroque, ‘supplementary’ letters’ common of later Scottish oghams to the east (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 131).
Translation
Ogham: The inscription lists the first ten letters of the ogham alphabet.
Roman: Having reached the holy reward
Commentary
Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 130) remarked that the Inchmarnock ogham-inscribed slate pieces represent ‘the first find of non-monumental ogham from an ecclestical site’.
From the Inchmarnock ogham inscriptions it is clear that ‘Gaelic-speaking scribes were familiar with the ogham alphabet and used it in informal sometimes jocular way, for brief marginal glosses and comments’ (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 130).
This slate in particular, as Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 131) noted, implies ‘that the script was being actively taught in the monastery’s school’.
The inscription provides no datable stylistic features (2008, 139).
References
- Forsyth, Tedeschi, and Lowe 2008, 128-153
- Lowe 2008, 137-141