Provenance
Discovery: This gaming board fragment is one of three ogham inscribed slate pieces (S-BUT-002, 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 National Museum of Scotland (inv. no. X.HRE 187, X.HRE 29, X.HRE 3)
Last recorded location(s): Belongs to the National Museum of Scotland (X.2012.27.3), but is currently on loan to Bute Museum. Recorded by OG(H)AM on 18 July 2022.
Support
Trove 40268 Inchmarnock find number: IS.1 SF402/625/430
Object type: Gaming board
Material: Slate
Dimensions: H 235 × W 193 × D 20 mm
Decoration: The slate fragment is decorated with a mass of curving lines which the ogham graffiti post-dates.
Condition: An inscribed slate fragment which appears to be the remains of a gaming board. The inscription, albeit complete, is indistinct and difficult to make out, yet ‘sufficient remains visible to be confident that it genuinely is ogham’ (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 146). Forsyth and Tedeschi described the inscription as looking ‘rather scrappy’, but inscriptions like this are not carved with posterity in mind (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 146).
Inscription
Text field: The ogham inscription is found between the edge of the ruled grid and the end of the mass of curved lines and consists of about seven characters. The tail of the stem-line is visible beyond the first and last letters indicating the inscription is complete.
Letters: A tiny ogham inscription of about 20mm in total length, lightly scratched on the margin of the stone. Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 146) note that the letters were ‘casually rather than carefully carved’ and the problem with its legibility arises from the ‘lack of care in execution rather than ignorance on the part of the carver’. The spacing of the letters is erratic, the first half appearing generously spaced while the latter half of the inscription is more cramped.
Date: Seventh to ninth century
Edition
Transcription: [---]GEBAM[..]Ẹ →
Critical apparatus:
- Ogham is usually read left to right, as is the convention followed here, however it is unclear from the orientation of the slab which end is the beginning. There are several possible interpretations: 1) B(AA/O/MA)HBAD(M/A); 2) MLAHB(O/AA/AM)H; 3) ALAHB(O/AA/AM)H 2. The spacing of the letters and the carving in general may suggest however some additional strokes in the sections that are now completely invisible which could potentially aid a better reading. 3. As Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 146) observed ‘the key features which distinguish different letters, spacing, relative length and slope, are less than rigorously indicated (not surprisingly, perhaps, on this minute scale)’. 4. 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
The ogham inscription ‘although pronouncable does not yield any obvious sense’ (Forsyth and Tedeschi 2008, 147).
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).
Regardless of the lack of viable interpretation, this ogham inscription, Forsyth and Tedeschi (2008, 147) argue, is ‘important evidence of ogham literacy at the site, not just in a school-room context, but in ‘recreational’ use’.
References
- Lowe 2008, 114-115, 151-174
- Forsyth, Tedeschi, and Lowe 2008, 128-153