Provenance
Discovery: Formerly used as a footbridge and later served as a gatepost, the stone was found in 1924 in the bed of a stream when ‘the bridge spanning the brook just below [St Kew] church was widened’ (Okasha 1993, 248). The earliest reading was provided by Macalister in 1945.
Findspot: St Kew, Cornwall, England (National Grid Reference: SX 0215 7687)
Last recorded location(s): Now inside St Kew church at the west end of the nave, where it was examined and 3d recorded for the OG(H)AM project in April 2024.
Support
Historic Environment Record ID: HER Number: 17924
Object type: Pillar
Material: Granite
Dimensions: H 0.72 × W 0.42 × D 0.37 m
Condition: A small, rounded granite boulder, broken at both ends. The ogham inscription (1) is ‘incomplete and slightly deteriorated’ (Okasha 1993, 248) having lost the first letter and part of the second. The Latin inscription (2) is ‘legible’ and ‘probably complete’ (Okasha 1993, 248).
Inscription
Text field: There is no distinct arris, due to the rounded shape of the stone, but the ogham inscription (1) is still positioned on the edge, running parallel and in the same direction as the Latin inscription (2) on the face. Taking the Latin inscription as reading downwards, Okasha (1993, 248) describes the ogham as being found on the upper part of the right-hand side of the stone. However, ogham more typically runs upwards to the left of the face, in which case the Latin inscription would also be read upwards. The Latin inscription is enclosed in a cartouche, which Tedeschi (2005, 255) points out mimics the shape of a full-size monument, which is highly unusual, though not without precedent (cf. 10 miles away at Lanivet CIIC 465).
Letters: The letters of the ogham inscription (1) have been laid out with a gap between the proximal tips of the b- and h-aicme strokes. The Latin inscription (2) was ‘set without framing-lines in an open-ended panel about 40 cm in length’ (Okasha 1993, 248). The ‘“script used is a predominatly capital one”’ (Okasha 1993, 148) but the form of the -s in the Latin inscription is half-uncial (Macalister 1945, 462) (c.f. Worthyvale). The Latin letters measure 6 to 9 cm in height (Okasha 1993, 248).
Date: Mid-6th century
Edition
Ogham text: [ᚔ]ᚒ̣ᚄᚈᚔ
Transcription: [I]ỤSTI
Translation
of Justus
Commentary
This is a Latin male personal name meaning ‘the righteous’.
The palaeography suggests a date no later than the mid-6th century (Tedeschi 2005, 256) and the stone may well have been there in Samson’s day. The site, Lan Dochou, ‘church of (St) Dochou’, is remarkably first mentioned in the Life of St Samson, written c.700 about events in the 530s, and has claims to early importance.
References
- Macalister 1945, 462, no. 484
- Okasha 1993, 248-250, no. 52
- Tedeschi 2005, 255