Provenance
Discovery: Found on Ystrad mountain in Llanddeti parish. The stone and ogham inscription was recorded and sketched in 1695. The presence of ogham was first mentioned in Lhuyd’s 1910 publication but the first reading of the inscription was supplied by Macalister in 1945. The stone was rediscovered again by Webley in 1957.
Findspot: Llanddeti (Llanddetty), Brecknockshire (Brycheiniog), Wales (National Grid Reference: SO 073 132)
Last recorded location(s): Situated on open moorland at 455m above sea level, west of the track from Merthyr Tydfil to Talybont. The present location of the stone is high and may be the same as when it was originally described but there is a slight possibility that the stone has been moved down the hill and re-erected since it was first described (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 176).
Support
National Monuments Record of Wales (NPRN): 92146
Object type: Pillar
Material: Sandstone
Dimensions: H 1.20 × W 0.38 × D 0.36 m
Condition: The stone is badly weathered and the ogham inscription is worn (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 178). Webley (1957, 118-121) detected a series of weathered horizontal lines potentially representing a vertical Latin inscription which today is illegible.
Inscription
Text field: The stone is inscribed with an ogham inscription along the left-hand edge reading vertically upwards (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 178).
Letters: The outline of the characters are rounded and the inscription appears to have been pocked (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 178). The vowels in the inscription have largely worn away and some are completely obliterated but the spaces between the legible characters suggest their original presence (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 178).
Date: Fifth or sixth century A.D. (textual context)
Edition
Ogham text: ᚋ̣ᚐᚊᚔ̣ᚇᚓ̣ᚉᚓ̣ᚇᚐ̣
Transcription: ṂAQỊDẸCẸDẠ
Critical apparatus:
- While the spacing of the inscription supports the genitive ending -I for MAQI, the vowels U or O cannot be ruled out (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 178). 2. Macalister (1945, 321) read: Q-T-C-D
Translation
of Mac-Deichet
Commentary
Sims-Williams (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 178) notes that the inscription is in the typical commemorative formula (genitive form), naming an individual with the popular Irish name *Maqqas-Deceddas which later becomes the OI Mac-Deichet ‘son of [the divinity]’, and is also found elsewhere in Ireland and Britain (e.g. I-COR-014 (in ogham): MAQIDECCEDDAS and CIIC 326 (Macalister 1945, 313-314) (in roman-letters) MACCVDECCETI). Sims-Williams (Redknap and Lewis 2007, 178) highlights that in other examples from Britain ‘the genitive ending -I has been rounded to U or O by the preceding labiovelar /kʷ/’ (MAC(C)V). It is uncertain whether that is the case for this inscription, due to its worn nature, but the space available would suggest an I.
References
- Lhuyd 1910, 90
- Macalister 1945, 322
- Redknap and Lewis 2007, 176-178
- Webley 1957, 118-121