Provenance
Discovery: First mentioned by Brash (1879, 286) who says he visited and inspected the site in 1868. This stone was reused, according to Macalister (1945, 135), as a support stone (opposite no. I (I-KER-005)) in the outer section of a souterrain in a rath (KE054-006----). He noted that the souterrain was ‘L-shaped: the first two stones are supports in its outer section, the third a lintel in the inner section. There is also a stone bearing two crosses (KE054-006003-) and no inscription, and a stone with Ogham-like but meaningless marks on the left-hand side of the entrance to the outer section.’
Findspot: Aghacarrible (Áth an Charbaill), Co. Kerry, Ireland (ITM coordinates: 451179, 600006 )
Last recorded location(s): In situ inside the inaccessible souterrain.
Support
National Monuments Service SMR ID: KE054-006002-
Object type: Pillar
Material: Stone type unknown
Dimensions: H 0.68 × W 0.46 × D 0.15 m
Condition: Reused as a supporting stone in a souterrain now inaccessible. Dimensions are of the exposed part only (Macalister 1945, 136).
Inscription
Text field: From the drawing by Hitchcock and Macalister’s (1945, 136) description, the inscription appears to take up two angles with the first word described as ‘on an angle turned inward, inaccessible except to the fingers on my first visit; and now still more so, for an accumulation of silt has in the interval buried everything except the final N.’ According to Cuppage (1986, no. 285), the inscription occupies both angles on the E side of the stone but a reassessment of Macalister’s readings of the inscriptions was not possible.
Letters: Macalister (1945, 136) doesn’t mention the execution type of this inscription. We have no information on the appearance of the characters. Hitchcock’s drawing is not detailed enough to be helpful in this regard.
Date: Late sixth or early seventh century AD (linguistic)
Edition
Ogham text: ᚂᚐᚔᚇᚐᚅᚅ ᚋᚐᚊᚔ ᚋᚐᚉᚑᚏᚁᚑ
Transcription: LAIDANN MAQI MACORBO
Critical apparatus:
- Macalister (1945, 136) noted that ‘the readings of all three of these stones must remain tentative until the cave can be dismantled’.
Translation
of Laidánn son of *Maccarb?
Commentary
Ziegler (1994, 192) noted that the name Laidáinn (gen. sg.) possibly occurs in the genealogies (CGH S. 670) and may contain the word laíd ‘poem’ or láed ‘marrow’, with the individualising suffix -án (often -ANN for -AGNI in later incriptions; cf. also LADDIGNI in I-KER-005). Since the earliest attestation in Old Irish. of the former is loíd and it probably comes from *loi̯do-, it is unlikely that this is the word. The alternative láed ‘marrow’ is not a very common name element, but it occurs in the rare name Conláed ‘having the marrow of a dog/wolf’ and so is preferrable.
The father’s name, MACORBO, is quite problematic linguistically (note that the following is based on intial analysis by David Stifter for the OG(H)AM project and a fuller analysis will be published at a later date). Ziegler’s (1994, 200) suggestions of this being either an early form of Mac-Corb or Mac-Orbba (nmaes found in the genealogies, CGH S. 681 and CGH S.683 respectively) have a number of difficulties. Although this name appears to be found in a number of other inscriptions (cf. I-WAT-011, I-WAT-022 and possibly also I-KIK-002), the consistency with which it is written (MACORBO, not *MAQ(I)CORBO) does not support either identification. The name doesn’t seem to have a direct continuation in Old Irish. If it had, it would be *Maccarb/Maccurb (u-stem) or *Maccairb (i-stem), although it is most likely that the elements are Old Irish macc and the OIr. adjective corb ‘corrupt’ (i.e. ‘illegitimate son, bastard’, related to the verb corbbaid).
References
- Cuppage 1986, no. 285
- Macalister 1945, 136
- Ziegler 1994, 192, 200