Provenance
Discovery: First mentioned by Brash (1879, 286) who says he visited and inspected the site in 1868. This third ogham stone was reused, according to Macalister (1945, 135), as a lintel in the inner 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… 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: KE054-006005-
Object type: Pillar
Material: Slate
Dimensions: H 1.68 × W 0.18 × D 0.46 m
Decoration: Macalister (1945, 137) describes ‘a plain cross of two lines, 7” X 6” (0.18 x 0.15m), on what is at present the under side of the lintel’. According to Cuppage (1986, no. 285), this is no longer evident.
Condition: Reused as a supporting stone in a souterrain now inaccessible. Dimensions are of the exposed part only (Macalister 1945, 137).
Inscription
Text field: The layout of the inscription was not recorded but it is likely that only one angle was accessible to Macalister.
Letters: Macalister (1945, 136-137) describes the strokes as ‘roughly executed’ and ‘difficult to decipher’ due to the very rough stone, ‘unsuitable for the purpose of the carver’.
Edition
Ogham text: ᚂᚒᚌᚒᚃᚃᚓᚉᚉᚐ ᚋᚐᚊᚔ[---
Transcription: LUGUVVECCA MAQI[---]
Critical apparatus:
- Macalister (1945, 136) noted that ‘the readings of all three of these stones must remain tentative until the cave can be dismantled’.
Commentary
LUGUVVECCA appears to be a compund of the the mythological/deity name Lug and -VICS from the same root as Old Irish fichid ‘to fight’ (Ziegler 1994, 199; McManus 1991, 104, 178 n.23). The name Lugach (gen. sg.) in the genealogies (CGH S. 667, 679) may be a later version of this name.
References
- Cuppage 1986, no. 285
- Macalister 1945, 136-137
- McManus 1991, 136-137
- Ziegler 1994, 199