Buckquoy spindle-whorl
The Buckquoy spindle-whorl is an Ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl dating from the Early Middle Ages, probably the 8th century, which was found in 1970 in Buckquoy, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland.[1] Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick.[2] It is the only known spindle-whorl with an Ogham inscription.
The inscription was once used as proof that the Pictish language was not Indo-European, being variously read as:
- E(s/n)DDACTA(n/lv)IM(v/lb)
- (e/)(s/n/)DDACTANIMV
- (e/)TMIQAVSALL(e/q)[3]
However, in 1995 historian Katherine Forsyth reading
- ENDDACTANIM(f/lb)
proposed that the inscription was a standard Old Irish ogham benedictory message, Benddact anim L. meaning "a blessing on the soul of L.".[4] The stone from which the whorl was made, and on which the inscription was written, is likely to have originated in Orkney.[5]
See also
Notes
- ↑ Ritchie (1970)
- ↑ Forsyth (1995)
- ↑ Jackson (1977) Jackson states that "[a]ll of the readings are wholly unintelligible and cannot be Celtic," and that "[w]e must be content to write off this inscription as unintelligible, like all the other 'Pictish' inscriptions."
- ↑ Forsyth (1995), p. 49.
- ↑ Collins (1977)
References
- Collins, G.H. (1995), "Chalk spindle-whorls from Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 125: 222–223
- Jackson, Kenneth (1977), "The ogam inscription on the spindle whorl from Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 108: 221–222
- Ritchie, Anna (1977), "Excavation of Pictish and Viking-age farmsteads at Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 108: 174–227, retrieved 12 July 2012
- Forsyth, Katherine (1995), "The ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl from Buckquoy: evidence for the Irish language in pre-Viking Orkney?", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 125: 677–96, retrieved 12 July 2012
Coordinates: 59°08′03″N 3°19′25″W / 59.1343°N 3.3236°W