Drawing of the Ogham inscription

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:

However, in 1995 historian Katherine Forsyth reading

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

  1. ^ Ritchie (1970)
  2. ^ Forsyth (1995)
  3. ^ 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."
  4. ^ Forsyth (1995), p. 49.
  5. ^ Collins (1977)

References

59°08′03″N 3°19′25″W / 59.1343°N 3.3236°W / 59.1343; -3.3236


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