The Cat Stane, or Catstane, is an inscribed standing stone near
Kirkliston, on the outskirts of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. It bears a fragmentary inscription dating to the fifth or sixth centuries and was part of a funerary complex consisting of the stone itself, a
cairn
A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ).
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...
and a series of
cist burials.
[The RCAHMS Site record for the Cat Stane.](_blank)
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The stone's Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
inscription is interpreted as a dedication to a deceased woman whose remains were interred near the stone. Dates have been ascribed to the stone and its inscription by considering the script used and the results of several excavations conducted in modern times.
The stone appears to have been erected in the Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
while the inscription was added in the fifth or sixth centuries AD. During the latter period the area around modern Edinburgh was controlled by the nation known as either the Votadini
The Votadini, also known as the ''Uotadini'', ''Wotādīni'', ''Votādīni'', or ''Otadini'' were a Brittonic people of the Iron Age in Great Britain. Their territory was in what is now south-east Scotland and north-east England, extending fro ...
or the Gododdin.
The Cat Stane now lies within the perimeter of Edinburgh Airport, making it impossible for the general public to access it. Nearby is the confluence of the Gogar Burn and the River Almond. The stone is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Description
The Cat Stane is an irregular standing stone
A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright rock (geology), stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. T ...
of 1.3m height. It is heavily weathered but preserves an inscription in Latin, with several lacunas.
The inscription, carved in a rough Latin script appears to read:
History
The earliest description of the Cat Stane was made by the Welsh scholar Edward Lhuyd in 1699 who described it as standing on a pavement of flat stones surrounding the remains of a low oval cairn.Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
site re-used for burials in the fifth or sixth centuries.
See also
*Cat Stones of Scotland
The Cat Stones of Scotland (or, in Scots Gaelic, the ''Clach a'Chath'') are natural prominent rock features or standing stones around Scotland that are often linked to battles or burials. The English term ''cat'' applied to such stones derives fro ...
References
{{Reflist
Scheduled monuments in Scotland
Archaeological sites in Edinburgh
6th century in Scotland
Megalithic monuments in Scotland
Bronze Age Scotland
Culture of medieval Scotland