Buckquoy Spindle Whorl, Ogham inscription - Buckquoy-Spinnwirtel, Ogham-Inschrift

The Buckquoy spindle-whorl is an

Ogham Ogham ( Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langu ...

-inscribed spindle-whorl dating from the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

, probably the 8th century, which was found in 1970 in Buckquoy,

Birsay Birsay () (Old Norse: ''Birgisherað'') is a parish in the north west corner of The Mainland of Orkney, Scotland. Almost all the land in the parish is devoted to agriculture: chiefly grassland used to rear beef cattle. There are various ancient ...

, Orkney,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick. It is the only known spindle-whorl with an

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the w ...

. The inscription was once used as proof that the

Pictish language Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographic ...

was not

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

, being variously read as: * E(s/n)DDACTA(n/lv)IM(v/lb) * (e/)(s/n/)DDACTANIMV * (e/)TMIQAVSALL(e/q) However, in 1995 historian Katherine Forsyth reading * ENDDACTANIM(f/lb) proposed that the inscription was a standard

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...

ogham benedictory message, ''Benddact anim L.'' meaning "a blessing on the soul of L.". The stone from which the whorl was made, and on which the inscription was written, is likely to have originated in Orkney.Collins (1977)

Notes

References

* * * * 1970 archaeological discoveries 1970 in Scotland Archaeology of Scotland Goidelic languages History of Orkney Pictish culture 8th century in Scotland Ogham inscriptions Irish inscriptions Mainland, Orkney {{Writingsystem-stub

See also

Notes

References