Buckquoy spindle-whorl

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The Buckquoy spindle-whorl.
The Buckquoy spindle-whorl.

The Buckquoy spindle-whorl is a famous spindle-whorl dating from the Early Middle Ages, probably the 8th century, excavated in 1970 in Buckquoy, Birsay, Orkney. It has achieved fame because of its Ogham inscription. The inscription was once used as positive 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)

however, in 1995 historian Katherine Forsyth reading

ENDDACTANIM(f/lb)

claimed that it was a standard Old Irish 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 native to Orkney.

[edit] References

  • Forsyth, Katherine, "The ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl from Buckquoy: evidence for the Irish language in pre-Viking Orkney?", in 'The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 125, (1995), pp. 677-96 (ARCHway)
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