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, Scotland.[1] Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick.[2] It has achieved fame because of its 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)
claimed that it 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. (1977), "Chalk spindle-whorls from Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland 108: 222–223, http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_108/108_174_227.pdf, retrieved February 5, 2010
- Jackson, Kenneth (1977), "The ogam inscription on the spindle whorl from Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland 108: 221–222, http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_108/108_174_227.pdf, retrieved February 5, 2010
- Ritchie, Anna (1977), "Excavation of Pictish and Viking-age farmsteads at Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities of Scotland 108: 174–227, http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_108/108_174_227.pdf, retrieved February 5, 2010
- 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, http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_125/125_677_696.pdf, retrieved February 5, 2010