Buckquoy spindle whorl
The Buckquoy spindle whorl is an archaeological find discovered in 1970 during excavations at Buckquoy on the tidal island of Brough of Birsay , Mainland , Orkney Islands , Scotland . It is a whorl of limestone in which Ogham characters are carved. The find dates from the 7th to early 9th centuries AD. It is now in the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall .
description
The spindle whorl was found in front of the door of the main room of the great Pictish house. Its diameter is 36 mm and its thickness is 10 mm. It consists of cream-colored sand limestone, the grains of which have a diameter of up to 0.5 mm. The Ogham characters are not arranged on the edge of the spindle whorl, as is usual with most Irish Oghamin scripts, but rather attached to an incised trunk line. This winds around the central hole of the whorl.
inscription
The inscription was used as proof that the language of the Picts not Indo-European was. In the professional world, the characters were transmitted very differently. So deciphered z. B. Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson the Ogham characters with (E) TMIQAVSALLC (E / Q). In 1995 the Scottish historian Katherine Forsyth transferred the inscription and worked out against it that the incision is a traditional Christian blessing in the Old Irish language from the 7th to the early 9th century AD. This blessing was ubiquitous in Latin inscriptions of medieval Ireland at the time.
Ogham script according to Forsyth (also translation and translation):
- ᚛ᚁᚓᚅᚇᚇᚐᚉᚈᚐᚅᚔᚋᚂ᚜
Transmission:
- (B) ENDDACTANIM (L)
Translation:
- Benddact anim L
- (A) blessing (on) the soul (of) L.
Specialty
The Buckquoy spindle whorl is one of the only eleven small finds mentioned in Ogham specialist literature to date, i.e. finds in which the Ogham characters are not carved into stone slabs and stone pillars (around 400), but into small objects (mainly everyday objects). Four of these were discovered in Scotland , namely the Bac-Mhic-Connain knife and Bornais bone plate in the Outer Hebrides and the Gurness knife and Buckquoy spindle whorl in the Orkney Islands.
literature
- Buchanan, Donal B .: The Decipherment of Scholastic Ogham. Introduction - Abbreviations - Inscriptions, o. O. o. J.
- Collins, GH: Chalk Spindle-Whorls from Buckquoy, Orkney, in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 108 (1977), pp. 222-223
- Connelly, Clare: A Partial Reading of the Stones. A Comparative Analysis of Irish and Scottish Ogham Pillar Stones. A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee 2015
- Forsyth, Katherine : The Ogham-inscribed Spindle Whorl from Buckquoy. Evidence for the Irish language in pre-Viking Orkney ?, in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 125 (1995), p. 677 - p. 696
- Jackson, Kenneth: The Ogham Inscription on the Spindle Whorl from Buckquoy, Orkney, in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 108 (1977): pp. 221-222
- Padel, Oliver J. (James): Inscriptions of Pictland, Edinburgh 1972, pp. 73-75
- Rodwell, Simon: A Note on the Ogham Inscription from Buckquoy, Orkney, in: Journal of Celtic Linguistics 18 (2017), pp. 103 - 116
Web links
- Photo - Buckquoy spindle whorl in the Orkney Museum display case ; Enlargement by clicking on the photo
- Photo with scale ; the Ogham incisions are very clearly recognizable due to the high magnification.
- Replicas of the blessing on today's jewelry made in Tankerness, Orkney Islands ; P. 44 - P. 46
References and comments
- ↑ Forsyth, pp. 678 - 679
- ↑ According to the find description of the Orkney Museum (2nd picture)
- ↑ Buchanan, p. 14
- ↑ Collins, S. 222
- ↑ Jackson, p. 221; further readings in Rodwell, pp. 103 - 106
- ↑ Forsyth, pp. 688-689
- ↑ Mentions and descriptions e.g. B. by Donal B. Buchanan , Katherine Stuart Forsyth , Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister , Barry Raftery
- ↑ Connelly, pp. 65-67