Oghamstone from Drumconwell
The Drumconwell Ogham Stone has been in the Robinson Library of Armagh in County Armagh in Northern Ireland since 1897 . It is one of over 300 Ogham stones that have been found on the island, mainly in the south-west of Ireland, Cornwall , Wales and the Isle of Man . Only six have been found in Northern Ireland and Drumconwell is the only one in County Armagh.
The Drumconwell stone is about 1.7 m long, of which 1.4 m are visible. The upper half is broad and rectangular in shape, while the lower half tapers like the root of a tooth. The stone was about five kilometers south of Armagh near the Lisnadill Church on the old road from Armagh to Navan Fort in the townland of Drumconwell ( Irish Droim Conmhaoil ). Nearby is the linear earthworks Dane's Cast, part of the Great Wall of Ulidia . A report from 1887 says that the stone stood just below a ring fort at the highest point of the field . The field is known locally as "The Graveyard Field". It is said that other stones were found in the area and removed.
The tip of the stone is missing and part of the top, an incised ring cross and the upper Ogham lines have been badly damaged. There were studies by Reeves in 1883, Rhys in 1895, Hamlin in 1987, and Warner in 1990. Warner's interpretation is CUN AM AGLOS, the old Irish word Conmael. Conmael was king of the Airthir (clan in Armagh) in the 7th century.
Ogham is the oldest Irish writing system. It consists of an alphabet of originally 20, later 25 characters, which were cut along the edges of stone pillars. The language used is Old Irish with Latin influences. The inscriptions mostly remind of a person. The Book of Ballymote , a manuscript compiled at Ballymote, County Sligo in the 14th or 15th century, provides the deciphering key. The stones are usually dated to the 7th century.
literature
- Richard B. Warner: The Drumconwell Ogham and its Implications. In: Emania. 8, 1991, ISSN 0951-1822 , pp. 43-50.
- Damien McManus: A Guide to Ogam (= Maynooth Monographs. 4). To Sagart, Maynooth 1991, ISBN 1-870684-17-6 .
- Charles Thomas: And Shall These Mute Stones Speak? Post-Roman Inscriptions in Western Britain (= Dalrymple Archaeological Monographs. 2). University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1994, ISBN 0-7083-1160-1 .
- Sabine Ziegler: The language of the old Irish Ogam inscriptions (= historical linguistic research. Supplement. 36). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994, ISBN 3-525-26225-6 .
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 20 ′ 57.9 " N , 6 ° 39 ′ 26.3" W.