Weeting knife handle

The Weeting knife handle is an archaeological find, the 1947 heath land in the village of Weeting, County Norfolk , East Anglia , England , was discovered. Ogham marks are carved into the handle . It is made from the antlers of a red deer and is dated to the 6th to 8th centuries AD.

description

The Weeting knife handle is very similar to the handles of the Bac Mhic Connain knife and the Gurness knife . Both sides of the handle are inscribed. The Ogham symbols are still very well preserved. However, some can be interpreted differently in terms of transmission. On the side of the handle, where the blade was originally attached, two lines and triangles made of dots are carved as decoration. The knife's blade is no longer there.

inscription

The inscription runs across both sides of the handle. The reading direction is not clearly recognizable. In technical science, the inscription on one side of the handle is mainly transferred with ULUCUVUTE. Reading takes place from the end of the handle (wider side) in the direction of the original blade (narrow side). A reading in the opposite direction, which then results in EVUTUSUDU, was however occasionally considered possible. Only the middle part of the first notch of the U can be seen because of the wear and tear at this point.

The transfers to the inscription on the second side of the handle are less uniform. Among other things, there are the proposals GEDEVEM ... DOS and GEDEVIMUTOS.

The content of the inscription could not be deciphered. In the case of knives, however, research mainly suspects the name of the knife owner contained in the inscription. A magic formula is also believed likely.

Specialty

The Weeting knife handle is one of the only eleven small finds mentioned in the Ogham specialist literature to this day, 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). Besides the Silchester stone, it is the only find with Ogham script in England.

literature

Buchanan, Donal B .: The Decipherment of Scholastic Ogham. Introduction - Abbreviations - Inscriptions, o. O. o. J.
Clarke, R. (Roy) Rainbird: An Ogham inscribed knife-handle from south-west Norfolk, in: The Antiquaries Journal 32 (1952), pp. 71-73
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 : An Ogham-inscribed plaque from Bornais, South Uist, in: Smith, Beverley Ballin et al. (Eds.): West over Sea. Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300. A Festschrift in Honor of Dr Barbara E. Crawford, The Northern World 31, Leiden 2007, pp. 461 - 478
Padel, Oliver J. (James): Inscriptions of Pictland, Edinburgh 1972, pp. 144 - 148

Web links

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References and comments

^ Clarke, p. 71
↑ Forsyth, p. 471
^ Clarke, p. 73
^ Padel, p. 144
^ Padel, p. 145
↑ so also by Clarke 1952, where he added the partially worn first U-symbol; see. Clarke's drawing in Padel, p. 145 and detailed explanations p. 146
↑ Buchanan, p. 33; the English linguist and Ogham researcher Andrew West (* 1960) also reads ULUCUVUTE
↑ Buchanan, p. 33; Clarke also sees this as a possibility, cf. Padel, p. 144 and P. 146 - P. 147
↑ so Clarke (who also does not exclude the reverse reading direction, cf. Padel, p. 144) and Buchanan, p. 34 and Andrew West
↑ Connelly, p. 56; Andrew West also sees GEDEVIMUTOS as a proper name
^ Padel, p. 148
↑ Mentions and descriptions e.g. B. by Donal B. Buchanan , Katherine Stuart Forsyth , Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister , Barry Raftery
↑ In order to obtain the predominantly recognized reading ULUCUVUTE, reading begins at the end of the handle, ie on the side with the broken part of the handle; For better reading, the image should be rotated 180 degrees (reading direction after rotation then from bottom left to top right).

[1] Clarke, p. 71

[2] Forsyth, p. 471

[3] Clarke, p. 73

[4] Padel, p. 144

[5] Padel, p. 145

[6] so also by Clarke 1952, where he added the partially worn first U-symbol; see. Clarke's drawing in Padel, p. 145 and detailed explanations p. 146

[7] Buchanan, p. 33; the English linguist and Ogham researcher Andrew West (* 1960) also reads ULUCUVUTE

[8] Buchanan, p. 33; Clarke also sees this as a possibility, cf. Padel, p. 144 and P. 146 - P. 147

[9] so Clarke (who also does not exclude the reverse reading direction, cf. Padel, p. 144) and Buchanan, p. 34 and Andrew West

[10] Connelly, p. 56; Andrew West also sees GEDEVIMUTOS as a proper name

[11] Padel, p. 148

[12] Mentions and descriptions e.g. B. by Donal B. Buchanan , Katherine Stuart Forsyth , Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister , Barry Raftery

[13] In order to obtain the predominantly recognized reading ULUCUVUTE, reading begins at the end of the handle, ie on the side with the broken part of the handle; For better reading, the image should be rotated 180 degrees (reading direction after rotation then from bottom left to top right).