Katherine Forsyth
Encyclopedia
Katherine S. Forsyth is a British historian who specializes in the history and culture of Celtic peoples during the 1st millenium AD, in particular the Picts
. She is currently a reader
in Celtic and Gaelic
at the University of Glasgow
in Scotland
.
Forsyth is an expert in the Ogham script
, and has provided readings for a number of Ogham inscriptions
, including the Buckquoy spindle-whorl
and the Lunnasting stone
. Forsyth has reinterpretted a number of Pictish Ogham stone inscriptions that were previously thought to be written in an unknown pre-Indo-European language, and has argued that the Picts spoke a Brythonic language
.
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
. She is currently a reader
Reader (academic rank)
The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...
in Celtic and Gaelic
Goidelic languages
The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Forsyth is an expert in the Ogham script
Ogham
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the Old Irish language, and occasionally the Brythonic language. Ogham is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", based on a High Medieval Bríatharogam tradition ascribing names of trees to the individual letters.There are roughly...
, and has provided readings for a number of Ogham inscriptions
Ogham inscriptions
]There are roughly 400 known ogham inscriptions on stone monuments scattered around the Irish Sea, the bulk of them dating to the 5th and 6th centuries. Their language is predominantly Primitive Irish, but a few examples record fragments of the Pictish language...
, including the Buckquoy spindle-whorl
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. Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick...
and the Lunnasting stone
Lunnasting stone
The Lunnasting stone is a stone bearing an ogham inscription, found at Lunnasting, Shetland and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1876.-Discovery:...
. Forsyth has reinterpretted a number of Pictish Ogham stone inscriptions that were previously thought to be written in an unknown pre-Indo-European language, and has argued that the Picts spoke a Brythonic language
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
.
Works
- 1995. "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: 677–696.
- 1995. "Language in Pictland: spoken and written". In Nicoll, E.H. and Forsyth, K. (eds.), A Pictish panorama: the story of the Picts. Pinkfoot Press. ISBN 1874012105
- 1995. "Some thoughts on Pictish symbols as a formal writing system". In Henderson, I. and Henry, D. (eds.), The Worm, the Germ and the Thorn: Pictish and Related Studies Presented to Isabel Henderson. Pinkfoot Press. ISBN 1874012172
- 2001. Okasha, E. and Forsyth, K., Early Christian inscriptions of Munster: a corpus of the inscribed stones. Cork: Cork University Press. ISBN 9781859181706
- 2005. "HIC MEMORIA PERPETUA: the inscribed stones of sub-Roman southern Scotland". In: Foster, S.M. and Cross, M. (eds.) Able Minds and Practised Hands: Scotland's Early Medieval Sculpture in the Twenty-First Century. Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series (23). Society for Medieval Archaeology. ISBN 9781904350743
- 2007. "An ogham-inscribed plaque from Bornais, South Uist". In Ballin-Smith, B., Taylor, S. and Williams, G. (eds.), West over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004158931
- 2008. Forsyth, K. (ed.), Studies on the Book of Deer. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 9781851825691
- 2011. Barrowman , R.C. and Forsyth, K., "An Ogham-Inscribed Slab from St Ninian’s Isle, Found in 1876". In The Chapel and Burial Ground on St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland. Excavations Past and Present. Society for Medieval Archaology.