Lunnasting stone
Encyclopedia
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.
bog) in April 1876, having been originally discovered five feet (1.5 m) below the surface.
The stone is made of slate and is 44 inches (1.1 m) long, by about 13 inch (0.3302 m) in breadth and 1 inches (2.5 cm) thick with the inscription on the flat surface. In addition to the ogham letters which are arranged down a centre line, there is a small cruciform mark near the top of the stone, which may be a runic letter or a Christian cross. It is unknown whether this mark and the ogham are contemporary, or whether the former was later added to a pre-existing standing stone.
inscription has been read as:
The script probably contains the personal name "Nechton", and Diack (1925) took the view that the last two words mean “the vassal of Nehtonn“
but it is otherwise without certain interpretation. Forsyth suggests Ahehhttannn is also a personal name.
Other recent attempts include:
The word-dividing dots suggest Norse
influence, but this could pre-date the Viking occupation of Shetland, and an eighth or ninth century origin is likely for the ogham work.
Vincent (1896) suggests that the stone may have been erected by "Irish missionary monks not earlier than A.D. 580" and quotes an unnamed expert's transcription of the ogham as:
Lockwood (1975) writes that "the last word is clearly the commonly occurring name Nechton, but the rest, even allowing for the perhaps arbitrary doubling of consonants in Ogam, appears so exotic that philologists conclude that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language of unknown affinities". This view was also taken of the ogham inscribed on the Orcadian Buckquoy spindle-whorl
until its 1995 interpretation as Old Irish
.
A language of Basque
origin has also been suggested as providing a solution:
although the original speculations in 1968 by Henri Guiter do not appear convincing and were not well received academically. The eminent Vasconist
Larry Trask
says about Guiter's attempts that "like the majority of such dramatic announcements, this one has been universally rejected. Pictish specialists dismiss it out of hand, and vasconists have been no more impressed". The criticisms focus on random readings being assigned to Ogam letters, alleged complete decipherment of inscriptions too weathered to be read with certainty, the use of 20th century Basque rather than reconstructed Proto-Basque forms, disregarding syntax and highly fanciful translations.
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...
inscription, found at Lunnasting, Shetland and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1876.
Discovery
It was found by Rev. J.C. Roger in a cottage, who stated that the stone had been unearthed from a "moss" (i.e. a peatPeat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
bog) in April 1876, having been originally discovered five feet (1.5 m) below the surface.
The stone is made of slate and is 44 inches (1.1 m) long, by about 13 inch (0.3302 m) in breadth and 1 inches (2.5 cm) thick with the inscription on the flat surface. In addition to the ogham letters which are arranged down a centre line, there is a small cruciform mark near the top of the stone, which may be a runic letter or a Christian cross. It is unknown whether this mark and the ogham are contemporary, or whether the former was later added to a pre-existing standing stone.
Inscription and date
The PictishPictish language
Pictish is a term used for the extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland in the Early Middle Ages...
inscription has been read as:
- ttocuhetts: ahehhttmnnn: hccvvevv: nehhton by Allen and Anderson (1903)
- ettecuhetts: ahehhttannn: hccvvevv: nehhtons by Forsyth (1996)
The script probably contains the personal name "Nechton", and Diack (1925) took the view that the last two words mean “the vassal of Nehtonn“
but it is otherwise without certain interpretation. Forsyth suggests Ahehhttannn is also a personal name.
Other recent attempts include:
- "King Nechtan of the kin of Ahehhtmnnn"
- "The widow of Kenneth made (these as) testimonials on her part".
The word-dividing dots suggest Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
influence, but this could pre-date the Viking occupation of Shetland, and an eighth or ninth century origin is likely for the ogham work.
Other theories
The difficulties of providing a clear interpretation of the script has led to a number of other suggestions.Vincent (1896) suggests that the stone may have been erected by "Irish missionary monks not earlier than A.D. 580" and quotes an unnamed expert's transcription of the ogham as:
- eattuicheatts maheadttannn hccffstff ncdtons.
Lockwood (1975) writes that "the last word is clearly the commonly occurring name Nechton, but the rest, even allowing for the perhaps arbitrary doubling of consonants in Ogam, appears so exotic that philologists conclude that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language of unknown affinities". This view was also taken of the ogham inscribed on the Orcadian 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...
until its 1995 interpretation as Old Irish
Old Irish language
Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Goidelic languages for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from the 6th to the 10th centuries, by which time it had developed into Middle Irish....
.
A language of Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
origin has also been suggested as providing a solution:
- etxekoez aiekoan nahigabe ba nengoen (English: "The one of the house found me without will in the pain.")
although the original speculations in 1968 by Henri Guiter do not appear convincing and were not well received academically. The eminent Vasconist
Vasconic languages
The Vasconic substratum theory is a proposal that many western European languages contain remnants of an old language family of Vasconic languages, of which Basque is the only surviving member. The proposal was made by the German linguist Theo Vennemann, but has been rejected by other linguists...
Larry Trask
Larry Trask
Robert Lawrence "Larry" Trask was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex and an authority on the Basque language and historical linguistics....
says about Guiter's attempts that "like the majority of such dramatic announcements, this one has been universally rejected. Pictish specialists dismiss it out of hand, and vasconists have been no more impressed". The criticisms focus on random readings being assigned to Ogam letters, alleged complete decipherment of inscriptions too weathered to be read with certainty, the use of 20th century Basque rather than reconstructed Proto-Basque forms, disregarding syntax and highly fanciful translations.