ORCADIA-L Archives

Archiver > ORCADIA > 1999-04 > 0923436002


From: "Sigurd Towrie" <>
Subject: Pictish Symbol Stones Decoded??
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 23:00:02 +0100


One of the joys of working for the Orcadian is getting to hear about stuff
that would otherwise slip by unnoticed....

The following looks like a *very* interesting discovery:

A major new discovery by a researcher from the University of Aberdeen has
unlocked the secret of writing on standing stones which has baffled scholars
for hundreds of years. Dr Richard Cox, a lecturer in the universityÕs
Department of Celtic has discovered that the inscriptions on the Pictish
symbol stones characteristic of some parts of Scotland including Orkney are
written in Old Norse, the Scandinavian language of the Vikings descendants.

His discovery, published for the first time this week, is set to send shock
waves through the research community which has long believed the
inscriptions to be an ancient form of Gaelic or a long forgotten Pictish
language. The discovery finally puts paid to any mystery surrounding the
Pictish language.

Dr Cox explained: "The inscriptions are written in ogam, a writing system
using a series of straight slashes on, through or below a central stem line.
We think it was developed in fourth century Ireland and later brought to
Scotland. While the system was used to write Gaelic in Ireland, no-one has
been able to make sense of the inscription in Scotland.

"But using Old Norse, the inscriptions can be translated meaningfully. Many
are memorials, recording who carved the stone and in whose memory it was
erected."

Carved between 1050 and 1225, the 19 stones which Dr Cox studied include
about half the ogam inscriptions found across Scotland from Orkney to Arran
and Lochgoilhead to Aberdeen.

"This discovery is of major significance for our understanding of the early
history of Scotland and Scandinavia. There is plenty of evidence, through
place names for example, of Scandinavian influence in some parts of Scotland
but these stones provide clear evidence of strong links between Scotland and
Norway in areas where other evidence is absent," said Dr Cox.

"In Scandinavia, memorial inscriptions like these would be carved in runes
not ogam. The question is why are these stones carved in Old Norse but using
a system of writing developed in the Gaelic speaking world? The evidence
suggests strong links in language and learning and in religious custom
between Norse and Gaelic-speaking communities."

The full title of Dr Cox's book is The Language of the Ogam Inscriptions of
Scotland: Contributions to the Study of Ogam, Runic and Roman Alphabet
Inscriptions in Scotland. The publication retails at £12.50 plus postage and
packing and is available from the Department of Celtic, University of
Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UB or can also be ordered via the web:
www.abdn.ac.uk/celtic/publctns.htm

--
Sigurd Towrie
Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney
|
Heritage of Orkney: http://www.orcades.dircon.co.u

This thread: