Ogham Stones

The principles of Saenger and Parkes on the analysis of word spacing in Insular manuscripts are here applied to the Irish ogam corpus.  Differences in the adoption of aerated text between that corpus and the Anglo-Saxon epigraphic corpus are examined and the reasons for these differences are explored.  Finally, the dating of the adoption of aerated text in both Insular manuscripts and the ogam corpus is compared.

Even though the majority of sources concerning the onset of literacy in Wales and England (see Briggs 2010; Brown 2003, 2006; Colman 1992; Davies 1999; Edwards 2007; Elliot 1957; Fell 1994; Looijenga 2003; Lord 2003; McManus 1991; Opland 1980; Page 1973; Parsons 1999; Redknap, Lewis 2007; Sims-Williams [1998] 2006, [2003] 2004) stipulate the significance of early writing systems, it may be argued that these stages of cultural development were overshadowed by Latin influences at some point in history. Contemporary theories concerning the origins of writing (see Schmandt-Besserat [1992] 2006, 2007) and oral patterns of thinking (see Ong [1982] 2002; Luria [1974] 1976; Goody 1968, 1994) suggest that there exists an elaborate manner of evolution of cultural practices among the representatives of oral societies seeking to adopt the technology of writing as one of the methods
of collecting and storing valuable information. In terms of post-Roman Britain it can be observed that the two most vivid examples of such practices are runic and ogham scripts.
In order to gauge the scale and character of cultural processes which led to the adoption of runic and ogham scripts, and eventually, their being supplanted by the Latin alphabet in the British Isles, one should take a closer look at the earliest inscriptions found in Wales and England. This study presents an  overview of my doctoral research, which incorporated a text corpus consisting of 23 Latin
and ogham inscriptions from the counties of Breconshire and Glamorgan, as well as ten runic inscriptions from England. A closer study of geographical, linguistic and cultural factors, set within the framework of text linguistics demonstrated that the pre-literate period of British history witnessed a degree of cultural and linguistic richness and diversity.

First mentioned in February 5, 1693/4, when it stood in the ruins of St. Dogmael’s Abbey, Pembrokeshire, Wales, St. Dogmael’s Stone – located today inside St. Thomas’s Church – was considered ‘The Ogham Rosetta Stone’ because it is a Bilingual Stone, which contains the same inscription in two different scripts: Roman Letters and Ogham. This article presents a systematization of the main information related to this monument and an analysis of it, pointing out its importance to the Ogham Studies.

The study presents a chronotope of linguistic and cultural changes that took place in England and Wales between the 4th and 8th centuries. It encompasses the areas of South Wales and Eastern England and describes the cultural practices of preliterate Anglo-Saxon and Celtic speech communities and their adaptation of runic, ogham and Latin scripts.

The study is based on the concepts of anthropological linguistics, ethnography of communication and discourse analysis. It incorporates 23 selected ogham- and Latin-inscribed stones from Wales, and 10 rune-inscribed everyday objects from England. The presented inscriptions were designed as text occurrences with well-planned, graphical content distribution, intentionally placed in the public space to increase the range of their potential audience.

The study presents a chronotope of linguistic and cultural changes that took place in England and Wales between the 4th and 8th centuries. It encompasses the areas of South Wales and Eastern England and describes the cultural practices of preliterate Anglo-Saxon and Celtic speech communities and their adaptation of runic, ogham and Latin scripts. The study is based on the concepts of anthropological linguistics, ethnography of communication and discourse analysis. It incorporates 23 selected ogham- and Latin-inscribed stones from Wales, and 10 rune-inscribed everyday objects from England. The presented inscriptions were designed as text occurrences with well-planned, graphical content distribution, intentionally placed in the public space to increase the range of their potential audience.

Segundo o que se sabe atualmente, a Hibernia nunca sofreu qualquer invasão das legiões romanas. Do mesmo modo, também jamais foi anexada como província ao Império Romano. Apesar disso, temos inúmeras evidências de contatos culturais, sociais e econômicos entre os povos que utilizavam o chamado Irish Sea, seja a partir dos relatos feitos pelos autores clássicos: César, Tácito, Juvenal, Herodiano etc; de objetos romanos: fibulae, ollae, paterae, dentre outros, encontrados na área correspondente à atual Irlanda; ou da epigrafia, da qual as Ogham Stones, inscrições em pedra contendo as primeiras grafias da língua irlandesa antiga, frequentes em toda esta região, constituem-se parte fundamental. O objetivo desta comunicação é analisar algumas destas interações entre a Hibernia e a Bretanha Romana e Pós-Romana. A partir das evidências fornecidas pelas Ogham Stones, sustentamos que é possível pensar em uma cultura Hiberno-Latina antes de Patrício (séc. V d.C) e que a influência da Bretanha Romana na Hibernia não foi um Cursus Unicus.

The following article seeks to traverse the eastern and western approaches to the study, use and practice of writing and art. To this extent, the first aim is to discuss the two types of cognition in relation to writing. Secondly, the article tries to show that the change in medium, from voice-to-ear to eye-to-paper made it possible to converge the practice of storing information with the practice of artistic expression. In this view, the evolution of art and writing relied on human perception and may have been influenced by a variety of factors, one of which the tendency to converge on a specific point on a horizon. The third and final aim of the article is to address the notions of perception and cognition in relation to Romano-Latin writing traditions of the early Middle Ages. Ultimately, the article seeks to establish a connection between the Romano-Latin writing tradition and its derivatives, on the basis of several properties of visual perception and cognition.

During the course of the summer the largest known coastal promontory fort in the country had its earthworks bull dozed. In the space of a week over lOOOm of earthworks were levelled. The destruction is part of a pattern of similar activity throughout Munster, which appears to be ...

The monumental and apparently eternal nature of stone monuments has attracted considerable attention from archaeological and memory studies perspectives in recent years, yet few studies have yet examined the literary representations of such monuments in medieval texts. This paper examines the representations of ogam stones in a variety of saga texts and tries to outline the mnemonic functions and aspects which are connected to ogam inscribed pillar stones in the texts. The aim is a twofold one: to explore the importance of the stones within the textual world, but also to investigate what cultural meaning these representations could have held for the medieval mind. This investigation will draw heavily on ideas about the role of monuments within cultural memory and ask if these literary monuments could reflect medieval ideas about ‘places of remembering’ in which memory crystalizes and manifests cultural continuity and identity.
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The nexus between landscape, identity formation(s) and cultural memory has long been of interest to archaeology, cultural geography and various disciplines in the humanities. This article suggests that in medieval and early modern Irish texts, the depiction of monuments addresses precisely this complex relationship. On the basis of close readings of textual evidence and a critical engagement with Pierre Nora’s idea of lieux de mémoire, it will be argued that the cognitive interplay between literary-imagined and archaeological-material monuments enabled the medieval Irish literati to situate themselves within the world they inhabited both spatially and culturally. The article thus contributes substantially to our understanding of the material aspects of social remembrance and advocates the potential benefits of including the extremely rich Irish textual and archaeological sources into broader, interdisciplinary discussions.