The Lunnasting stone is a stone bearing an

ogham Ogham (also ogam and ogom, , Modern Irish: ; , later ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ...

inscription, found at Lunnasting,

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

and donated to the

National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...

in 1876.

Discovery

The stone was found by Rev. J.C. Roger in a cottage, who stated that it had been unearthed from a "moss" (i.e. a

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

bog) in April 1876, having been discovered five feet (1.5 m) below the surface."LTING/1"

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, quoting Forsyth, K. (1996) "The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland: An Edited Corpus". Unpublished PhD. Harvard University. Retrieved 12 July 2009. The stone is made of slate and is long, by about in breadth and 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, which may be a

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...

letter or a Christian cross. It is unknown whether this mark was made at the same time as the ogham, or added later.

Inscription and date

The

Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...

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 " Nechtan", 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 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 in providing a clear interpretation of the script have 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 Orcadian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Orkney ** Orcadians Orcadians, also known as Orkneymen, are an ethnic group native to the Orkney Islands, who speak an Orcadian dialect of the Scots language, a West Germanic language ...

Buckquoy spindle-whorl until its 1995 interpretation as

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

. A language of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

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."Scotland's Ogam Inscriptions".
University of California, Riverside. Retrieved 12 July 2009. This paper quotes a 1969 radio talk by Douglas Gifford of the Department of Spanish of St. Andrew's University, who said that Guiter had "twisted the evidence", but also suggested that the Basque connection was worth a further look. The Vasconist scholar

Larry Trask Robert Lawrence Trask (10 November 1944 – 27 March 2004) was an American-British professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex, and an authority on the Basque language and the field of historical linguistics. Biography Born in Olean, ...

said "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 Proto-Basque (; ; ) is a reconstructed ancient stage of the Basque language. It preceded another reconstructed stage, Common Basque, which is derived by comparing dialects of modern Basque. Common Basque is their reconstructed common ancestor. Pr ...

forms, disregarding syntax and highly fanciful translations. Trask, L. ''The History of Basque'' Routledge: 1997 The '' tecuhetts'' part has been understood as an early Brittonic expression, meaning "this is as far" (cf.

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

''cyhyd'', "as long as"), a suitable message for a

boundary stone A boundary marker, border marker, boundary stone, or border stone is a robust physical marker that identifies the start of a land boundary or the change in a boundary, especially a change in direction of a boundary. There are several other t ...

Notes

References

* Schei, Liv Kjørsvik (2006) ''The Shetland Isles''. Grantown-on-Spey. Colin Baxter Photography.

External links