Ireland – OG(H)AM

The Stone Corridor – ogham stones at University College Cork (Part 2)

Ogham stones in Stone Corridor ('Rúin na gCloch / Stories in Stone' exhibition), University College Cork (images by author).

By Dr Nora White, OG(H)AM’s Irish Postdoctoral Researcher In Part 1 of this blog post, I presented the first twelve ogham stones in the collection: six collected in the early 19th century (originally housed in the Royal Cork Institution) and another six from a single souterrain in the townland of Knockshanawee (Cnoc Seanmhaí, barony of… Continue reading The Stone Corridor – ogham stones at University College Cork (Part 2)

This stone originally stood as part of the Bryn y Beddau monumental landscape, populated with up to six barrows and two stone circles. In the late fifth or early sixth century, the stone was reused to display a name in two scripts, Roman and Ogham.
Roman-letter: SIMILINI / TOVISACI
‘Similin(i)us Tovisacos’
Ogham: S[I]B[I]L[I]N[I] / [TO]VISACI
‘Sibilin(i)us Tovisacos’
Both inscriptions are simply a name, Si(m/b)ilin(i)us, followed by the title or patronymic Tovisacos, meaning ‘leader’ representing an early form of later Welsh tywysog and Old Irish toísech, Modern Irish Taoiseach. This could reflect a method of communicating identity and authority, a way of legitimising land claims, or perhaps an attempt to relate to myths and leaders important in the land.