Buckquoy spindle-whorl

Drawing of the Ogham inscription

The Buckquoy spindle-whorl is an Ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl dating from the Early Middle Ages, probably the 8th century, which was found in 1970 in Buckquoy, Birsay, Orkney, Scotland. Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick. It is the only known spindle-whorl with an Ogham inscription.

The inscription was once used as proof that the Pictish language was not Indo-European, being variously read as:

• E(s/n)DDACTA(n/lv)IM(v/lb)
• (e/)(s/n/)DDACTANIMV
• (e/)TMIQAVSALL(e/q)

However, in 1995 historian Katherine Forsyth reading

• ENDDACTANIM(f/lb)

proposed that the inscription was a standard Old Irish ogham benedictory message, Benddact anim L. meaning "a blessing on the soul of L.". The stone from which the whorl was made, and on which the inscription was written, is likely to have originated in Orkney.

See also

• Epigraphy
• Ogham inscription

References

• Collins, G.H. (1995), "Chalk spindle-whorls from Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 125: 222–223
• Jackson, Kenneth (1977), "The ogam inscription on the spindle whorl from Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 108: 221–222

• Ritchie, Anna (1977), "Excavation of Pictish and Viking-age farmsteads at Buckquoy, Orkney", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 108: 174–227, retrieved 12 July 2012
• Forsyth, Katherine (1995), "The ogham-inscribed spindle-whorl from Buckquoy: evidence for the Irish language in pre-Viking Orkney?", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 125: 677–96, retrieved 12 July 2012