EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AND INSCRIPTIONS 



Christian rather than Pagan. Possibly the Silchester example may be the 

 oldest 1 Ogam inscription yet discovered, and it is remarkable as being the 

 only one known to exist in Great Britain outside the Celtic area of Ire- 

 land, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales and West Wales (i.e. Devon and 

 Cornwall). The Silchester Ogam inscription has upset the previously 

 accepted theory that the Ogams cut on a stem-line 2 are of more recent 

 date than those cut on the angle of a rectangular pillar. 



The Ogam stone from Silchester was found in 1893 at a depth of 

 9 feet in a well in Insula IX. It is a stele or pillar of friable sandstone 

 with a moulded base, standing on what was originally a square plinth 

 and surmounted by a rude fir-cone or phallic emblem. The stone is 

 i foot ii^ inches high ; the plinth must have been when perfect about 



F R M R r * t M- * ' (, 



FUThORKGW HNIAEoPXS 



t * * T r * * * 



T B EMLNgDO 



The Manks Runic futhorc is similar to the above except for the following letters : 



\ r * i 



ONES 



The debased Roman capitals, which are in many cases associated with Ogams on the sams 

 monument, differ from the letters of the classical period in being very rudely formed with the stroke- 

 sloping instead of being horizontal and vertical. The horizontal I placed thus, and the sicklee 

 shaped G something like an S thus, O, are characteristic features. 



The Anglo-Saxon capitals are well formed, their chief peculiarity being their angularity as in the 

 following : 



C cl E 3 D S 



C D G O O S 



The letters M and N were made thus : 



W HH 



M N N 



and new characters introduced for 



D r i 



Th W & 



Hiberno-Saxon minuscules were gradually evolved from Roman capitals in the process of devising 

 such forms as could be most quickly written with a pen in the early Irish and Saxon MSS. This 

 evolution may be clearly traced in the early Christian inscribed stones of South Wales and Cornwall. 

 The oldest are entirely in debased Roman capitals, then a few minuscule letters such asdcjhmft 

 are introduced, and lastly we get inscriptions entirely in minuscules. The Hiberno-Saxon minuscule 

 alphabet is as follows : 



a^cbep^h timnopqp. PCUJJC 



abcdefgh ilmnopqr stux 



1 The only other instance of an Ogam inscription on an undoubtedly Roman stone is that on the 

 altar at Loughor, Glamorganshire (Archtetk&a Cambrensis, ser. 3, xv. 258). 



9 The earliest example of an Ogam inscription cut on a stem-line hitherto known was probably that 

 at Maumenorigh near Dingle, co. Kerry (R. Rolt Brash's Ogam Inscribed Monuments of the Gaedhll, 

 pi. 21). The use of the stem-line was supposed to be of late date because it is suitable for writing in a 

 MS. or engraving on metal, whereas the Ogam character seems to have been obviously suggested by 

 notches cut on the corners of a square stick or stone. 



235 



