The Ogham stone

One of the trenches dug by Time Team yielded a piece of stone that was to make the archaeologists' eyes water with excitement. It was found by regular digger Matt Williams in the topsoil next to a grave he was excavating, and was inscribed with fragments of Ogham script.

One of the earliest forms of writing found in the British Isles, Ogham is an Irish script that spread across the Irish Sea into Scotland, Wales and other areas including the Isle of Man. It was used on carved stones to record memorials of important events or references to important people. Most of the 'Ogham stones' that have survived to the present day are standing stones, or pillars, while this was a crudely scratched inscription on the flat surface of what appears to be a grave slab. It is very unusual to make this sort of find in association with a burial; indeed, this may well have been the first ever such find on the Isle of Man.

As for what the inscription refers to, we can only speculate. Ogham experts identified it as 11th-century Gaelic and translated references to 'corner', '50' and 'group', 'gang', 'throng' or possibly 'throng of warriors'. Anything more specific than that has to be left to the imagination.

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