A MYSTERIOUS medieval inscribed stone found in a Coventry garden and thought to date back more than 1,600 years, will go on public display for the first time at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum from Saturday.
It was discovered in a city garden in May 2020 by Graham Senior who was passing the lockdown hours in May 2020 by gardening. He came across the unusual looking 11cm rock which had several horizontal incisions along its side.
Mr Senior said: “It caught my eye as I was clearing an overgrown part of the garden.
“At first, I thought it was some kind of calendar. Finding out later it was an Ogham stone and over 1,600 years old was incredible.”
He shared it with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, also known as finds.co.uk, which confirmed the stone was inscribed with ogham, an Early Irish language dating back over 1,600 years.
Ogham was an alphabet used in the Early Medieval period primarily for writing in the early Irish language. Before the Irish began using manuscripts made from vellum, they used the Ogham writing system to inscribe on materials such as stone.
The Ogham stones provide insight into the Irish language before the use of the Latin insular script.
The earliest ogham inscriptions date back to the 4th and 6th centuries AD and more than 400 of the stones and fragments have survived – mostly in Ireland and on the Welsh coast.
Although their function is still uncertain, some historians believe they were used for legal purposes in land disputes. They are often found on or near boundaries and bear ancestors’ names.
Teresa Gilmore, the East Staffordshire and North West Midlands’ finds liaison officer, contacted Katherine Forsyth at the University of Glasgow who confirmed the stone’s origins and said the script was most likely 5th to 6th Century but possibly as early as 4th Century.
The inscription’s first part relates to a person’s name: Mael Dumcail but the second part is less certain.
“As to why the object was deposited in Coventry and what it originally functioned as, are still research questions to be answered.”
Ali Wells, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum curator said she was delighted when Mr Senior donated his incredible find to the museum.
“As the Herbert only collects in the city of Coventry boundary it’s rare someone finds something a nationally significant as the Ogham stone.
“We might never know how Mael lost the stone and how it ended up in a garden in Coventry, but I hope future research will reveal more about its story.”
The stone will join hundreds of artefacts at the ‘Collecting Coventry’ exhibition, which showcases 75 years of collecting efforts in the city.
Admission to see the stone, which will be on display until April 25 next year, is free.
