ACADEMICS from Scotland and Ireland are set to transform our understanding of the ancient Celtic Ogham writing system in a new project.
Ogham was invented more than 1500 years ago and is an alphabet that appears on monumental inscriptions and occasionally portable objects dating from the 4th century AD onwards, and in a handful of manuscripts dating from the 9th century onwards.
The majority of these are from Ireland, but nearly a third are found across Scotland, England, Wales, and the Isle of Man. The inscriptions are the oldest written records in the language ancestral to Modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx.
Only 16% of surviving Ogham-carved stone pillar are housed in national museums, with the vast majority remaining locally in churches, heritage centres or remote rural locations exposed to the elements.
Now a major three-year project, led by academics from Glasgow University and Maynooth University, will create a comprehensive digital online database of all 640 pre-1850 examples of Ogham script which will be easily accessible to scholars and the public.
The project will break new ground in looking at Ogham in all media and all periods. It will build on the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Ogham in 3D project, which focused primarily on Ogham pillars in state care in Ireland.
The project is funded by the joint Arts and Humanities Research Council-Irish Research Council and will look at Ogham from the 4th century up to the present day.
The academics will collaborate with the National Museums of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the British Museum, Manx National Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Wales’s Cadw, Ireland’s National Monuments Service, and the National Library of Scotland – all of whom have examples of Ogham in their care. They will also work with Ireland’s Discovery Programme to create 3D digital models to enhance access to Ogham.
Professor Katherine Forsyth, professor of Celtic studies at Glasgow University, said: “Everyone’s heard of runes, but not so many people are familiar with Ogham, a highly unusual and amazingly clever writing system unique to these islands. We hope this project will help change that.”
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