Buckquoy spindle-whorl
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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.[1] Made of sandy limestone, it is about 36 mm in diameter and 10 mm thick.[2] 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)[3]
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.".[4] The stone from which the whorl was made, and on which the inscription was written, is likely to have originated in Orkney.[5]