Ogham script
Escritura ogam
- Date
- c. century IV · confidence medium
- Place
- Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland
- Credited to
- Gaelic speakers of southern Ireland
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An alphabet of notches and incisions along the edge of a stone or wood, with 20 letters in four groups. More than 400 stones survive, mostly in Munster.
Its origin (Latin alphabet, futhark or a gesture system) and the date of the first texts, from the 3rd to the 5th century, are debated.
What it led to
- funerary and boundary inscriptions in Primitive Irish
- written evidence of Archaic Irish
- the learned medieval tradition of the Book of Ballymote
Built on
- Latin alphabet