The Pictish Latin inscription at Tarbat in Ross-shire

Abstract

The paper examines an inscribed and decorated fragment of a Dark Age stone monument (perhaps a cross-slab) found at Tarbat in Ross-shire and now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (no IB 286).A revised reading of the damaged inscription is given.The inscription is funerary and commemorates an individual whose name is partly illegible.No reconstruction of the name is offered, but, as it does not appear to be Celtic, Latin or Anglo-Saxon, it is probably Pictish.The formulae used in the inscription are analysed and close comparisons are found in Wales and on the Isle of Man.The lettering is derived from the display script of Insular manuscripts and appears to be descended from that used in the Lindisfarne Gospels of c 700.The decorative treatment of the lettering is closer to manuscripts of about the second half of the 8th century.The unusual use of raised lettering in an inscription in stone is discussed and attention is drawn to the occurrence of the technique in Rome at the begining of the 8th century and in the 6th century in Constantinople.The surviving area of spiral ornament is compared to Pictish sculpture belonging to Anderson's Class II in Easter Ross and also to carved spirals in southern Ireland and Midland England.In conclusion a date towards the end of the 8th century is suggested for the Tarbat fragment and the lettering of the inscription is seen as an example of the Northumbrian influences detectable in 8th-century Pictland.

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